The Single Best Visa for Moving to Europe

I’m Not a Criminal… and I Have the Documents to Prove It

I am not a criminal!

At least according to the clerk at the Czech Ministry of Justice, here in Prague.

I had to stop by the ministry last week with my wife, Yulia, to collect a few documents for our pending move to Portugal. The Portuguese want assurances that I am not a scofflaw or wanted by Interpol or the FBI for sundry crimes of one ilk or another.

It’s the latest step in what is, quite frankly, a bit of an annoying process of gathering up all the documents I need in pursuit of Portugal’s new D8 Digital Nomad Visa, which the country introduced late last year.

This is, to me, one of the best visas in the world and the single best visa for accessing Europe for a long-term stay that ultimately leads to citizenship and a passport.

Once Portuguese officials issue the visa, I’ll have the right to live in Portugal as a legal resident, and after just five years I can pursue a possession I have wanted for the last few decades: A passport from a European Union country.

That would give me the freedom to live and work anywhere in the EU that tickles my fancy.

Yulia and I already have plans to split our time between Portugal, Spain, Montenegro, Italy, Croatia, and Greece after we secure our EU passports. We love the Mediterranean culture, lifestyle, and food.

And the beaches.

Yulia, in particular, loves a beachy lifestyle, and I will concede that the beaches I’ve seen across the Med are quite lovely.

In many cases, they’re sparsely populated and quite rustic, with seaside seafood shacks where you find the freshest of fish.

No other country in the EU offers such quick accession to citizenship/passport status as Portugal. Much of the rest of the continent requires a seven- to 10-year period of residency before qualifying for a visa. (Poland can be as short as three years, but you have to marry a Pole, and I feel fairly certain Yulia would balk at me snuggling up to a Polish girl, even if it meant quicker access to an EU passport.)

So, Portugal it is.

St. Georges Castle in the heart of Lisbon… one of the areas where I’m looking for an apartment in Portugal.

As I write this, yet another dusting of snow powders Prague, so I am increasingly eager to start my Portuguese life.

But let’s be clear: When I want to get something done, my patience makes the mayfly’s one-day existence on Earth seem like an epoch.

I. Hate. Waiting.

I want to barrel through the process. I want easier access to the documents I need and the apostils and notarizations that are necessary. I want translators to translate my documents while I wait, not over the next week. I want answers to my questions that I put to my visa team within minutes, not days.

Yes, I am being a brat. My demands are totally unrealistic. I 100% realize that.

Nevertheless, did you ever see the movie When Harry Met Sally?

There at the very end, Harry goes dashing through Manhattan to Sally’s apartment and breathlessly announces to her that, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

I am Harry.

Portugal is Sally.

I want the rest of my life to start.

Now!

Yesterday!

At the very latest… tomorrow morning!

Alas, I remain beached like an orca in the phase of this process where I have to cool my jets while translators translate and notaries notarize lots and lots of documents.

And I have to find a place to live as part of the application process… and that’s just another barrel of agitated monkeys since we have to coordinate where we live with where Yulia can get her son into a private school for expats. (I found a spectacular apartment in the heart of Lisbon, an area of the city I love, just below the St. George Castle, but it’s not convenient to any of the schools she’s found.)

I am certain it will all work out. This moves just “feels right,” and I’ve learned in my years that when things feel right, you’re probably on the right trajectory.

But did I mention I have less patience than a mayfly’s time on Earth?

More on this soon (I hope)…