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Considering moving to Portugal as an ex pat.... input welcome.
- Thread starter Astoneroad
- Start date
My cousin did this. He seems to love it.
Vacceo
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Portugal has a housing issue in the larger cities like Lisbon, Coimbra, Sintra...
However, if you live in smaller area, prices will be more contained.
My other recommendation is, learn Portuguese. It's not just a matter of daily communication, it's also a way to not be "that asshole". Portuguese people are incredibly polite, nice and welcoming, but if they notice your effort to talk to them, they'll actually love it and become even more welcoming.
OP
Astoneroad
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #44
Well... it's at least 18 months in the future. By then, brain implants should be selling on Amazon for $99. I can just download Portuguese as a second language... along with Kung Fu like in the Matrix... lol. I wonder if Amir will be able to analyze brain SINAD on his AP. Thanks for the advice.
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Why would You want to leave as a French Person?
For myself I would consider France first (for food and wine, of course).
Canada has free healthcare. Move to a province, live there for 30, 60 or 90 days and apply for a card and voila!
If this is where You live now it will not be very complicated to feel comfortable at any place around the world that is not iced.
antcollinet
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Even for non citizens?
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Don't know about now, but 40 years ago my Aunt became ill while traveling in Canada. She required surgery, and a month long hospital stay. Cost to her (her insurance didn't cover outside the US) $0. OTOH, the scars from the surgery look like a first timer or maybe a surgeon with the shakes after coming off a 3 day drunk. She survived for free with a really ugly zig zaggy scar.
I'd vote for Canada, where 'available space' for solitary types is even more vast than the US, and solitary types are more respected than assumed to be nuts.
(Speaking as someone with more than 60 years experience of annual summer stays. Drive off the main highways, more than 100 mi from large cities, and you are immediately No Where.)
Personally, I like the British influence as well: respect for education and learning, gorgeous summer flower beds everywhere, the right kind of bacon, etc...
(BTW, why not Alaska?)
Weather might be a concern if you don't tolerate cold well...tho that might become less of an issue going forward...now.
I'm still not clear on the new R.E. taxes for foreign owners - not even sure if its' provincial or nationwide!
I've known neighbors (also from US, though I think they had dual citizenship?) who had severe medical emergencies and, even well off the main path, received heli-med rescue and had excellent care (heart attack).
(Coast Guard up there is astoundingly responsive - I can hear and track their flights from our place in summer, several per day at least.)
PS. My brother did mention that they'd liked Lisbon a lot, but found the real estate too expensive; same with Paris or London, etc.
(Speaking as someone with more than 60 years experience of annual summer stays. Drive off the main highways, more than 100 mi from large cities, and you are immediately No Where.)
Personally, I like the British influence as well: respect for education and learning, gorgeous summer flower beds everywhere, the right kind of bacon, etc...
(BTW, why not Alaska?)
Weather might be a concern if you don't tolerate cold well...tho that might become less of an issue going forward...now.
I'm still not clear on the new R.E. taxes for foreign owners - not even sure if its' provincial or nationwide!
I've known neighbors (also from US, though I think they had dual citizenship?) who had severe medical emergencies and, even well off the main path, received heli-med rescue and had excellent care (heart attack).
(Coast Guard up there is astoundingly responsive - I can hear and track their flights from our place in summer, several per day at least.)
PS. My brother did mention that they'd liked Lisbon a lot, but found the real estate too expensive; same with Paris or London, etc.
I am in Alberta Canada the greatest province in Canada...HeHe... and so I follow those guidelines and I found the following information that details one must be legally in the country/province to apply.
How to apply for AHCIP
Learn how to apply for AHCIP coverage and the information you need to provide either in person or by mail.
AHCIP eligibility
Find out if you or your dependants are eligible to apply for AHCIP coverage and what to do if your coverage is denied or cancelled.
Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan | Alberta Health Services
In accordance with the Canada Health Act, Alberta has a publicly administered and funded health care system that guarantees Albertans receive universal access to medically necessary hospital and health care services.
www.albertahealthservices.ca
I have 3 nasty scars after surgery. One on my back, one on the front of my thigh and the other on my upper backside of the thigh. All from lacerations. Then I was in surgery for 4 hours another time with microsurgery rebuilding my face around my eye and reconstructing the eyebrow too. Perfect results. A very nasty in-line skating accident. So yeah it varies like most stuff but when sitting in the hospital with a broken arm recently I was wondering if this is going to cost and nope not a dime was spent from emergency to surgery it was all covered. Sorry to read about your aunts scar...
Soandso
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I'm a formally documented foreign resident of a country and been investigating residency requirements in other countries. Now I am in my 70s and when investigated Portugal my recollection is than to have legal residency status (not tourist stays) there you must have private medical insurance - which entails expensive premiums in old age. Well there seem to be better options than Portugal residency for me.
My partner has a home in Avignon, France and post Covid we've been spending more time there. She lived there for 20+ years so has been doing bespoke food, wine, hiking and art tours throughout Provence in the spring and fall for mostly American clients. In about 4 years the mortgage will be paid off on that property but until then we've full time renters to cover bills/taxes etc at which time we'll have to decide (or not) the primary residence. She's got French citizenship so I could marry (again 
) and get the benefits of EU access that way but marriage in the USA would be catastrophic for us in a new tax and healthcare bracket. We will most likely retain both properties as my studio and work (and stereo) are on this property I've occupied for almost 35 years.
I don't speak French well but get along pretty ok and if I keep my mouth shut and light a cigarette I pass as native. But the language barrier is there especially in formal meetings and business with the foundation I'm part of. Years later I'm still "the American" but now I'm "their American" so inroads but I'll never be fully accepted, neither will Madeleine and she's been involved with those people for decades.
It's a different, slower, more intentional life in Europe, especially in the more Latin south. The temperate climate brings down the Northern Europeans as well so even an off season market in Arles you'll be hearing lots of Brits, Germans, Dutch babbling all around you.
Sounds like you're prepared for a cultural shift as well as one to your pocket book. Definitely visit and spend time exploring any prospects. Make some native friends, that's how you'll find the "real" stuff.
) and get the benefits of EU access that way but marriage in the USA would be catastrophic for us in a new tax and healthcare bracket. We will most likely retain both properties as my studio and work (and stereo) are on this property I've occupied for almost 35 years.I don't speak French well but get along pretty ok and if I keep my mouth shut and light a cigarette I pass as native. But the language barrier is there especially in formal meetings and business with the foundation I'm part of. Years later I'm still "the American" but now I'm "their American" so inroads but I'll never be fully accepted, neither will Madeleine and she's been involved with those people for decades.
It's a different, slower, more intentional life in Europe, especially in the more Latin south. The temperate climate brings down the Northern Europeans as well so even an off season market in Arles you'll be hearing lots of Brits, Germans, Dutch babbling all around you.
Sounds like you're prepared for a cultural shift as well as one to your pocket book. Definitely visit and spend time exploring any prospects. Make some native friends, that's how you'll find the "real" stuff.
That's a very good question, and a famous quote from a French travel writer goes, "France is a paradise inhabited by people who think they are in hell." Indeed, why would anyone want to leave? Even considering the idea seems indecent. When you're fortunate enough to be born in a country and region with a temperate climate where it doesn't drop to -40 degrees in the winter or rise to 50 degrees in the summer, where there is water, where you're never far from the sea or the mountains, where food is almost a religion with 1,200 varieties of cheese and 380 different wine appellations, where art, culture, architecture, and history shine throughout the world, where the healthcare system is efficient and free for those who live there, where freedom of expression is total, and where there is very little censorship... Yes, it's indecent to think of leaving when you consider the millions of current and future climate refugees, political and economic refugees fleeing oppression and poverty. It's indecent and guilt-inducing, and in our case, it's a rich person's problem... Having traveled and lived immersively in other countries for varying lengths of time, far from my comfort zone, there's always this feeling of facing a mirror and experiencing a sort of rebirth where everything seems possible again. But I never lost sight of the fact that I was privileged and very lucky. To answer your question more directly, yes, I could have moved to another country when I was 20 or 30, and I almost did for love, but no, today my roots are too deep.
Vacceo
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I live in middle of nowhere, hillbilly Spain. People around here are quite harsh and secluded, but at the same time, quite respectful and they leave you quite alone if you want so. The killer is the language, but once you cross that Rubicon, it gets a loooooot easier. You´d be "the guiri" no matter what, but that also applies if your job is not common or your interests are peculiar being a native...My partner has a home in Avignon, France and post Covid we've been spending more time there. She lived there for 20+ years so has been doing bespoke food, wine, hiking and art tours throughout Provence in the spring and fall for mostly American clients. In about 4 years the mortgage will be paid off on that property but until then we've full time renters to cover bills/taxes etc at which time we'll have to decide (or not) the primary residence. She's got French citizenship so I could marry (again
I don't speak French well but get along pretty ok and if I keep my mouth shut and light a cigarette I pass as native. But the language barrier is there especially in formal meetings and business with the foundation I'm part of. Years later I'm still "the American" but now I'm "their American" so inroads but I'll never be fully accepted, neither will Madeleine and she's been involved with those people for decades.
It's a different, slower, more intentional life in Europe, especially in the more Latin south. The temperate climate brings down the Northern Europeans as well so even an off season market in Arles you'll be hearing lots of Brits, Germans, Dutch babbling all around you.
Sounds like you're prepared for a cultural shift as well as one to your pocket book. Definitely visit and spend time exploring any prospects. Make some native friends, that's how you'll find the "real" stuff.
OP
Astoneroad
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #58
Yes... language is the killer issue. If history is a harbinger... once crossing the Rubicon... it's best to stay out of the Senate chambers if you don't want your toga cut to pieces by the locals. I'm almost certainly leaning toward a metro area where the language limitation is mitigated. I'm ethnically Sicilian, and lived in various ethnic neighborhoods in NYC where I could blend visually and by keeping my mouth shut... not stick out. I dress like a local city dweller, look Italian/Spanish/Portuguese. I could learn transactional phrases and see if that's enough to be content... is the current evolution of this idea. Thanks for an on the ground view of rustic Spain. How did you come to know the word hillbilly? Are you from the US?
I've lived in a few places in Europe. Don't avoid learning the language, it will make a huge difference. You will always be the foreigner (and in Luxembourg, I was always amused that the great grandchildren of foreigners were still thought of as outsiders, "Oh, you know, that Turkish guy" speaking of someone 150 years removed), but it will be the difference between being an outsider and a welcome guest. You'll be amazed at how fast total immersion brings you up to a level of basic competence.
I never understood the expats who made a point of only hanging out with other expats.
