Some Americans are so crushed by student debt they're leaving the country — here's why experts say that's a mistake

According to a survey from the Institute for College Access and Success (4), 42% of student loan borrowers have to decide on making a monthly payment or covering their basic needs, which is largely why 20% of them are currently in delinquency or default.

For others, ditching delinquency and default status altogether seems like the only option. The perceived hack is about survival. For others, it's their frustration bubbling over after years of debt repayments, with little to show for it.

Amanda Lynn Tully graduated from the University of Oregon in 2017 with $65,000 in federal student loans, but no job offers for her undergraduate degree in historic preservation.

"The payments weren't even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating," Tully told the New York Times (5).

While the idea of escaping student loans may sound like a loophole, the reality is far more complicated and potentially risky.

Why some borrowers are leaving

With no job prospects and enrolled in an income-based repayment (IBR) plan, which allows borrowers to have their remaining debt forgiven after making qualifying payments for 20 years, Tully moved to Prague, Czechia.

Although her payments through the IBR program were $60 a month, they weren't even paying off the interest on her loans. According to Federal Student Aid (6), some payment plans can be as low as $0 per month, but this amount is subject to change as your income increases or decreases.

The three different types of income-driven plans include Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) and the Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

For Tully's IBR plan, if she borrowed money after July 1, 2014, the percentage owed from her discretionary income would be 10% over 20 years. If she borrowed before that date, it would be 15% over 25 years. The ICR plan is 20% over 25 years, while the PAYE plan is 10% over 20 years.

The Trump administration's temporary pause of the IBR program in July 2025 caused headaches for most borrowers, but it was reinstated in October. As of then, there was a 74,510-borrower backlog (7) waiting for their Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). That provides debt cancellation to those who've spent a decade working for certain not-for-profits or the government.

Michele Zampini, Associate Vice President of Federal Policy and Advocacy at The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), has seen many graduates like Tully struggle with debt repayment, no matter how low their payments may seem.

"The psychological weight of carrying debt is a really widespread issue, even if it seems financially manageable," she told the New York Times (8). "It's not necessarily 'I can't afford it.' It's sometimes 'It feels like I had no other choice but to go to college and I had to take out loans to go, and now I'm going to be stuck with this,' which can define people's lives in a way that feels very unfair and harmful."

Still, no matter where a person goes in the world, their debt is still active, according to a Baltimore lawyer who specializes in student debt.

"Federal student loans are contractual debts," Stanley Tate told the New York Times (9), adding that the responsibility to pay them back does not disappear, regardless of citizenship.

Thinking about making a move?

One option for those looking to move abroad to avoid or minimize the financial albatross around their necks is the foreign earned income exclusions, which allows federal student loan borrowers who live abroad and earn less than $130,000 a year to pay $0 per month under an income-driven repayment plan.

It's a better option than allowing your debt to fall into delinquency or letting it default altogether.

Experian (10) has encouraged borrowers who have moved away to resist the temptation to stop making payments.