Until day 10 of this month, as a non-European, you can enter the continent and stay, live, or work here with a visa. It doesn’t matter which country or border; Europe is one, isn’t it? We Europeans don’t need this.
Entering Portugal is easy with the D7 visa
You can apply to be eligible for this visa via the consulate or embassy in your own country. You must meet a few requirements: demonstrably have a passive income through, for example, investments, rentals, freelance work, or working from home. At least 870 euros per month. So, you must be able to support yourself, and spend foreign-earned money in your new country. You may not have a criminal record, but you must have health insurance and a portuguese bank account.
It doesn’t mention that you need a NIF (Número de Identificação Fiscal – TIN: tax identification number) for this, but you will find that out eventually when you go through the bureaucratic process of opening an bank account. A surprise for future D7 visa holders is the fact that every resident in Portugal falls under the national healthcare system, and is therefore assured of care, certainly in urgent cases.
It sounds great, but in practice it means long waiting times, except in the case of emergencies, such as a chopped finger, a fall down the stairs, or a heart attack. Just to name a few. And most portuguese GPs love prescribing antibiotics. I, on the other hand, am not so fond of that.
But I’m digressing. Let’s stay focused for a moment – apparently a lot of Americans are coming to Europe. More than ever. Perhaps not so strange, if you have Dr. Strangelove as a leader. Perhaps as a result of this, the European Union has devised a different entry system.
The EntryExitSystem – EES
As soon as you enter anywhere, you’ll be photographed, your fingerprints will be taken, and you’re digitally tracked. That all happens within the EES, which all Schengen countries can make use of. This is important for, for example, D7 visa holders, who are currently enjoying their residency status. 90 days is 90 days, down to the second. The system is not to be trifled with. A change of attitude, says the YouTube video where I saw this information, from hospitality to control.
One of my nephews traveled the world in his twenties
First to Australia, a popular destination for young people at the time, and stayed there a teeny tiny bit longer than he was actually allowed. Just a quick trip to Thailand for a few weeks, and then back again. No problem. Same thing on Aruba. He gave kitesurfing lessons there. Really cool.
He was a bit worried that things would go well, because he had stretched his stay out quite a teeny teeny tiny tiny bit (well… if your kitesurfing lessons go down well with wealthy Americans, and you’re having a good time, and you’ve just run into the future mother of your children – needs must and all that, right?) but everything went perfectly fine, because the customs officer was a friendly Aruban and not a whiner who would complain about a few extra months.
Nothing to stamp anymore
That has certainly changed in the meantime! Australia has become a lot stricter, and even in the relaxed climate of Aruba, people are paying closer attention these days. A worldwide trend that Europe is now joining in on as well.
Should my great-nephews turn out to be just as adventurous as their father and mother, and want to travel the world, then they really need to keep a close eye on their calendars. (It’ll take a while, because they are only 5 and 3.) Anyways, they can always come visit their old great-aunt in Portugal.
Let’s hope that within Europe you can at least still continue to travel without being digitally tracked!
(That they invent something like an IEEES – Internal European Entry Exit System)
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#D7visa #EES #kitesurf )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.