Our Visas Were Approved!

TL;DR: On Monday morning we both got a very vague email from the Portuguese consulate that our visas have been approved!

It took about 9 weeks for the approval to come through, and I really wasn’t even freaking out about it yet! I told myself I wouldn’t really freak out until October 15th!

I’m amazed! Everything I’ve read and everyone I talked to, including our visa team, was telling me that everything was really slowed down with the influx of applications they were getting, and that we could expect not to hear until the end of October, a full three months after our interview.

And that would have been really hard, with our lovely subletter Hannah moving in at the end of October, having to shuffle animals around, with no real answers!

And as much as everyone kept saying that it was only a matter of paperwork, I was still really nervous about the Portuguese government approving me based on the income I make from my knitting jobs.

Continuing from my newsletter? Start reading here!

But, without even any follow up questions or clarifying questions, they said yes! They believe that I can live in Portugal, and support Shane, based on the income I make here at allysondykhuizen.com, and from LauraAllyson.Party, and the retreats and classes we run at lauraallyson.com.

Even just typing that out forced me to take a moment and let that register!

It’s not imposter syndrome because I know I’m good at my job, and it’s not that I don’t know I’m successful because I see knitters knitting well and calculating out their measurements and gauge and modifying patterns so I know that I successfully teach and have successfully built our community and successfully host retreats. I guess it’s the value of it all that is hard for me to believe! When I started teaching knitting for money back in like… 2007? That was when the idea of this “microbusiness” was really popular, and my goal was to run a sustainable microbusiness - very low overhead and enough money to sustain.

So this scaling I’ve been able to do is amazing! And this growth I’ve had is amazing. And obviously being able to teach virtually has lead me to where I am now, and that was never part of any original business goal! Being able to partner with Laura and build LauraAllyson.Party was also never part of any original business goal!

So! This approval has forced me to take a look at where I’m at professionally and be really proud of myself! I’ve been able to pivot and grow when pivoting and growth were necessary for survival, and it’s all brought me to this new adventure in Portugal!

And thank you for helping me! For being part of this, taking my classes, telling your friend about my classes, being on my newsletter, liking and commenting on my posts, being a member of LauraAllyson.Party! All of it! Thank you.

More soon!