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Portugal D7 Visa Application:

Our Interview at VFS NYC

Dustin had his VFS NYC application interview on Wednesday, April 21. Our original plan (one widely used by many families pre-COVID era) was to have only my husband apply for the Portugal D7 residency visa. Once approved, the rest of the family would travel with him to Portugal and apply for D6 residency visas (family reunification) once in the country.

Portugal law does not allow families to be separated when entering the country, so an apostilled marriage certificate and apostilled birth certificates would usually suffice to allow entry for spouses and children of residents (a D7 holder is legally considered a resident).

As soon as my husband’s agent saw that he had a wife and two kids, she promptly asked where we were and why we weren’t there to apply as well. When he explained our family reunification plan, she swiftly kicked that plan to the curb stating that, as of April 9 (less than two weeks prior to his appointment) she had received an email from the Consulate General of Portugal in New York requiring ALL family members to apply for individual visas. WHAT?!?! 🤯

This was not the plan, and yet, somewhere in the back of my head, I had been prepared to hear this. Maybe it was my cynicism rearing its ugly head, but I had at one point planned to have complete packets at the ready just in case this happened. Unfortunately, as the deadline drew closer and we were barely able to get my husband’s application together, I gave up the notion of having four complete applications prepared and hoped for the best. You can imagine how “lazy” I felt once I found out that we would indeed all need application packets. If only I had sucked it up and made that extra effort? Eh, it wouldn’t have mattered because we would have all needed to be present at the interview to submit applications and seeing as one kid was home sick with me, the other at daycare, and the fact that we live in Brooklyn, a 45-minute (at best) commute from the VFS offices, it was a pointless moment of self-loathing.

Anyway, back to Dustin’s interview…

The agent said she would accept his application, but that my kids and I would need to make appointments and submit our applications as well. AND, the kids would need to be present! So, two kids, mountains of carefully curated paperwork, and bureaucratic hoops—what could go wrong? After recovering from this bureaucratic blow, my husband did continue the appointment and successfully submitted his application.

Essentially, he walked up to an agent, DMV-style, and handed over the required documentation one piece at a time. The agent then asked if there was anything else he’d like to add and he still had an entire stack of paper in his hands! 🤣

Portugal D7 Visa Application:

What exactly did we submit? Keep reading to find out.

I had everything neatly separated and in the correct order in a binder, prepared in a way that would make it as easy as possible for my husband to submit each piece of the puzzle as needed. When our lawyer suggested no binders, folders, staples, paperclips, fuss, or muss of any kind, which was corroborated by several recent applicants, my Type A brain had a hard time imagining handing over a stack of 100 sheets of paper with no explanation or visual organization. I can’t trust VFS to tell me what time of day it is, much less make sense of a pile of papers that all look the same. So we compromised. The extra copies of each document stayed in order in the binder, and we labeled all the pieces with post-it notes and stacked them neatly in a pile with no other separation.

Of course, it depends on which office/consulate you apply through, which intake agent you get, and what phase the moon is in, but the safe bet is to have everything organized in a way that you can hand over documents as requested without anything that is going to annoy or slow down the agent. Some agents may ask for the complete stack, but my husband’s agent asked for things one at a time, so it was a good thing there was some way to differentiate all those 8.5x11s.

I was able to book appointments for the kids and myself only five days after Dustin’s appointment, thank goodness. So, hopefully, all our applications will eventually sync up and we’ll be approved at the same time. After my appointment with the same agent, I found removing the Post-its annoying and would have preferred to remove the items one by one from the impeccably organized binder I’d originally prepared. How do you say “c'est la vie” in Portuguese? 🤣

And now on to the documents…

Portugal D7 Visa Application:

Our Documents

Passport & Photos

We opted to keep our passports in hand and drop them off to have the visa inserted once approved. We also used American-sized passport photos and the agent trimmed them to the European size. She glued one to the application form and paperclipped one to her official checklist.

Official Application Form

Our lawyer helped us fill out the Portuguese version of this, but I’m fairly sure most VFS offices and consulates are accepting the English version.

PRO TIP:
Don’t forget to sign and date the bottom of both pages 2 & 3!

Personal Statement

Our lawyer helped us compose this in Portuguese. It outlined key details, including Portuguese NIF and passport numbers, professional and education details, the type of visa applying for, a bit of work history highlighting global companies we’ve worked with, the fact that we are able to work globally from anywhere due to the nature of our jobs, our gross joint income from our 2020 tax return, how much money we have in our Portuguese bank account, how much we bring in from passive rental income, the date of intended arrival in Portugal and NIF and passport numbers of the other family members, the address and key details of our rental contract, where the kids are enrolled in school for 2021/2022, the type of health insurance we’ve secured, a short synopsis of our personal reasons for wanting to move to Portugal, and a mention of our personal reference from Portugal (an American friend who has lived in Lisbon for two years).

Notarized Color Copy of Passport

The kids and I got these done at the NY County Clerk when we were there to get their birth certificates certified. My husband got his done by a local UPS Store Notary. We included a signed affidavit that stated that the color copy was a photocopy of the passport in our possession. This seemed unnecessary, but I had my husband follow what the county clerk provided for us just in case.

Apostilled Marriage Certificate

They did not include this with my husband’s application, but they did include in mine and the kids’ applications. They photocopied the apostilled document and gave me the original back to keep.

>> Learn how to request an apostille on state and federal documents. <<

Apostilled Birth Certificates

These were included in the kids’ applications. They were a pain in the a** to get (as NYC-born babes), but I was glad I was able to get them in time for our appointments.

>> Learn how to request an apostille on state and federal documents. <<

NIF Document

When you obtain your NIF, you’ll get a 2-page document. The second page is mostly blank, but we included both pages to be safe.

Financial Support Documents

This section will look a little different for each applicant, but essentially, you’ll include your Portuguese bank statement, domestic bank statements, investment account statements, passive and rental income proof, employment income proof, and anything else that tells your financial story and outlines your ability to support yourself while living in Portugal.

PRO TIP:
Highlight important names, numbers, and dates to make it easier for VFS, the consulate, and the Portuguese immigration authorities to find what they’re looking for quickly.

Portuguese Bank Statement

We emailed ATLANTICO to requested a balance statement two days before our appointment and asked that it include both our names (we’re both account holders), the current balance, and the date. Then we asked that the document be signed and stamped as official. They happily obliged, but when we received the document it only had my name on it. After another request to have both our names, we received another document with only my name. So, we had to have our lawyer go to the bank to make our request, and they told her they can only include one account holder’s name on the statement, so she instructed them to put my husband’s name, et voilà!

PRO TIP:
If you plan to have a joint account, make sure the primary visa applicant is the primary holder of the bank account. My inadvertent attempt to shirk the patriarchy made this step a lot more complicated than it needed to be! 🤣

Credit Card Limit Statements

Our lawyer suggested we provide statements that showed our credit limits/balances on our credit cards. It made sense, considering that on the official application one option on the section that asks how you will support yourself during your time in Portugal is a credit card. We called the banks and requested letters, rather than submitting statements. They did provide the letters, although we decided not to include them. We have them if needed in the future.

Domestic Bank Statements

We included statements that spanned the last three calendar months. We submitted the summaries only and highlighted the total account value and deposits only.

PRO TIP:
Make sure the statements you provide actually cover the most recent three months. Some statements are issued mid-month, so you may need to actually provide four statements that cover the three-month period.

Investment Account Statements

We have two investment portfolios. One with TD Ameritrade and several accounts within Betterment.

For TD Ameritrade, we contacted them and asked for an equity balance statement that included both our names. They were happy to provide it and it was emailed the same day. Why not a statement? Well, in all honesty, we didn’t care to show them the details of our account, only what the account is worth.

For Betterment, we provided the summary portion of the last three months of statements for all our accounts—Dustin’s personal, my personal, and our joint investment account.

Proof of Employment

While I did provide our tax returns as a means of showing my earnings, I did not provide detailed pay stubs or a current work contract (mostly because I’m freelance and currently unemployed—ahem—between gigs 🤣) since Dustin’s income is enough to cover our family.

Dustin provided his current work contract (he’s also self-employed and works on a project-to-project basis), pay stubs for the last three months for that project, two letters from supervisors on his current project stating he would continue his project remotely in Portugal (very important!), and invoices/payment records for additional completed side projects during the last three months.

PRO TIP:
Make sure to include a letter from your employer stating specifically that you can perform your job from Portugal.

2019 & 2020 Tax Returns

We included the first two pages of our last two tax returns and highlighted the “Total Income Earned” number on both. Our lawyer only suggested submitting our 2020 return, but since it was a “COVID” year and our income was a bit lower, we decided to submit 2019 as well to show what a more normal year looks like.

Proof of Rental Income

We provided the current rental agreement for our tenant and the last two years’ 1099 income forms to show that the property will be rented for the next year and how much money we earned from the property over the last two years.

If you have a property that you rent short-term, like on Airbnb, etc., you can provide your Earnings Income Statement.

PRO TIP:
All you need to show is your gross earnings. There is no need to show net earnings after costs. Show the money coming in, not out!

Employment Reference Letters

Because Dustin’s work is project-based and not necessarily long-term employment, he solicited letters from several past employers stating that they planned to hire him for projects from Portugal. This was not required, but given the nature of his work, we thought it might help shore up the picture of his employment/financial future. In the end, he only included the letters from his current employers, but we have these in our back pocket if needed in the future.

Health Insurance Policy

Our plan is to secure private Portuguese health insurance once we are in country, but to satisfy the visa requirements, we bought an inexpensive 6-month policy through Trawick International (via Squaremouth). We went with the Safe Travels Voyager plan, and for the whole family for 180 days of coverage that meets and exceeds the visa requirements, we paid approximately $320 total. They provide you with a visa letter immediately after purchase, and this is what we submitted in our application.

PRO TIP:
When inputting details for the Safe Travels Voyager plan, make sure your dates are 180 days or less and that you deselect trip coverage. If you go over 180 days and have trip coverage selected, the price will be much, much higher.

Proof of Accommodation

We secured a 1-year furnished rental in our desired location. And we were lucky to be able to start that lease very close to the time we should actually arrive. So, we submitted the full lease signed by both parties as proof of long-term accommodation.

Unfortunately, the lease technically starts after our planned date of arrival. So, to satisfy the immigration authority, we also secured short-term accommodation through Booking.com to cover the time between our arrival and when our long-term lease begins and submitted proof of that reservation.

FBI Background Check

Fortunately, I repeated to myself 1,482,629 times, “DO NOT OPEN THE FBI ENVELOPE!” And luckily it worked. I shoved the sealed envelopes away in a safe location so that I wouldn’t forget or be tempted to open them. I also sent the electronic versions to be apostilled, but have yet to receive them back.

Unfortunately, VFS NYC is requiring the apostille (or at least proof that it has been requested). We submitted the sealed envelope, the cover letter, form, and tracking info for the apostille request and are crossing our fingers this will suffice.

PRO TIP:
Our agent asked if we had proof of the check written for the apostille request. We did not take a picture and we don’t use carbon copies, so this is not something we could provide. I’d suggest taking a picture of the check or saving the carbon copy if you have it and submitting that if you have not received the apostilled FBI report before your appointment.

Portuguese Criminal Record Check

We printed out the form and filled it out with the help of Google Translate. Surprisingly, our agent made us fill this out for the kids’ applications as well. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Proof of Kids’ School Enrollment

We requested a letter for each of our children from the school we enrolled them in after officially enrolling. They were happy to oblige and even provided an English and Portuguese translation. It was on official letterhead, signed by the head of admissions, and scanned and emailed. The VFS agent included these in the kids’ applications only.

Kids’ College Funds

In the kids’ applications, we included balance statements of both of their 529 college savings funds. It was not requested, but we thought it would look good, especially since we’re sending them to private school.

That’s all folks! Now we wait…

All in all, minus the surprise of having to submit individual applications for each family member, the application appointments went as smoothly as one could hope. We felt prepared, and after leaving, we felt like we gave them everything they need and more to allow us to live in their beautiful country.

Unfortunately, VFS NYC approvals are coming back much slower than the SF and DC offices. I have heard some success stories out of NYC with approvals under two months, but on average visa approvals are taking 3-4 months. So now we wait and prepare for living abroad, and try to be Portuguese about it, while we purge all our worldly possessions so we don’t have to ship our household items to Portugal and figure out how many stuffed animals we can fit in 12 checked bags. 😆

Move to Portugal