Michelle and I have been working hard to make our dream of early retirement come true ASAP. Since this is our first post we’ll go into some history and extra details about the process. If you want more specific info about anything, post a comment and we’ll do our best to answer all your questions!

Pre 2021: We had planned on working until we each respectively turned 50. Because we had saved pretty aggressively and intended to retire outside the United States this seemed like it would work. Portugal came up repeatedly in our destination research and quickly rose to the top of our list because of its global location (we’ve both always wanted to explore Europe but have never made it across the Atlantic). We had planned a trip to explore the country in 2020, but that had to be scrapped because of COVID.

November 2021: We had a crazy vacation which culminated with a food adventure in northern Oregon and Washington. After many discussions we realized that A: we wanted to be done working NOW and B: we COULD sell our house and move up our time frame. We committed VERY quickly, notifying some work associates about our intentions as early as November 11th, setting up an appointment with our investment advisor (provided via our workplace), and digging into the nightmare process of applying for a visa.

Visa Nightmare? Why is the application a stress inducing nightmare? For two primary reasons. Lack of clarity and blind commitment. Portugal (and many other countries) contract with a company called VFS to handle their Visa applications. In our case we are applying for a D7/Retirement Visa and must physically go to their office in San Francisco when we have everything ready. VFS has one list of requirements on their site, a separate list of unlisted requirements, and online groups supply a third piece of the puzzle because people list reasons they are rejected related to neither of the official lists. As fairly organized people trying to deduce what are real and actual requirements from all these (often contradictory) sources hurt our brains.

Commitment! A lot of the requirements are obvious and easy to procure: proof of “passive income”, a background check from the FBI, notarized passport copies, etc. Getting a tax ID and setting up a bank account in Portugal were interesting endeavors made relatively simple by hiring an accountant and lawyer in Portugal. Getting a one year lease, buying plane tickets, putting our house up for sale, and preparing to ship any belongings we want to keep before our visa is approved are nerve racking steps!

January 2022: After talking to our financial advisor, real estate agent, and reviewing the requirements thoroughly we decided it was time to have someone working on the process full time. Michelle retired!! This was a huge step for us and very exciting. By the end of the month we only needed one major thing before dropping off our applications: a 12 month lease.

March 2022: After over a month of working with a real estate agent in Portugal and perusing hundreds of properties we FINALLY get a lease. The biggest challenge for us was our fuzzy babies – we insisted on a rental that would let our two dogs and two cats move in with us (of course). With lease in hand we dropped off our applications to VFS on March 23rd. We have flights to Portugal arriving on June 20th (the D7 Visa requires you move to Portugal within 90 days of approval).

Next Steps: In late April our house will go on the market. We are selling LOTS of stuff, including most motorized items which can’t easily be converted to the different power grid. We are still trying to pick an international moving company to transport some belongings for us. Andrew will work until sometime in May, likely the end of the month. VFS said it could take 90 days before we get our Visas approved and returned, but we should get an update in 30 days (hopefully it isn’t really 90 days or we need to move our flights back).

Oofta! That was A LOT. But in reality it is just the tip of the iceberg (our Google doc outlining everything is 35 pages as of today and keeps growing!). But, now you are caught up. Want to know more about something specific? Just post in the comments. We don’t mind getting into the nitty gritty about things, but didn’t want to bore everyone out of their minds.

Cross your fingers for us as we wait with bated breath for our visa approvals to come through!