Curious if you've gone the lawyer route and they're able to cut through the kafkaesque situation you're describing? I'm considering a similar route in Portugal and while it looks like something any reasonably intelligent person could navigate on their own, I've heard more than one story similar to yours and you're clearly more savvy on this than I am. So trying to figure out the most pain free, even if not the least expensive, route. Sorry you've had to go through that, doesn't sound fun at all!
Portugal Golden Visa seems way more succesful than its Spanish counterpart, not sure whether it is only because of the better tax treatment or also easier formalities. In Spain, Madrid and Barcelona appear to be more complicated than other areas. I´ve used a lawyer for a couple of things, including tax advice, emailed the law firm yesterday about the appointment issue but didn´t get a reply yet, I doubt they can get it any faster. Fwiw I`ve also tried a gestor , who are professionals, sometimes also CPAs, who help one to navigate he Spanish administration, she claimed she could get me a short cut for some procedure, but all she managed to do was having me to wake up very early, meet her up at the local tax department, for the staff there to tell us what she had in mind wasn´t possible. There are other disgruntled testimonies about gestors and law firms, reading Blueraincap posts I doubt he will be able to share the name of a company which is particularly successful. But I´d sure go the lawyer way if a reputable name comes up. For some reason there is a bit more info online about immigration lawyers in Barcelona than Madrid. Also fwiw, and no idea how the situation is in Portugal, we know a couple in the exact same situation as us : same nationalities, husband self employed (I registered as such just to get the public health insurance for the family, private insurance is very cheap and so far so good but it has way more limitations than public insurance, hence we do need both), and we are all moving from the same city in China. They probably arrived early July, and haven´t been able yet to get internet in the house nor to buy a car. Not clear whether they managed to get a bank account, without the lawyer intervention, coming from China, I´d possibly still be without one) They paid a lawyer in Barcelona who promised to get them the residence permits within 10 working days, which sounds difficult for the Mrs, I´m curious to see how it goes. Good luck in Portugal btw, very relaxed country, I chose Spain because of a better sports school for daughter and me speaking better Spanish than Portuguese, but if not concerned about those issues, would have considered Portugal very seriously. Again, the major issue of lack of available appointment only applies to non EU citizens, and possibly only in Barcelona and Madrid, I suspect if the same issue appeared for EU citizens, who are catered to in a different office, Brussels would be all over Madrid.
Not sure how the grading is done for IB, the school emailed a couple of weeks back the only student who didn´t pass the IB this year was able to have his notes upgraded and hence got his IB, hence a 100% pass rate this year. Still wondering how serious Stem is in those schools, I´ve checked the after school sports program in ICS, it is hugely better than in their former international school in China, now wondering how many hours of PE they have, met an american family who have their kids in a bilingual school nearby, and on top of a great after school sports program, they apparently have daily 2 45mns break and 1 hour PE plus lunch break, if they also have a very serious humanities/arts program, which seems to be the case in ICS, they are probably lacking of time for Stem ( I´m not stem crazy, but do care about a strong math program)
Thanks. I'm planning on doing this post kids graduating from high school and only living there part-time, so far easier situation that you're dealing with. I was tempted with Spain because my Spanish is decent and my Portuguese non-existent, but stories like yours are balancing the scale in the other direction. Good luck!
No, I didn't get any resident thing and gave up on the idea after 1mth in spain which surprised me as a 3rd-world (probably not literally as i never lived in a 3rd world country). Things there, private and public, are just way way too slow, outdated, and inefficient, which would drive me nuts if i were to live longer. I can't imagine buying and registering a car, getting a driver license, fixing iphone kinda basic stuff. The barcy animal dept wasted 3-4 hours of my time for something that took probably 15mins and then mistakenly rejected a dog's fly-out certificate at the close (2pm!), which almost made my doggy unable to leave. She never consulted me during the process nor was I able to go inside to talk to her, but i fortunately spent another 4-hour chasing down her supervisor at the airport office to have it fixed. My impression is portugal is more or less the same in term of inefficiency and obsolescence, but just a lot smaller and a quick walk out of some algrave 'posh' areas (vilamoura etc) takes you to some rundown areas filled with pee. I naively expected Costa del Sol to be like Cote d azur (place and people), but much cheaper houses and cost of living, unfortunatey economics 101 came back to hit me
July 2019 has been a record breaking month for Portugal's Golden Visaprogramme, generating a staggering €98,300,000 worth of investment in just over 4 weeks! To date, the programme has raised over €4.7 billion worth of investment since it began in 2012! In 2019 alone, there has already been a total of €470.5 million invested in seven months. The Portuguese Golden Visa programme has been a popular choice for our customers since the programme began and the figures above are a great reflection of this. Did you know you can gain residency in Portugal by investing just €350,000 in real estate as opposed to €500,000? La Vida specialises in the Reduced Golden Visa programme and has a number of qualifying projects.
South London is the best place to trade. 1m can get you a decent detached house with an okay backyard. Easy access to central london. South London is known for safety and food
Spain and Portugal have programs that make it relatively easy to "buy" residency and eventually citizenship and having an EU passport makes all of Europe a lot easier. U.K. doesn't have the program, soon won't have the EU, and is only relatively inexpensive for an American now because it's a shitshow.
I was interested in spain because of its easy EU residency by money, but I realised it is 'easy' and cheap for reasons. Also, it takes 10 years to get the passport. Portugal is too isolated and cold, even algrave is cold outside of summer. Was initially attracted to Spain's low cost of living, sunshine, food, girls, spanish language, etc, but just couldn't take things there. I felt like living in the 70s after being used to modern way of life.
I ll comment more later, sometimes in agreement, but you really have a weird perspective on things if u feel Portugal is cold. Afaik Lisbon has the warmest winter of all capital cities in Europe, with Athens probably very near, quite a bit warmer than Madrid in winter. Edit: can t manage to paste the link from this mobile, but check the Lisbon wikipedia climate entry, claiming that Portugal is cold in a discussion mostly about Europe is for the very least odd