D7 Visa Experience: Gavin's Journey From California

What were the top reasons Portugal beat other options for retirement?

We had always planned on living in Europe for retirement, since the US is really unaffordable, a combination of factors at our country led us to explore early retirement rather than working for another 4-5 years, and we feel a closer affinity to the European culture than the US culture.

I did a lot of research into potential retirement locations using a variety of online resources, and Portugal ranked in the top 5 of all these rankings. One of the biggest influences was a close friend who had just done something very similar. I also have a sibling that has been resident in Portugal for about 8 years, and a good friend that relocated 2 years ago.

How applying via VFS San Francisco influenced your approach or timeline and how was the process?

I had a lot of initial frustration applying for an appointment at VFS SF, but perseverance was the order of the day, checking and rechecking daily until we found an appointment.

The process appeared complicated at first, but the steps were explained to us thoroughly, even though some of them didn't really make sense, we had to adjust our expectations to align with the process (specifically the lease/flight/Insurance requirements).

Roughly how long did each phase take?

Once we made the decision, we took about 2 weeks to research the process and interviewing several firms to find one we were comfortable with, and were able to explain the whole process to us.

At no point did we think we could do this without support. After we had made our decision to engage with AnchorLess we spent about 2 month putting our documents together and arranging appointments with immigration and tax representatives.

We had all our documents prepared and reviewed about 2 weeks prior to our appointment with VFS. Once we had completed our interview we set about travel planning (real flights and insurance rather than placeholders). Since we had pets to move we were limited to our flight options (didn't want to put the pets in the cargo hold), and our planned flight was full.

We had to push our plans out to a bit later, but we realized that the additional time was helpful in financial terms, and also allowed us to really declutter our household. We have moved internationally many times, and we took this opportunity to really downsize prior to the move rather than shipping furniture and boxes we really didn't need.

Which preparations you felt mattered most to be prepared and resulted in success and how did AnchorLess assist you?

I think being very methodical about documentation helped us a lot, and I put everything into Excel so I could track progress, priority and completion. The lease preparation was the most time consuming and difficult part to complete, I believe.

Having all our documents reviewed by AnchorLess was a massive help, and helped our confidence once we attended our interview. VFS did ask for some documents that weren't on our checklist, but I was able to retrieve and provide these documents via my phone cloud storage. Far better to be overprepared than have to resubmit and delay the process.

What made you decide to hire AnchorLess rather than doing everything yourself?

I never even contemplated working through the process myself, we were committed to leaving the US and relocating to Portugal, so we decided on hiring a professional to lead us through the process.

I wanted to be able to ask questions about the process and not rely on internet group discussions that may or may not have valid answers. I could have possibly done this myself, but I suspect it would have taken a lot longer and may have involved initial rejection by VFS which would only delay the process.

What turned out to be harder or more confusing than expected, and how did you overcome it?

Having to book flights, housing and insurance with no guarantee of when our application would be approved, but AnchorLess explained the bureaucracy, steps to provide what they wanted and how to minimize our costs regarding these items.

In what specific moments did AnchorLess make a noticeable difference? Any outcomes you wouldn’t have achieved as easily without support?

The document review was an essential part of AnchorLess's support, there's always little nuances in any application, especially those involving a foreign language that have potential to trip up the process.

Setting up the bank account in Portugal and applying for the NIF were so straight-forward through AnchorLess, but items I would have absolutely struggled with doing myself.

Why did you choose the Silver Coast as your landing spot, and what makes you curious about the Algarve?

We decided there as our landing place since we have good friends living there and their description seemed aligned with our wish list.

The weather seems comparable to CA, which we enjoy. We are going to do some scouting trips to the Algarve to see how we like the area. I personally would like to be on the Mediterranean rather than the Atlantic.

What do you expect day-to-day life in Portugal to feel like, and what are you hoping it will change compared to California?

We expect a slower pace of life, a focus on living rather than accumulating! We are really drawn to a location where we cam walk to dinner or coffee rather than having to get in the car. We are looking at scooters right now as another alternative to car transportation.

You mentioned seeking good food, new friends, and a slower pace. How do you plan to plug into communities and routines that support that?

We do have friends from Asia that now live in the Silver Coast, and they can support our initial questions after we arrive, but I'm also plugging into several community groups in the local area in order to meet people. I've always found expats to be very generous in their help and support of newcomers, I expect Portugal to be no different.

What practical tips would you give to another expat-to-be planning a similar move - from the US (or even the UK) or elsewhere?

My first recommendation would be to start early, I have several friends that are contemplating this type of move, and I've told them to register for an appointment even if they're not totally sure what they're doing yet. Engage with someone like AnchorLess to lead through the process, I can provide details of what we did, but everyone has their own specific situation that really can only be addressed by a professional.

My next recommendation would be to take advantage of the wait times (waiting for appointment, waiting for visa return, waiting on flights), use this time to really take a hard look at furnishings and possessions. ask yourself, “Do I still get pleasure from this item, does it still serve me?”. We have done several International moves, and finally got tired of moving boxes that sit in storage until our next move, or having to rent a house larger than we need because we have too much furniture. For this move our target is a 20ft container, down from our usual 40ft container.