Well... This was Unexpected!
Temporary residency update, along with a timeline of how we got here.
It is Monday evening as I begin to write this. My plan was to finalize the post I have been promising for the past month on observations of a newcomer... But turns out this is more important1.
We received information in the mail regarding our residency. I'll fill you in below, but before that, I thought it would be helpful to do a brief timeline of our residency process and how we got here. So, here are the highlights...
Prior to June of 2022:
Our first trip to Portugal was six years ago this month in 2018. We had previously explored the idea that Portugal could be the best option for us should things go awry in the US, or at the very least, it could be a great place to retire. The trip to Porto and Lisboa was tacked onto another trip to Paris with some friends. We immediately felt a kinship with Porto.
June, 2022:
A major turn of events reignited our plan to move to Portugal overnight. Within a few days we made plans to spend a week in Porto only six weeks later in August. Before we packed our bags to go home, we planned another trip for the week before Christmas. We wanted to experience the city in the winter time. The December trip confirmed what we felt on the previous two trips, and we firmly decided we are going to pack up our comfortable lives in Philadelphia and move to Porto with the specific goal of arriving before November 5th, 20242.
January, 2023 to December 2023:
2023 was all about preparation. We had to pare down our possessions with the goal of shipping our household goods in a 20' container. We rented an apartment around the corner from our house to facilitate preparations. We worked out a plan to sell our house via seller financing to establish our passive income needed to apply for the D7 visa. I held an "estate sale" in the fall, as well as completed more than 90 transactions via Facebook Marketplace and eBay to divest the stuff we didn't need or couldn't take with us. Finally, on December 29th, the very last business day of 2023, we sold our house.
January, 2024:
We kicked off the year with obtaining our Número de Identificação Fiscal (also known as at NIF). This is your fiscal tax ID number which is the first thing you need to acquire, and is needed for so many things, including renting an apartment, getting a cell phone plan, as well as for purchases. We also kicked off the process of setting up a bank account, another requirement before applying for our visa.
February, 2024:
One of the (many) requirements for the D7 visa is having a twelve month lease for an apartment (or completing the purchase of real estate). We didn't know yet when our initial appointment with the Portuguese Consulate in Newark, NJ would be, but we guessed it would not be before May, so we planned on looking for an apartment with a lease beginning May 1st. Then late in February, an apartment became available in a specific building I had been entranced with on our December '22 visit. I immediately pulled out every stop to ensure that we had this apartment and with the amazing help of our realtor, we had a lease signed on an amazing apartment beginning April 1st. We ended up paying one more month's rent than we planned, but zero regrets.
March, 2024:
We finally had our bank account set up after nearly two months of back and forth with documentation and more documentation. Then in mid-March, we received official emails from the Portuguese Consulate in Newark letting us know our initial appointment was set for May 20th. This was a couple of weeks before we expected because they only open appointments on the first of each month for the following month. Given that we had our appointment set up in March for May, we knew our legal team clearly had some connection somewhere.
April, 2024:
We continued to pull together required documents for our visa. This included me making an unplanned special trip to New York City to obtain apostilled copies of our marriage certificate. My experience with city government went much more smoothly than anticipated. What I expected to take an entire day, I got done in three hours.
May, 2024:
Unrelated to our visa process, but very important to us, was celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary in New York City. Then just over a week later, after all of our preparation, we were finally ready for our initial appointment at the consulate. Newark being only about 85 miles from us in Philly, we made it a quick day trip. Then the waiting began... We had set a departure date of July 23rd, with the anticipation we would have our visas by then. At the end of the month, we gave sixty days' notice on our apartment. This was getting VERY REAL.
June, 2024:
Packing, packing, packing... Setting up arrangements with the movers to have our stuff loaded onto two PODs for storage to later be transferred to a 20" container. Stuff I couldn't sell was hauled off to charity or given away.
July, 2024:
Finished packing, movers arrived with the first of two PODs on the 18th and the second one on the 20th only to discover that our stuff would not fit into the second container. Too late to sort through and get rid of stuff to make room. Big change of plans... Yoav would leave as planned on the 23rd, along with Bixby, his carrier, three suitcases, four large Home Depot tubs, and a carry-on. On the 25th, I arranged for a truck to pick up the final things that would not fit into the second POD and then we proceeded to drive to Northern Delaware where the PODs were to transfer the smaller POD to a larger one along with the final items from the apartment.
Then I headed back to the apartment to do final cleaning (along with the help of a hired cleaner). Friday morning the 26th (my birthday), I drove the car to the local Carvana where I sold it for about two-thirds of what I paid for it seven years earlier. Then I took a bus back to the apartment, grabbed my three suitcases, carry-on and my backpack, locked the door for the final time, leaving the keys inside, and took an Uber to catch a Greyhound to New York City. I spent my birthday with my in-laws and most of the next day wandering Central Park before my departure on the red-eye to Porto from Newark-Liberty International. I unofficially arrived in Porto, Sunday, July 28th. And thus began my new life.
I should add that we had originally expected (hoped) that our visas would be approved by the end of July, but alas, it did not happen. So we decided to go anyway, traveling on a tourist visa. We could stay until late October if need be.
August, 2024:
Most of August was about settling into our new (amazing) apartment as best we could with as little as possible. We bought a bed, chairs and table for the balcony, a small two seater sofa so Bixby could sit with one of us as he likes to do. We also bought a desk and chair for Yoav, and a table and chair for me to set up in my art studio. In the middle of the month, we both received emails that our visas were approved, and we needed to go back to the consulate in Newark, NJ to get the visa stamps in our passports. Woo Hoo! The email notice regarding our visas also included our biometrics appointment with AIMA set for October 7th in Viana do Costelo.
September, 2024:
We flew from Porto to Newark in the middle of the month for a couple of days to get our passports stamped with our visas. Shortly after getting our passports stamped, we headed over to Portugalia, the company handling the logistics of shipping our household items to us. This is where we finalized our plans to ship a 40' container instead of the originally planned 20' container. Thankfully, doubling the size only increased the cost by about 25%. After we wrapped up our business in Newark, we headed to my in-laws home in Morningside Heights (Manhattan) to spend the rest of the weekend before heading back to officially arrive in Portugal on a non-tourist visa.
October, 2024:
On Monday, October 7th, we took a train to Viana do Costelo for our AIMA appointment where we submitted updated paperwork and had our biometrics taken (photo and fingerprints). When we were headed out after we were finished, the woman at the AIMA office told us that we should expect our residency cards in two to twelve weeks. Based on the past couple of years of others going through this process, we expected our cards in late November or early December. We basically went home and forgot about it....
Then... On Wednesday of last week, I happened to see that there was mail in the mailbox (something that actually doesn't happen much yet). Yoav opened the mailbox and there was a letter from Viana do Costelo. Inside was his official residency card.... Only nine days after our appointment!
Holy Crap!
NINE DAYS!!!!!
We have read over and over about folks waiting for months, three months, six months, a year, even longer.... We seriously didn't expect it that soon. Of course, mine was not there... So we decided to keep his news quiet until this week.
And sure enough on Monday.... Yoav checked the mailbox while taking Bixby out to do his business, and there was an envelope addressed to me. There it was… my residency card!
WOW, WOW, WOW....
We are officially residents of Portugal. Well, we are for two years, then we will need to renew for another three years. Then after we have had five years, we can apply for permanent residency followed by citizenship.
Words cannot begin to describe how exciting this is for both of us. We are beyond the moon with happiness.
Next post.... The one I promised.... Followed by news about our container.
Parting shot:
I’ve decided to include a new element to my posts. I take hundreds of photos of my surroundings each month. I’ve decided to end each post with a recent favorite of mine.
I will be the first to admit, I am truly annoyed with myself. I have had my observations post about 80% complete for weeks, but my ADHD brain is struggling to just finish it. I will try to complete by Monday at the latest.
This probably needs no explanation, but back in June of 2022, we were thinking about the upcoming election. We had a gut feeling that the Orange Headed F*cknugget would be running again before he announced it later in 2022.
Great information, thank you so much.
Congratulations!! 💫💫