What country would you recommend for my master's studies, given I've had an eight-year gap in my education?

What actually determines whether an 8 year gap hurts your application is not the number itself, it is whether you can document what you did during those years and whether the master's is a logical next step from that history.

UK vs Germany: How Each Actually Reads An 8-Year Gap

What You Did During The Gap Matters More Than The Number

• Relevant employment: eight years of related work experience can become a coherent strength rather than a weakness in your application.
• Running a business: also explainable, provided you can document revenue, role and outcomes.
• Career switch: possible, but your SOP needs a clear rationale connecting the old field to the new one.
• Certifications or training: useful evidence that you kept developing skills during the gap years.

My Advice

In my experience, admissions officers reject vague SOPs more often than they reject long gaps. Build your application around a clear sequence: prior education, what you did for those eight years, skills gained, why you need this master's now, and how it advances your career. I would be cautious about choosing a country purely for its post study work rules, since UK, Canada and Australia have all tightened immigration policy recently.