Illegally cross the border into Canada or Mexico and try to get citizenship before they deport you back.

Your best bet is through a company. If you have a reasonable job opportunity, familiarise yourself with the work visa and residency procedures. Your future employer will likely help you in the process.

However, the economy currently is tough also in the EU, so you’ll need to find a nice.

Step 1, figure out if any of your parents, grandparents, or in some cases great grandparents came from somewhere else. Many countries allow near descendents to get citizenship.

Are you able to spend a lot of money on it? Last I checked, there were a few places in the EU that had a citizenship track if you purchased substantial property. So if you’re in position to buy a nice house, that’s an option. I think Portugal is the most approachable cost-wise. But it’s been a while since I looked at this so I’m sure things have changed.

Several countries will allow extended student visas, even if you only speak English. I think Sweden allows this.

Then of course there’s the easy way: marry a Canadian.

Make sure to research expected pay in your desired target countries. I was shocked when I saw the difference between compsci job salaries in the US and Italy. Can adjust for cost of living differences but it was still a significant decrease. Would be good to be aware ahead of time and not surprised if you’re not happy with the salaries presented.

University fees for foreign students can be very high. For example, I think the fees at Edinburgh university for a foreign student are 3 times the cost for English students, and almost 9 times compared to Scottish students. I’m going from memory here so I could be off a bit.

One potential avenue is getting a job teaching English in another country. I’ve known a few people who did that for a year or two after college and enjoyed the experience. I think the pay is not great, and you’re stuck in a classroom teaching a lot of the time, but it’s a relatively straightforward path out of the country and into a life somewhere else, and with a company involved to expedite the process because they want to make money from you working ASAP.

Getting your BS in CS can potentially help you as well, depending on the country you want to move to. Not an expert but when I was looking into this awhile back I found various countries will give preferential treatment based off things like education and skills. Being a college educated SWE or whatever can make you more appealing to immigration authorities.

Just show up in Belgium. Ask for asylum. If you’re denied, just stay. Belgium does not deport asylum seekers that got denied, you get access to unemployment benefits, free (for you) education, etc.

Get a working visa in AU’s or Canada, stretch it out and in the 5th year when the concentration camps and gas chambers are in full swing, there should be a refugee visa available.

People focus on citizenship but you could just relocate in a EU country, stay as much as you can, then switch country: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy are more than ok, Croatia is growing.
The most important thing to focus on, to me, is what kind of work you can do

As everyone else said, the most viable paths into a developed country are work and studying, so you’ll need to find one of those. You’ll later need to go through (as I have heard) grueling visa procedures, but before any of that you have to get a job or get into university in the country you wanna go to.

By the way this is complete conjecture on my side and I’m only putting it out there so someone who knows more about these things can confirm or deny it, but maybe it’d help if you knew the language of the country you’re trying to get into?

if you go to estonia you don’t learn Russian

Getting a student visa is easy and an excellent way to both get valid credentials and a feel for the local culture.

As to where you should go depends on what you’re interested in, you’ll almost certainly be able to make a home wherever, so pick something that seems interesting and go (you can always use your mandated vacation days to explore the rest of EU).

For language, in almost all the major cities people will be able to speak English, although typically you’ll want to learn the local language sooner rather than later for social reasons.

If you know Spanish go Barcelona, beautiful city, vibrant in both culture and industry, and with values not too shockingly different to the US. For more info, either visit the Spanish consulate nearest you or look up their online presence.

If you want to keep to English, consider Ireland, they’ve also had a booming IT industry for all the giants needing a foot in the EU.

Mostly you can’t go wrong anywhere in the EU. Biggest culture shock would probably be the Nordics or Slavic countries, but not necessarily in a bad way.

All of them have tons of info about student visas at each university, the degrees are standardised throughout the EU and most universities are good, and typically outstanding in a couple areas.
For more info you just contact their international coordinator, or their closest consulate.

Most countries also have dedicated Web pages that outline the process, steps, and how you move toward permanent residence and citizenship if you’d want that.

Moving is typically the hard part, but if you start as a student, you’ll have a lot prepared for you (student accommodations, stipends, social activities, part-time job offers, recruitment fairs, incubators, etc.)

If Americans could stay in the US that would be great.

There are a few weird historical rules which may be useful. For example, if any of your ancestors were Spanish Jews who were expelled in 1492, you may be entitled to Spanish citizenship. The same might go for Portugal.