Moving to Portugal? Get all the details here!

This blog post is all about moving to Portugal. Get all the details here.

We are moving to Portugal!!!! This move has been in the works since June 2020. We are so excited that all of our planning and research is coming to fruition. The top reason we are making this gigantic, life-altering move is for safety. We want to live in a country that is safe for our kids and peaceful for all of us. Portugal ranks as the third safest country in the entire world!

There are a lot of steps to apply for a visa to move to Portugal. We can’t thank the Facebook group, American and FriendsPT enough for the information and files.

Here’s the timeline for what we did in order to apply for our D7 visas:

October-December 2020 – research, research, research and start selling our possessions as we prefer to live and travel minimalistically. We opened bank accounts that are easier to use internationally so we now have a Schwab brokerage account and Fidelity. Additionally, we opened up credit cards with an awesome rewards program and zero international transaction fees. This is the card we ended up opening and now have enough miles for one-way airfares for all 4 of us. We contacted our good friend, Jaime since he’s from Portugal and could help guide us with information about Portugal.

fingerprints and fbi background check:

January 2021 – got fingerprints done through a channeler at UPS for the FBI background check. They emailed the reports to Fernando and I (the kids don’t have to do this if they are younger than 16). When I contacted them about the mailed report, they said that they only email the reports. That is unfortunate because we needed the document mailed to us. Don’t do what we did! Get your fingerprints done at USPS. They mail the report to you and you can submit the unopened mailed report with your D7 application. If you receive the report via email, you must have it apostilled through your Secretary of State. Trust us, it’s way easier getting the hard copied report from USPS.

The closest USPS to Austin that does fingerprinting is in San Antonio. My Aunt and Uncle live in SA so we visited them after the appointment (with masks, of course). Here’s the link for the FBI background check. Also this month, we contacted an Attorney in Portugal to help us get our NIFs as this is a requirement to apply for the visas. All 4 of us had our NIFs within 2 weeks and the attorney’s fees were reasonable. We found the highly recommended attorney in the American and FriendsPT Facebook group.

re-doing fingerprints:

February 2021 – see above. We ended up having to redo our fingerprints, which is NOT an easy feat for me with my barely noticeable fingerprints! This month, we also got our finances in order. We transferred money to the Schwab and Fidelity accounts so we could streamline our finances and accounts. I also ordered our kids’ Texas birth certificates and our marriage certificate from Oregon.

opening portuguese bank account:

March 2021 – This was an important month of getting everything together for the D7 visas. We had planned on applying for our visas on March 1st. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen as we expected. This is only preparing us for any bureaucracy that is likely to happen as we move to a different country. Time to practice patience!

This month, we filled out the online application, printed it, wrote our personal statements and copied the first 2 pages of our passports. Then, we had all of these items notarized at our local UPS store for $6 each. We used a Portuguese Attorney (the amazing Teresa Valente de Almeida) to open a Portuguese bank account for us. Between 2 bank choices, we ended up opening an account with Novo Banco since it saved us time not having to apostille the documents. We had to sign and scan everything and email it back to Novo Banco. Then, we had to send the original documents via DHL (expensive, but SO fast). Our bank account was open and funded (sent via wire from our Schwab account) within 2 weeks.

waiting for the tor:

We were also waiting for the TOR (Terms of Responsibility) from our friend, João in Portugal who was very generous and filled out the forms to sponsor us. This entails a Portuguese citizen vouching for you, providing accommodations and/or financial support. I had our entire packets completely ready while we waited for the TORs to arrive. Fernando took our photos at home and printed them for our Portuguese visas. Most applicants get their photos done at CVS or another place that takes passport photos. Tip: The EU passport photos are smaller than the US passport sizes (3.5×4.5 cm) so make sure you select the smaller size. We also bought our Safe Voyager Health insurance through Trawick International to satisfy the health insurance component of the D7 visa.

TIP: If you don’t have a friend in Portugal who can do the TOR for you, then you have to provide at least 6 months worth of accommodation in Portugal. There are conflicting stories on if you can use short term rental or if you have to sign a long-term apartment lease. I highly recommend that you search the files on the Americans and FriendsPT Facebook page for the latest info.

Final steps before sending d7 packets:

April 2021 – We finally received the TORs and all of our documentation was ready to go! I emailed VFS Global in DC and they sent the invoices to pay for the Fedex shipping. Once I paid the invoices, they sent the tracking that I printed at home and affixed to the bubble mailers at our local Fedex store. Prior to shipping, I went to HEB (a local grocery store) to buy money orders to pay for each application and return shipping via Fedex (8 money orders in total!).

Our packets were finally ready to go on April 9th! VFS Global emailed me on Friday, April 10th to ask for one thing that we had forgotten to include in our application packets. We emailed the missing component to them ASAP. Quickly, we received an email on April 12th that our applications had been forwarded to the Portuguese Consulate. Now we await the decision during this nerve-wracking time! We are using this time to sell our possessions and fix up our house so we can rent it once we move.

just waiting for approval:

May 2021 – Dreaming about Portugal! I was a nervous wreck during this stage as I noticed many people getting approved within 10 days of applying through DC. After messaging a few of these lucky future immigrants, I learned that most of them either (a) had family from, in or heritage from Portugal or (b) already bought a house in Portugal. These details likely helped expedite their applications.

We finally received the WONDERFUL news on Thursday, May 13th, that our D7 visas were approved!!! WOO-HOO .. time to celebrate! I sent our passports via Fedex to the Portuguese Embassy in DC. We should receive our passports back with the D7 visas affixed inside soon! Now, the real work begins – selling and donating most of our possessions and getting our house ready to rent out. We are absolutely thrilled with this next chapter of our lives and cannot wait to explore and immerse ourselves in Portuguese culture! Follow our journey on our blog, YouTube channel and Instagram – Vegan Family Adventures!