When we decided on Portugal, the first thing I did was what everyone does. I typed “how to move to Portugal” into Google.
Don’t do that. Or do it, but give yourself a time limit.
Forums, blogs, government sites, YouTube videos that contradicted each other. Everyone sounded sure. No two of them agreed. The rules weren’t clear and the process wasn’t in any order I could find. The more I read, the less I knew. It was like working a puzzle without knowing if all the pieces were in the box.
Here’s the thing I’d tell you now. It seems more complicated than it is. What you actually need is a list, in order, and somebody who’s done it before.
So we hired an immigration lawyer
To get the visa there’s a long list of things you have to have in place first. You need an NIF number, which is like a Social Security number. Not hard to get, but they went and got it for all three of us. You have to open a Portuguese bank account. They went to the bank, got the documents, sent them to us, we printed them, signed them, sent them back. It was getting all those ducks in a row. Every one of those steps I’d have gotten wrong, or done in the wrong order, on my own.
The stack of paperwork
Then we flew to San Francisco with our stack of paperwork. Apostilled FBI background checks. Copies of copies of copies. Each of us had our own pile, and by the end it was measured in inches.
We handed it all over and thought we were done.
We weren’t. I had only just moved money into the Portuguese account and the bank couldn’t print a current statement in time for the appointment. It printed the day we got home. We sent it in. And then it got misplaced somewhere on the other end.
That’s the part where the lawyer earned every penny. She worked it through with immigration until the document was where it needed to be and we finally got our visas. If we didn’t have a lawyer, I don’t think we’d be here.
The two things I know now
So the two things I know now that I didn’t know then:
Get a lawyer. Early. It’s the smartest money we spent, and it’s not close.
And have a ton of patience. You just have to learn how to wait. Nothing about this process moves on your schedule.
We landed in Carcavelos in June. The visa carries us for two years, and in January I go back with another stack of documents for my residency permit. Then I wait again.
If you’re thinking about a move like this, write back. I’ll tell you what I actually know.