2022, and what's next

First, my thanks to all the team. What a valuable group!

My highlights in 2022 involved one scouting trip to Portugal to visit the Alentejo area, specifically, Vila Nova de Milfontes and Porto Covo. Portugal has this incredible public transportation system so I took the bus from Lisbon, and in a few hours I was in Villa de Milfontes. Both towns are  lovely, but there are no places available to buy.  My interest is the Alentejo coast because it is the only coastal area left where you can still get a Golden Visa —-AND you can live in the property..

I also contacted various real estate agents, checking to see if any of them would also take care of the GV, but Remax was the only agency that said that they could do it. We prefer to find the property on our own, with the help of a real estate agency, rather than going for a property that is offered by one of so many big property managers or developers, who also charge a lot of money.

A lot of reading and research took place last year, trying to determine, not only the area(s) we want to consider where we would relocate, but which visa is the best for us  (my adult son and I), either the D7, GV or the new Nomad visa. In my case, since I am retired (from California and living in Italy now), I will go for the D7 as it is uncomplicated for me and not as expensive as the GV. My son will go for the GV in view that he's not ready to move to Pt yet (from California) and thus he can bear the long wait attached to the GV. 

In a few days I will go back to Portugal, will rent a car and then I will visit the small towns along the Alentejo coast, which cannot be reached by public transportation, to see if anything turns up (a small property to buy). I would love hearing comments from people familiar with the Alentejo coast (not inland because it's too hot for me).

During this trip I will also open a bank account in Lisbon, with a bank that charges no fees, such as  the CTT, the postal bank.  and then I will transfer funds from California via Wise, whom we trust and have used many times before. My son already established a bank account with Wise, and I will do that too, in addition to the local account in Lisbon. BTW, I already have the NIF (which I got personally, at no cost, over a year ago) and last year I tried to open a bank account. I couldn’t because the bank said I need to bring a recent NIF certificate or document (''within the last 3 months''). I then went to the Finance agency for a newer NIF doc, and I made the mistake of bringing in my original NIF doc: the Finance agency said it should be sufficient for the bank and refused to give me anything new. Next time, I will just bring my NIF number (and not the original document) to the Finance agency, hoping that they will give me a verification of my NIF number.

During this upcoming trip we're hoping to visit a few towns on the central coast, and the idea is to find a suitable area where we can rent an apartment for a few months, and use it as a base before buying a property.

The best to all in this new year.

Pia