This Might Be the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made

A Staggering Number of Americans Are Seeking Better Lives in Europe… 

I am not alone.

That’s my takeaway from a meeting I had with a visa agency here in Portugal last week.

This is the agency I paid to help me land a Portuguese digital nomad visa—what’s known as the D8 visa. Everyone I talked to prior to applying for the visa told me about the challenges of trying to navigate the process on your own because of various requirements, such as applying for the Portuguese version of a Social Security number (the entire process is in Portuguese) or opening a bank account without actually living in Portugal.

And frankly, I’m glad I heeded those warnings and got some expert help. Even with the agency—it has a 100% success rate in obtaining visas for expats—I stumbled into a few obstacles that would have been impossible to navigate from my previous home in Prague.

Anyway, back to not being alone…

My contact at the agency—a lawyer named Isabel—called me into Lisbon from my new home 45 minutes to the west in the beach-resort village of Cascais. She wanted to prepare me for my meeting in a few weeks with the Portuguese ministry that will issue my D8 visa. As part of our conversation, I asked Isabel how many other D8 applicants the firm is working with.

“We have some,” she said. “A few from the U.S., one from Bangladesh. But the D8 is new, and most people are using the D7.” That’s the so-called “passive income” visa, for which you need the least amount of income to qualify: just $775 per month in provable, passive income (dividends, interest, pensions, Social Security, real estate rents, etc.). A couple needs about $1,160, while a family of three needs just under $1,400.

Given that the average Social Security check in America is more than $1,800 in 2023… well, you can see why Portugal is such a popular country among expats. Qualifying for a visa is so easy.

Indeed, as Isabel told me, “Our bigger business is the D7. We have about 100 clients going through the D7 right now… and just about all of them are Americans.”

Like I said, I’m not alone.

I was surprised by the number and the fact that almost all of the applicants are Americans. I mean, I know Portugal is popular with my countrymates. At an interview last year down in Sagres, a Lilliputian cliffside town on the western Algarve coast, a real estate agent told me Californians are invading because the cost of seaside properties is so cheap relative to what they’re accustomed to back home.

Still, I would have expected Isabel to tell me that a dozen, maybe a score, of Americans are in the process of chasing residency in Portugal.

But 100?

That says something.

And to be clear, that’s just one agency.

I don’t know how many visa agencies exist in Portugal, but it’s more than one. Which means the number of Americans currently looking to join me in the California of Europe is likely deep into the hundreds, maybe pressing up against 1,000.

They and I are simply extending a trend that has been ramping up over the last many years.

That group, in turn, is part of an even larger trend: Portugal’s expat population is now at a record of nearly 700,000—almost 7% of the entire population. And that was 2021 data. Since then, the numbers have only continued to increase, as indicated by those 100 Americans my visa agency is currency working with.

Just par for the course on a broader scale.

If you do a bit of Googling, it’s surprising how many stories and research reports pop up with headlines like:

• Why Are Americans Moving Overseas?
• Where Are Americans Emigrating to and Why?
• Many Wealthy American Homebuyers Are Moving Overseas. Here’s Why.
• Great American Exodus.

Pages and pages of similar headlines exist. They’re primarily from 2022 and 2023.

Heck, even Donald Trump told a rally last week that he’d prefer being in the South of France. Now, granted, Trump has some legal reasons that might color his view at the moment. Nevertheless, his comments speak to a broader point: There are many parts of Europe that offer distinct lifestyle benefits over life in America.

Clearly, more and more Americans are aware of this, and are interested in exploring these benefits from themselves.

I’ve lived overseas now for almost exactly five years, having relocated to Prague in the fall of 2018 before moving to Portugal late last month. What I can tell you is that my life is vastly better.

I walk all over the place instead of drive, and I feel healthier for it. Literally, my jeans and shorts slide off my waist now.

My medical care is so inexpensive relative to what I paid back in the U.S. State health insurance is free, but I opted for full-coverage private insurance for a family of three. No co-pays, no deductibles. Cost: $2,500 for the year (and that’s a Cadillac plan). I was paying $550 a month just for myself back in California, and that was for a truly crappy basic plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield. (Note: The level of healthcare here is on par or exceeds what I was accustomed to in the U.S., so there’s no drop off in quality.)

Food is immeasurably better, and it isn’t compromised by all the chemical witchcraft the FDA allows, and all the sweeteners food manufacturers shovel into everything. (Seriously, why in the world does American bread regularly include more sugar than a candy bar???)

Even basic house wine is off-the-charts good and routinely costs just $3 or $4 per glass vs. $10 to $15 for a glass of unremarkable/horrid house swill I’ve had at too many U.S. eateries.

I’ve noted this many times, but moving to Europe was the best move of my life.

Simply put, I’m happier and more content. All the expat Americans I’ve talked to over the last five years—in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Uruguay, and Thailand—tell me the same thing.

It’s not that any of us dislike America. It’s just that we went in search of something better.

We found it overseas.

Soon enough, those 100 visa seekers my visa agency is working with are going to find what I’ve found: That living abroad is a pretty sweet life (no sugar added).