I have seen a lot of people "in it for money" and they are just horrible software engineers because they don't actually care about the profession. These folks rarely excel at the position and have to side-step into other titles (PM, business analyst, etc.) that require less technical knowledge. That is perfectly okay, I don't look down upon people or anything like that, just observations.

I also work with excellent software engineers that don't have CS degrees. The basics of what someone needs to know to be a good software engineer is available freely online to self-learn. If you don't have any interest in just taking an online free CS class or figuring out how things work without a financial incentive then maybe this profession isn't for you. Constant learning is part of the career. Try some CS classes before committing to a decision.

> I swore I would never be any country's bitch ever again

Seriously research visa programs for the US. You may be in the same scenario, just a different country. Or if the visa program is smooth for university you may end up "be a company's bitch" because then a work visa requires sponsorship by a company. There are many companies (typically smaller, like startups) that won't hire on visa's because they don't have the legal or financial capacity to sponsor. Heck some of them restrict their hiring to one or two US states because they don't have the HR/payroll side of things setup for other states.