Americans Moving to Portugal 🇵🇹 The Visa Waiting Game (2020) | Expats Everywhere 

Love it, Lyle! Thanks for the feedback.-Josh & Kalie

Thank you, Kevin. Yes, we had sold our house the October before, but we were also trying to move soon after Valencia was born like 3 months after she was born but we all know the end of that story...Thanks, Covid. - Josh & Kalie

It wasn't all that bad. It was just trickier getting things done on this side once we arrived. - Josh & Kalie

Brilliant! Thanks for the love. Reach out when you get here and keep us posted on your journey. We're meeting up with a couple viewers this week that have finally made it. - Josh & Kalie

@@ExpatsEverywhere We sure will, thank you!

@@kirstenb2708 Great. You're welcome, thank you. - Josh & Kalie

Thanks, Rich! We love a good binge watching session too. :-) Awesome news about the Fulbright application. Keep us posted on whether you get it! All the best. We hope you do. Kalie's a great list maker and I'm becoming a better list follower. - Josh & Kalie

Thanks for the advice. - Josh & Kalie

Love it! Thank you. - Josh (& Kalie)

Tom E You got it! We need a dog sitter for Pincho first. Know anyone in Porto? 😉

George MkaY thank you for the comment! Good stuff. We are hoping for positive news soon on the visa situation. - Josh & Kalie

Samantha Fromme Thanks for the input. We might not have a decision to make anyway. 😂-Josh & Kalie

Thank you, Fred. There are definitely Facebook groups that exist, but we haven't joined any yet. We'll look into that once we get our visas, you know? We want to get those in hand. What type of information are you looking for? - Josh & Kalie

​@@ExpatsEverywhere Thank you Josh and Kalie. We are looking for some basic information regarding health care, where to live and Portuguese tax on US retirement income etc.

@@fredwang2004 Once you become a tax resident go to finanças and immediately apply for NHR with your online portal. This gets you 10 year’s exemption for wealth, inheritance and all income transferred to Portugal. Do this soon because the government may discontinue the program.

@@georgemkay5980 thank you . Can you refer me to the news source for the NHR discontinuation discussion ? This is one of the factors for us to choose Portugal as our destination, and would like to keep a close watch on this . Thanks again

@@fredwang2004 Hi Fred. NHR was spotlighted on SIC Notícias, which is the main news channel here in Portugal. The new government wants to raise spending on entitlement programs and tax “wealthy” foreigners which really means anyone who receives foreign income. In addition, I believe that NHR benefits have already been reduced and previously tax exempt pensions are now subject to taxation. I have the last year of “full” NHR benefits which will expire end of year 2028. Overall the political tide regarding taxation is turning not only here but all over the EU. For the short term if you can still experience the benefits of current NHR it should be ok, but living here dependent on foreign income long term is no longer a viable option. I’m already looking into other programs beyond 2028 such as the Philippines retirement visa (age 35 and above) Malaysia (MM2h), as well as South Korea (more expensive but looks amazing). Hope this lengthy reply helps and best of luck to you both!

You're not wrong there, Zachariah! - Josh & Kalie

November 2019 Yup, we’re seeking clarification on that because VFS Global isn’t commenting. Reaching out to the embassy directly

Hi Coke Zero. You're probably right and we would have to check on getting that changed or if it's necessary to get it changed. At this point, we're just hoping to get the visas in time for our flights on October 13th. - Josh & Kalie :-)

Rui Brás 😊

Hi Ruth, thanks for reaching out. We're not going to Portugal on a work visa, however we've applied for the D-7 visa. Both of us have digital jobs, that were digital pre-Covid. LOL We make sufficient funds including investment money that we can claim to be able to support ourselves. Now, obviously, we're waiting on our visas so we haven't been given permission just yet but we're hopeful. VFS Global didn't give us any indication that it would be a problem but, you never know. Non-essential travel from the US is currently banned, however, we'll be traveling on a long term stay visa and not a tourist visa (assuming we get our visa) and therefore, we'll be allowed in the country. We just found today on an official site that we need to produce the RT-PCR covid test and not the Rapid Test, so as of right now, that's in our plans. It is 5 weeks away though, so things can change. We also asked if we needed to go to DC and VFS said we could mail everything in so we did. We will see how that works out for us. What we can tell you is that we mailed in our docs using FEDEX as we showed and we paid for a return label to have the visas sent back. So it wouldn't make sense for them to send us our visas and then require us to go up there. We have another vlog coming out tomorrow and then a Q&A next week answering a lot of questions that we're getting asked across all of the vlogs. Hope this helps. Thanks for joining the journey. Keep watching! - Josh & Kalie

@@ExpatsEverywhere Hi Josh & Kalie, Thanks for the reply! I so appreciate all the information as it as given me a light at the end of a long tunnel..LOL. You answered a lot of my questions, which has helped so much! You guys do a great job on your vlogs! Such a cute couple! You both are so smart to be doing this now when your younger! Portugal is such a great country! I subscribed to your journey! I will be watching for your next vlog. I hope things keep moving in a positive direction for you both! Have a great day! Ruth

What a blessing, Ruth. This is such a nice message to read. We really appreciate your kind words and support. We're trying to get better at vlogging since we're pretty new to it. The core of our channel is interviews and city profiles, which we're excited to continue to do, grow, and share. We find that stuff really beneficial to a larger audience. Portugal will be our 5th country outside of the US and the first that doesn't start with "S", so that's fun. :-) When we lived in Spain, we really fell for Portugal so we can't wait. Next vlog is more about our life and we hope people don't mind us sharing our life with you all. Thanks again for the message. Keep those questions coming! - Josh & Kalie

You can email us at expatseverywhere@gmail.com - Josh & Kalie

Keri, that's so exciting! We're really happy for you and we hope it goes well. We all applied for the D7 visa. So Cia also got one and since then we've been to our SEF appointment and have been confirmed for 2 years. We made a video about that process too. Stay in touch. - Josh & Kalie

Good question. VFS would probably be able to help you move it up. - Josh & Kalie

Sandra Marks-Webster Thanks for the question. We actually answer this question in more detail in our next Portugal video that’ll come out this Tuesday. It’s a Q&A of the most common questions we’re getting but essentially, US tourists are still banned, but if you’re legally allowed to be there because you’re a citizen or have a resident visa, then you can travel there from the US.

We answered this one in your other comment. :-)

Hi Nancy, have you seen the first video in the series? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KfgwuBjR778.html

Expats Everywhere Yes. I am confused...sorry. First was told an on-site visit was required in San Francisco since we are CA residents. Then told, via a forum, that the first visit time available was 11/2021 (I.e. 14 months from now). Please tell me that is not true! Thanks for the quick response to my prior message.

Nancy Whiteman no need to apologize. Definitely don’t listen to everything on the forums or us for that matter. VFS Global and the Portuguese Embassy site should be your most authoritative sources. The DC Portuguese embassy just opened up back in June and VFS was a few weeks later. At that time, we don’t believe San Francisco was open but email VFS directly. We can’t imagine it’s anywhere near 14 months although, there are probably with CoVid in California. Right? - Josh & Kalie

Expats Everywhere thanks!

Nancy Whiteman You’re most certainly welcome.

:-)