Portugal Visa Update
Hello from a snowy Michigan!
Last Wednesday VERY early I left Porto for the first time in over 3 months headed to Berrien Springs, Michigan, to host a couple knitting retreats with Laura Allyson. Almost a year ago we scheduled 4 retreats back to back to back to back hoping to maximize my flight from Portugal, from February 19th - March 16th.
Once I started finalizing the dates of my move I realized the timing wouldn’t work out.
When you get approved for a digital nomad visa, like I did in November, you get a 4 month visa ahead of a AIMA appointment to be scheduled at a later date in Portugal where you will then get a 2 year visa. You are completely at the mercy of AIMA when that appointment will be! And Portugal was in the middle of switching over immigration systems, so for like 6 months it was completely up in the air what was going to happen when.
When I got my first 4 month visa it expired on March 9th, which meant that I needed to be back in Portugal before it expired, so Laura and I planned on me not being able to work that 4th retreat weekend, so she decided to host a retreat with the yarn store she works for, Evanston Stitchworks.
Once I got to Portugal back in November I applied for our AIMA appointment, and a couple of weeks later we got assigned an appointment for Friday February 27th, the Friday our second of three remaining retreats starts.
So for a couple of months I went back and forth with our immigration team to try to get it moved because that was basically the ONLY time the appointment couldn’t be! But in early February we were told that we either make that appointment or it would be rescheduled for July or August at the earliest, meaning our first visa would be expired, we would not have another visa so we would be unable to travel outside of Portugal until we had our AIMA appointment. With Shane’s cancer recovery, I was really nervous for us to be unable to travel in case he needed to get to his care team in the US, so I took like 24 hrs to wrap my head around it and started making arrangements.
My travel schedule therefore is:
Wed Feb 18: Porto → Berrien Springs
Wed Feb 25: Berrien Springs →
Thurs Feb 26: → Land in Porto
Fri Feb 27: Bus to Lisbon → AIMA appointment → bus to Porto
Sun March 1: Porto → Berrien Springs
???: Berrien Springs → Porto
BUT it already got fucked up because I got stuck in Frankfurt, Germany overnight so I didn’t get to Berrien Springs until Thursday at like 11pm. And I’m just REALLY hoping that that is the only part of this plan to get fucked up! I don’t have room to get delayed again without jeopardizing a retreat or my AIMA appointment.
ON TOP OF THE FACT that I wasn’t really planning on needing to work on what I needed to present at this AIMA appointment until like 2 weeks ago, so I’ve been scrambling to collect all my paperwork to prove that Shane and I are upstanding, responsible new residence. WHEW! As of this very morning I feel like I’ve got everything together. NBD.
If you can spare some good thoughts please send one my way! This all feels like a house of cards.
On top of the fact that this AIMA situation feels precarious - the woman who is going to go with us to help with the appointment said, “The worst thing that can happen is that they will just reschedule you!” - um WHAT?? Sometimes their system is just down NBD. So… I could drive 2 hrs from Berrien Springs to Chicago, fly like 15 hrs to Porto (no direct fly from Porto to Chicago!), bus 3 hrs to Lisbon, just to have the system be down and turn around to do it again to get back to Berrien Springs with a visa expiring on March 9th. That would really be a hard pill to swallow!
But I’ve never had less control over the situation. Like Laura says, I’m just going to ride the wave and hope it all works out; no 24 hr unexpected layovers in Frankfurt, or Amsterdam, no systems down, no bus issues, etc etc etc.
I’ll keep you posted! PRAY FOR ME lol
