And for anyone dreaming of packing up their lives (or putting their house, along with its contents) on the market for sunnier shores, flying to live in Portugal might be more likely than not. you imagine The country has long been one of Europe’s most affordable options when it comes to seeking residency, thanks to several visa programs offered to foreign nationals who are not EU citizens (and also not from the European Economic Area, called the EEA, and Switzerland). And with a new temporary resident visa geared towards digital nomads, remote workers are more welcome in the country than ever. Some Americans who have made the leap say they seek more affordable health care and a refuge from gun violence in addition to the southern European country’s lifestyle perks, such as a slower pace, milder weather and enticing travel options throughout Europe.
The city of Coimbra and the surrounding area draw cuttings from other countries. rh2010/Adobe Stock

One way: The D7 visa

Grace Veach, who teaches virtually at a Florida university from her new home outside the riverside city of Coibra in central Portugal, says she first started thinking about leaving the United States after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. “I knew I wanted to live somewhere where gun violence wasn’t a daily threat,” says Veach, 59. But making the move took some time due to life circumstances. Along with her husband, now 27-year-old son and the family dog, Veach moved to Portugal in 2021. No one in the family had ever set foot in the country before they arrived, she says, with their planned scouting trips canceled during the pandemic. The family applied for Portugal’s D7 visas together, Veach says. It’s a visa option popular with retirees because passive income sources can be used to cover the required salary — 705 euros a month (about $705) for first-time adult applicants plus smaller amounts for additional family members. Applicants can also take advantage of the same healthcare benefits as Portuguese residents and citizens through the country’s National Health Service. The D7 visa requires visa holders to spend 182 days a year in Portugal and gives them the right to work in the country. They can also apply for Portuguese citizenship after five years. The D7 visa application process usually takes about six months. Grace Veach and her family moved to the village of Sao Martinho de Árvore outside Coimbra. Grace Waits

Other ways to live in Portugal

The D7 is just one of the many visa options that can make moving to Portugal easier right now. Since it began in 2012, Portugal’s investment visa program, the Golden Visa, has offered a path to Portuguese residency through investments in the country that can be acquired through property purchases above €500,000 (about $500,000), among other investment options . For people who don’t really want to spend a lot of time in Portugal, the Golden Visa only requires holders to spend seven to 14 days a year residing in Portugal, while also offering them access to National Health Service benefits and a path to citizenship after five years. However, restrictions coming into force in 2022 have limited the locations in Portugal where property investment can be made, making the prospect less attractive to some. And Portugal’s latest temporary residence visa, which launched on October 30 and is also called the “digital nomad” visa, makes it easier for remote workers to relocate to Portugal on a temporary basis. It grants them the right to stay for one year/12 months, as long as they can prove earnings of at least €2,820 (about the same amount in dollars at the moment) per month working for a company outside Portugal. “There is a lot of excitement around this visa in the nomad community,” says Danish Soomro, founder of Visadb, a visa database that indexes more than 800 residency visas around the world.
Central Portugal offers beautiful countryside away from some of the hustle and bustle of coastal cities. Michal/Adobe Stock Also the founder of a private digital nomad community on Facebook with more than 155,000 members, Soomro says Portugal is one of the most popular countries for remote workers (along with places like Greece, Spain, Croatia and Cyprus). thanks to factors including “warm weather, good internet connection and community.” “Previously, other Portuguese visas were used as a solution by digital nomads,” he says, as the D7 visa was mainly aimed at retirees with passive income sources. The D7 also requires applicants to register for a Portuguese tax number, while the digital nomad visa does not. Holders of the digital nomad visa, however, cannot benefit from Portugal’s healthcare system and must prove that they have their own insurance as part of the application process. The visa does not in itself offer a path to Portuguese citizenship. The Algarve in the south of Portugal, pictured Ponta da Piedade Beach in Lagos, is a popular destination for visitors and transplants. Don Mammoser/Adobe Stock

Veach says that for her D7 application she used her retirement savings, pensions and Social Security to meet the visa’s minimum income requirements. She could have messed up the application process herself, she says, but she hired an immigration assistant from Porto-based Portugal company Relocate to help with the process. Veach also credits Deborah Dahab’s Master Your Move mentoring program and ExpaCity, an online community focused on moving to Portugal, with helping ease the application process and transition to life in Portugal. He joined Facebook groups like Americans & FriendsPT as well as local expat groups in Coimbra for advice, too. With nearly 35,000 members, the private group allows members to share their successes and stumbles on their way to Portugal, as well as tips and advice. Bill Mauro, right, and Marcus Laurence ride ATVs near their home in the mountains near Coimbra. Bill Mauro Bill Mauro, 58, and his husband, Marcus Lawrence, 51, both quit their jobs in insurance and health care sales early and left their home in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to move to Lisbon in 2019.
The couple applied for the D7 visa and completed the entire application process on their own, using documentation from the Americans & FriendsPT Facebook group. “We followed the documentation to the letter and it took six months from the time we made the decision to move to getting our visas and arriving in Portugal in October 2019,” says Mauro. The couple sold everything they owned in the US and arrived in Portugal with just six suitcases.
Mauro cites affordable, quality healthcare, security, recognition of their marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, and the country’s more than 300 annual days of sunshine as among Portugal’s selling factors.
They have since decamped from Portugal’s largest city and capital to their “dream home,” a slate stone house in the mountaintop village of Salgueiro da Lomba in central Portugal. They bought it for €165,000 in 2021 and are currently undergoing renovations. Mauro says the couple is living comfortably in their new home on just over $1,800 a month, which they would only pay for health insurance if they stayed in the US. Bill Mauro and his husband live in this house in Salgueiro da Lomba, a village about 25 minutes south of Coimbra. Bill Mauro

“We Couldn’t Afford Health Insurance”

Glenn Cook, a retired high school music and theater teacher, also cites the “exorbitant cost of health care in the US” among his biggest motivations for moving. Cook, 59, moved to Portugal on a D7 visa in 2018 with her husband Todd Dolesal (also retired) and their then-teenage son. “We had gotten to a point where we had sufficient means to retire, but because we weren’t old enough to qualify for Medicare, we couldn’t afford health insurance,” says Cook The couple considered Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Italy and Ireland among their options for moving abroad, but decided that Portugal more closely aligned with what they were looking for. Shortly after moving to the country, they had the opportunity to experience first-hand what their benefits would be from Portugal’s National Health Service.
“We experienced a catastrophic medical situation that likely would have bankrupted us in the US,” Cook wrote to CNN Travel in an email. “Here, everything was fully covered. I’m still amazed that we were never charged a cent for any of the treatment, which included a month in the ICU and over four months of inpatient rehabilitation.” Cook says he hired an immigration assistant to help with the application process and recommends others who feel bogged down by all the details do the same.

When it comes to visa assistance services, business is booming

While it is entirely possible to apply for a visa yourself, navigating the bureaucracy and red tape in Portugal can be made easier with the help of a visa application service. Sara Galis of Welcome To Portugal, a Lisbon-based company that facilitates the visa application process by helping with everything from advising on the documents required in your country to setting up a bank account in Portugal and acting as a tax representative of applicants there — he says demand for visas from Americans is increasing.
Gali says 60% of her clients are from the United States, and most are applying for D7 visas. “For Americans, our currencies are almost at par, which makes Europe even more attractive right now,” says Galis, who launched her business in 2021. “They want to put one foot here and one foot there. And they see Portugal as a very safe country to live in.” Gail Aguiar of Relocate in Portugal says she has seen increased interest from Canadians and British…