Hello all! Just wanted to introduce myself. I am currently living in the Monterey Bay Area, California and am planning to move to Portugal with my two dogs by the end of this yr. Already completed my scouting trip last yr and am trying to decide between Cascais area and the Algarve area around Lagos. I have a multi cultural background - am Indian, born in East Africa, grew up in London, lived in Rome for a while after graduating and have been in California for the past 25 yrs. Husband passed away 20 yrs ago - no kids. Just me and my two fur besties!
I live a block away from the ocean and love the earthy lifestyle but also enjoy going to the city’s and traveling. Animals are my passion and I am very involved with local rescues here!
Would love to connect with anyone else from California who is thinking of moving there or already living in Portugal. I am also hoping to meet fellow Brit’s ( I have missed the sense of humour!) and Indians because I like to connect with my culture too. I know it’s hard to make friends with the Portugese but I am outgoing and make friends pretty easily so fingers crossed. Made some good connections on my scouting trip. I am planning on applying for D7 visa and flying there with my pups via the Private Charter so I can fly them in the cabin with me and securing a rental with a garden.
Anyone had experience with other the private charters? It’s all a little overwhelming- I see many couples moving there and planning together and I wish I had that but I know I will be fine. I plan on using a relo company to help me with the process but so many things to consider! Yikes!!
I apologize if this intro is too long! Thanks in advance and look forward to hearing from other members.
Please feel free to view our Forum, but you must either LOGIN or REGISTER to join in the conversation.
Hello. I was on the same Social Saturday zoom call with you last night. I am leaving for Lisbon (Estoril/Cascais) tomorrow, Monday, Feb 6th (via Tucson, having moved out of Los Angeles last week) even though my D7 hasn't been approved yet. If there's anything I can help you with, please let me know.
@adventurefilmmaker thank you for your response and sorry for late response - I am still learning how to work this site and forums. Anyway, congrats on your move. Hope it’s been smooth thus far. I am curious how you found a rental and also did you take care of any financial and tax items prior to moving? I want to make sure I am proactive about anything before I move so I don’t get any surprises once there. Sometimes, there are advantages of taking care of things prior to move! Thanks again and keep me posted about your move.
@kaypatel1039gmail-com We found our rental using the services of Casa Portuguesa with the discount available through the Expats Portugal Business Directory on this site. Among others, they recommended apartments through a website/app called SuperCasa, where we found our apartment. We acted very quickly when our apartment came up, went to look at it, and contracted it just 3 days after it was listed (on our trip here last September). We got our NIFs prior to our scouting trip, and though we contacted Ei! for a referral to get our Millennium bank account before we came, it was easier and faster to get it set up while we were here. I highly recommend getting as much done on a scouting trip as you can. While I bought a SIM card ($30 for 30 days) at the airport, I later converted it to a prepaid account to keep the number, and yesterday set up a complete package with fiber internet for my apartment, all keeping the same phone number, which has made it easier for banking, contacts, etc. We plan on using Ei!'s services to help us navigate the SEF appointment process once we get our D7 approvals.
@konni Hectic. And it's been cold. No furniture, but we ordered mattresses delivered first day, and ran out to get heaters, plus landlord loaned a few more. Just wish we could have come with approved D7 visas. Dreading the round trip again to go get them. Ugh. Really enjoying finally being here, though!
@adventurefilmmaker Glad you are here! If you need any help, just give us a shout.
@adventurefilmmaker We are fair weather folks and waiting for decent Spring conditions. We are meeting up with random folks for coffee and wine around town until we can get a nice day to meetup outside in the sun. Trying to avoid us older folks from getting any winter cooties.
Hi Kaushal! We were in a breakout room with you. We retired from Huntington Beach, CA and planned on moving to Lagos. We ended up in Lisbon and couldn't be happier. Let us know if you have any questions.
@jonesdn2020 Hello there! Thanks for response. I remember both of you. Prior to moving, are there any items you wish you had or took care of prior to move ( ie tax prep, etc). I want to make sure I don’t have any surprises because I should have taken care of it before I move. Also, why did you change your mind about moving to Lagos? I know you talked about the wonderful community of restaurants, etc where you live now. Thanks again for your response.
@kaypatel1039gmail-com We had planned our move here for two years. We got all our finances and accounts setup to be tax free to the degree we could in Portugal. Opening a Portugal bank account is now more time consuming then when we got ours so getting one opened should be a priority around six months or more in advance.
We did decide on selling everything in the US. Our home was sold furnished. We capitulated on importing our car but ultimately decided to sell it in the US. Landing in Lisbon with a few suitcases and moving into our furnished apartment was very liberating.
We couldn't find a lease in Lagos in time for our VFS appointment, so we just decided to spend our first year in Lisbon. Now we have no plans on leaving Lisbon. We will enjoy Easter week each year in Lagos like we did last year.
@jonesdn2020 hello there! Sorry I took so long to respond. So many websites to check🤦🏽. Anyway, trust you are well.
I am also trying to get my finances sorted so I can minimize any tax surprises and liability ( esp as I am coming from California). Can you pls clarify how you set your accounts to be tax free. Probably more complicated than this conversation but an outline would be great. One of the things I am looking for is an accountant here who understands the tax implications of me living in Portugal and also someone over there who will help me with Portugese taxes. I am hoping they can communicate and advise me on anything I need to do before I leave USA. Everyone talks about logistics of visa, life there, etc and how wonderful it is but if you don’t have a clear picture of your finances and budget, it can be a nightmare. Do you use Spartan for transfers or any other companies like Transferwise? I know moving costs can eat up a lot of your savings so I need to see how much that will be and then how much I will have to live on. Right now I know exactly my income and expenses, so it’s easy - how much I will need there is still a little mystery still due to exchange rate considerations and cost of living there. I am looking at either Cascais area or Algarve but nothing concrete yet. Will plan a another trip around Oct this yr to secure housing, etc before I make the move beginning of next yr with dogs.
thanks so much for taking the time to connect. Very kind of you.
@kaypatel1039gmail-com We had been researching US and PT tax implications for quite some time. This company is for US tax returns and advice https://expatsportugal.com/business-directory/greenback-expat-tax-services/ and this is who we are using for PT tax returns and advice https://expatsportugal.com/business-directory/all-finance-matters/
The first thing for us was to move-to a state that has no state income taxes and get a divorce from California prior to moving to Portugal.
The NHR is good for 10 years, so we made a plan for that period of time and utilizing the options afforded. We concentrated on 401k distributions and interest income being exempt here under the NHR. Social Security is a few years off and at the most will be taxed at 10% minus any credits for tax paid in the US or vice versa.
We use Spartan FX for all of our large currency exchanges. We use Wise for smaller exchanges. We need to look at using Wise to transfer our USD to Spartan FX and then have them do the exchange. We made a currency conversion budget using the scenario of $1.20 per euro. We have been averaging $1.10 per euro. Wish we had the timing correct but that is futile when we took advantage of $1 for 1.04 euros.
We took the easy route moving here by selling everything and moving into a furnished apartment. We did have to spend some money on items like a TV, vacuum, espresso machine, etc but they are all brand new with the correct plugs and we always shop the sales.
Let us know when you are in Lisbon this October, and we can have a coffee.
@jonesdn2020 Thanks. I thought about severing ties with California too but I am going to keep my real estate here so it will be a red flag. I have two rental properties ( both duplexes) and that’s my income so I will keep them. Also, appreciation in my area is amazing so makes sense to keep right now.
Thanks for all your help. Look forward to thanking you in person.
@jonesdn2020 How long did you reside in your new non-tax state before you applied for your D-7? I'm wondering whether it makes a difference, because I'm considering doing the same thing.
Also, did you switch your drivers license to the non tax state? I understand that you need to provide a driving history from your US state as part of exchanging/ getting a PT license - won't it appear that you only had a license for a short period of time if you switched a license to the new state?
@jeanne It was right at the start of Covid in April 2020 when we left California. We applied for the D7 in Dec 21. We setup a traveling mailbox in the Nevada in May 2020 and switched all our correspondence to it.
We had lived in the Nevada prior to California and all our relatives were still there. We did swap our licenses back to Nevada and they gave us the same numbers we had when we left almost 10 years prior.
If we needed driving history, I believe we would have needed Nevada and California reports. We got lucky with the law change here and being under 60 we are able to drive on our Nevada license until we turn 60.
I have heard of people moving under shorter time frames and we would have but due to Covid we waited it out in the US.
That gave me a flashback.
Original plan: We listed the house in Feb 2020 and figured 90-120 days to close. Then we would move back to Nevada and get situated with our license and address. Our Chevy Bolt leases were up at the end of Aug 2020 so the plan was to have submitted D7 by then and depart for Portugal at the end of August 2020.
Reality: We closed in 45 days at the beginning of April 2020. When we left California on I15 for Nevada it was empty. When we crossed into Nevada, we were greeted with a sign telling us to quarantine for 2 weeks. Nevada DMV was closed, and we were not able to get our licenses until Dec 2, 2020. We turned in our Chevy Bolts at the end of August and bought a 2020 Kia Optima. We had to find a service to register the car since DMV was not accepting appointments. We spent the next year plus traveling the US and helping family while gaging the Covid crisis. We sold the car for 4k more then we paid on our way out of the US in Dec 2021 after racking up 25k miles.
Moral of the story is planning doesn't always work out!
@jonesdn2020 Question on the figuring out divorcing from a state tax state...and is this related to just making one does not have real property, and then getting a non-state-tax state to get virtual mail after departure, and not having any time of residence there? Dwight and I are planning next steps in our plan to move to Portugal, with our just getting back from our scouting trip, and in the last throes, we hope anyway, of getting a house, and we are expecting our bank accts being finally approved this coming week too. Then we can engage Ei! with the D7 process and make our consulate appts in SFran. This part of disengaging to not be taxed by any one state, or be considered a resident, is still confounding me. I don't have real property, although Dwight does, that he will sell before our moving to Portugal, so with that in mind, how does one go about picking a particular state to have the virtual mailing address? I used to live in Texas, until moving to NM in 2009, but not really wanting to claim Texas as my residence...so can you please explain this in a bit more detail? Thanks, and sorry we missed meeting you both when we were in Lisbon, but things were getting last minute with details before we left...so on next trip when we come for house closing sometime in June...prayers it all goes through with Daniel Reis's firms help. They have been amazing.
@ggiles Sorry we missed you. We can meetup when you move here.
Where are you buying a place in Portugal?
Are you both residents of California currently?
I have been reading up on divorcing from a tax state by moving abroad. It is a little murkier than moving to a non-tax state prior.
Are you planning on exchanging your driver's licenses to Portugal licenses?
There is a litmus test for being a resident in each state. Banking, drivers' licenses, voting, ties to the community, family, etc so we made sure that we passed those by moving to Nevada. We could have easily picked Washington or Texas as well.
@jonesdn2020 Hi Jone Expats...We are working on buying a house just a bit north of Ourem, with final details of contract being worked out with Daniel Reis's firm. No, we are residents now of New Mexico. Yes, on driver's licenses. I will be banking through Wells Fargo in U.S. although Dwight's credit union may be state based, as not sure on that, as governmental. We have been voting from NM, but can possibly change that. Will have to do some research on this. As well, figuring out how to redo wills, as Daniel mentioned we needed to do that, so if something happened in Portugal later on, that our wills need to be based on U.S. law, especially as we are partners, and not married. So many details...arghhh...to consider.
@ggiles Well at least New Mexico has a low state tax. What I read was that you are effectively not a resident of a state for tax purposes when you relinquish your license, have no ties to the state and live abroad. I would consult a local tax accountant to validate.
It was easier for us to switch back to Nevada since we needed to live with relatives while we got our Portugal plan executed after we sold our house in California.
We have been watching all of Daniel's YouTube appearances and especially when it comes to wills. We just keep crossing our fingers and hoping not to die before we get that done.
Hello Kaushal - We also met at the Online Social. We are from Northern California and came to the Porto area with our two cats last June. We flew TAP so can't help with the private charter, but let us know if we can help with any other animal questions.
Welcome!
@konni thank you Koni. Congrats on your move. Are you happy with the move thus far? Happy you took your furbabies with you. I am nervous about moving with my two dogs - finding rental, acclimating to new environment, new food, new vets, etc. Just being able to get most of what they need via Amazon or Chewy, etc in the USA and being restricted by what you can get in Portugal sounds very challenging. How has it been for you? I think in many ways cats are easier then dogs but am sure the emotional aspect of moving them is very similar. Thanks again for your response.
@kaypatel Hi Kaushal! I'm one of the ones who can actually pronounce your name 😉 - grew up in India, went to grad school in the US, spent 40 years and decided that was enough.
We brought our small dog with us in the cabin, so I can't help you with the pets-in-cargo hold details, but our dog has adapted well to life here - we found him alternative food, though a few US brands are also available here (like Royal Canin) and can be ordered through Amazon Spain for free Prime delivery. Your US Prime membership will not help, but we got 2 years free through our Vodafone contract. If you tell me the brand you feed them I can check on availability.
Our local vet has been a high point of our experience in Portugal (we live in Estoril, near Cascais) - she diagnosed his Addison's disease and he has successfully recovered and is back to a normal life. Our typical vet visit has gone from 200+ to about 35-50, and she usually doesn't charge us for follow-up visits. He's gone from being nervous on vet visits in the US to happily walking in and greeting her.
The Portuguese in general are very dog friendly and we take ours to cafes and outdoor seating restaurants all the time - he now gives us a hard time if we pass a cafe without stopping! One thing they do is let their dogs run off-leash, but we haven't had any major issues with that - just the occasional growling match.
We settled on the Lisbon area since we found a nice place (through SavvyCat Realty) and we travel often, so wanted to be close to one of the 2 major airports (we dropped Algarve due to the Faro airport). But Porto is still an option for us (we're renting), though we'd have to deal with @Hank and @Konni... 🤣
Jokes aside, we really like it here, and I'd be happy to get into more detail on anything that still concerns you. We spent 30 years in California (Bay Area and near Sac), but also lived on the East coast.
@zoom hello there! I remember you from the break out room and was hoping we would connect. As you said, you are one of the few who can pronounce my name so I wanted to connect anyway. I am Indian, born in Africa, grew up mostly in London, lived in Rome for a few yrs and have lived in California for a long time. So, I have a pretty diverse background and am used to a multi cultural lifestyle. I was wondering how you have found Portugal to be for the Indian culture. I still like to have a connection to my culture ( music, food and even Bollywood:). Btw. I am widowed so it will be just me and the two dogs. I am an extrovert so making friends with like minded people is imp for me.
Right now, I am concerned about transporting my dogs and making sure I get good advice on my finances ( ie. Tax planning before I move and figuring out my budget once I move there). Looking at Cascais or western Algarve. Planning to come in Oct to secure housing, etc before I make move with dogs. My brother has a second home in Torres Vedras so I can use his address for D7 luckily but I still need to find a place. I can’t stay in Torres Vedras ( too remote for me).
Any sources re finances or anything else is greatly appreciated. 🙏🏽
@kaypatel1039gmail-com Sorry for the delayed response - I was back in the US for a few days on a business trip, and missed your message. I would be happy to help in any way I can, including what I've figured out re: finances (mostly positive but a few things to watch out for). The finances discussion is best done directly, I think. I grew up in India, spent 40 years in the US (30 of them in California) - both my adult daughters are on the West Coast.
Portugal is fairly cosmopolitan in the larger cities, but the interior feels more provincial. Indian food and groceries are fairly easy to find around the major cities. We're renting in Estoril - the heart of Cascais is pretty touristy but there are plenty of neighborhoods close by that take you out of the crowds, and the downtown does have a great variety of bars and restaurants. Cascais (and surroundings) is one of the higher cost areas in Portugal as far as rent/housing and eating out are concerned, but it does have really good weather.
Lets chat when you are up for it!
@zoom hello, sorry I took so long to respond. It’s hard keeping up with all the different sites 🤦🏽. Anyway, thanks for your response and willingness to share. Would love to chat so let me know best way to do that. WhatsApp?
@kaypatel1039gmail-com not a good idea posting your number on an open forum, better to DM the person in question. Mod @misticjeff will hopefully amend your post.
@kaypatel1039gmail-com not a good idea posting your number on an open forum, better to DM the person in question. Mod @misticjeff will hopefully amend your post.
That is the nickname she chose for her account... she needs to change that on her own if she wishes. I do not have the permissions to alter a user account, only the Admins can.
@misticjeff I didn't mean her email address (although that's not a good idea either), she has posted her phone number as well
@kaypatel1039gmail-com We are definitely happy with the move. The cats did great on the plane (we flew TAP and they were in the cabin with us). We did a direct flight from SFO to Lisboa. We also used Chewy in California as we have a cat with stomach issues. We bought a full bag of food to Portugal to give us time to find her food here. We looked locally but ended up finding the right food at Amazon.es.
@konni thanks for your response. Glad you are happy and your furbabies made it safely. I am nervous about how my dogs will do and what mode I am going to use.
also, did you use a tax advisor before you left the USA to help you figure out how to mimimize your tax burden once you in Lisbon and how are you transferring monies? Did you use Spartan or any of the experts in the directory?
thanks again.
@kaypatel1039gmail-com We checked in with our US tax advisor who recommended Greenback Tax Services. https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/
We have transferred money through Wise, Xoom and our bank.
@konni We have considered Greenback. Our issue is we have both been doing personal and business tax returns for decades and this year we technically do not need to file.
We probably will still file a US return. AFM is doing our PT return. It won't get dicey for us until we get into paying some PT taxes and need to offset US taxes with that. We structured our finances so that will not occur until 2027.
We would be interested if you are including your foreign address on your return and doing anything else to inform the US IRS of your dual taxation status with Portugal.
@jonesdn2020 We are new to this process and relying on the advice of the tax advisors. I'll let you know if they tell us to do anything else to inform the US IRS of our dual taxation status.
My understanding is that our US taxes will get filed and then, based on that, the Portuguese accountant will file a paper, indicating we have nothing to pay in Portugal, based on the US taxes and the NHR.
Join our community for free, or join for exclusive member-only content, support and hundreds of €’s in savings
Your membership comes with a 14-day, no-risk, money back guarantee. Love it or we’ll refund your money.
Community Member
-
Full access to community Forum
-
Register for events
-
300+ hours of educational content available FREE of charge via our YouTube channel
Community Plus Member
Ideal for those already living in Portugal or researching-
Full access to community Forum
-
300+ hours of educational content available FREE of charge via our YouTube channel
-
Browse the forum advertising-free (only see our partners)
-
Guaranteed entry to our weekly webinars
-
Join live in our "Moving to Portugal" Migration Dream Team weekly groupinars
-
Receive community support
-
And help us grow this website and community
Premium Member
Perfect for those serious about making the move-
All Community Plus Member benefits plus...
-
3 months FREE access to DailyNata Plus Portuguese language platform
-
1 hour private online consultation with a member of our team
-
Access to our “little black book” of contacts and recommendations
-
Hundreds of €s in Savings & Benefits from our experts and partners
-
Ongoing personal email support
-
30% discount on Premium Membership renewals after first year
Stay up to date
Sign up for regular content updates sent directly to your inbox.
Copyright © 2023 Expats Portugal
Marketing by Unity Online
