Decision
While my progress on the travel database is going very well, I haven't posted anything about where we will potentially be moving in a while. That's because we put thinking about it on hold for a while. I went through the options that we had and checked on immigration for all of them. We also looked at other factors, like climate and the impact of climate change. The problem was that there were countries that we were interested in, but it was unclear if we would be able to get permanent residency there. Some sources (unreliable ones) said yes, and other (official ones) said no. I was getting anxious about this, since we couldn't make a decision with incomplete information. Since the plan was to not move until after the pandemic was more or less over, it didn't really make a lot of sense to contact immigration lawyers, since the immigration laws could change before we were ready to move. Instead of stressing over it, we decided that I should stop thinking about it.
That plan worked well. However, today, Joel found some new information that make it much easier to make a decision. After five years of living in an EU country, one can get a long-term residency card. Once you have this, other EU countries suddenly find you much more appealing. With that information, we went back to the list.
After taking out the countries that were too expensive, too dangerous, too hot, and unwilling to give us long-term visas, we had fewer options. Of those, one stood out. So, at the moment (and obviously subject to change), the plan is that we will move to Portugal at the end of the pandemic and live there for five years. At the end of that time, we'll decide if we want to stay in Portugal or if we want to move to another country, like Slovenia. Portugal has clear requirements for retirees, so it is quite appealing in that sense. It also is liberal and has a pleasant climate.
This takes a lot of the pressure off us, as we will have plenty of time to decide what to do next. The language is one of the easier ones, so hopefully we won't have too much trouble learning it. So, that's the plan for now. Phew!
Previous: Part 12 - The List - First Iteration
That plan worked well. However, today, Joel found some new information that make it much easier to make a decision. After five years of living in an EU country, one can get a long-term residency card. Once you have this, other EU countries suddenly find you much more appealing. With that information, we went back to the list.
After taking out the countries that were too expensive, too dangerous, too hot, and unwilling to give us long-term visas, we had fewer options. Of those, one stood out. So, at the moment (and obviously subject to change), the plan is that we will move to Portugal at the end of the pandemic and live there for five years. At the end of that time, we'll decide if we want to stay in Portugal or if we want to move to another country, like Slovenia. Portugal has clear requirements for retirees, so it is quite appealing in that sense. It also is liberal and has a pleasant climate.
This takes a lot of the pressure off us, as we will have plenty of time to decide what to do next. The language is one of the easier ones, so hopefully we won't have too much trouble learning it. So, that's the plan for now. Phew!
Previous: Part 12 - The List - First Iteration