I’ll go into more detail about specific steps later, if people are interested but here is a short summary of how we left the life we had in Las Vegas to move to Portugal, site unseen.

So we knew it was going to take a lot of work to make this move happen. I had moved from a small town in New Mexico to Miami when I was 18 for college, and then to Las Vegas at 21. I figured I could definitely handle a new country in my 30’s. My husband had been in the military and moved around a lot as a child, so he also was used to moving. But there were the specifics. We had a house, should we sell? We had jobs that we couldn’t do remotely, and even if we could, we didn’t want to. We had debt so how would that work? What about all our stuff, we were basically hoarders. So many questions! 

The world began to open back up, a little at a time and at the end of July, I caught covid. I had no idea how, I had been pretty careful and barely left my house. But it sucked. Bad. Luckily I didn’t have to get hospitalized but this would end up being a long, hard road with the countless after-effects. I had so many issues with my health, who knew that it would permanently change me. Long haulers is rough, especially since it is such a new virus and no one knew definitively what was happening or why. I went from living an active life, lifting weights 5 days a week to barely being able to stand for more than 5 minutes or take our dog Bodhi out for a walk. 

Work opened up and I reluctantly returned. After my first night back I knew that I definitely needed to get out. I already was unhappy at my job and my health issues just made it so much worse. My job required standing my entire shift,  I barely made it 3 hours my first night, there was no way I could continue this. I took a leave of absence soon after. 

Being off work was great in the sense that I could focus on getting this move done but it also came with problems. It killed us financially so it was going to be even harder. Additionally, I just wasn’t well. I was going from doctor to doctor and undergoing countless tests and getting no answers. The doctor bills were expensive and I had no income. But again, this just showed us that we needed to get away. We knew we literally couldn’t continue to afford to live in America if my health issues continued.  

One of the many tests I had to do to figure out what was going on with me after covid

So step 1 was starting to get rid of what we could and not buy anything new unless absolutely necessary. I started selling on Poshmark, Marketplace and Offerup. We had garage and estate sales. I donated things and gave away stuff to friends and family. I spent a good chunk of the 2 years getting rid of as much stuff as possible. I also had to work on not buying unnecessary items. Every time I wanted to buy something I would think “Is this going to get packed up to take with me?”

Meanwhile I researched. Lots of research. Luckily I found some groups on Facebook filled with people who had done this or were planning to, and they were filled with information! Apparently Portugal was the new trend and it seemed like the whole world was moving there. The info I got from the Americans and Friends PT group was invaluable. If you are considering the move to Portugal, I highly recommend joining this group.

This whole process became overwhelming. I felt like for 2 years, all I could think of was Portugal, Portugal, Portugal. I was excited but it was also going to take a lot of work. We had to get D7 visas, and to get the visas we needed to do A LOT of paperwork, get a bank account, find an apartment, get an appointment to apply for the visa in San Francisco. We weren’t even sure what part of the country we wanted to live in yet!

We decided our only choice of making this happen would be to sell our house. I loved our house. We had so many great memories there, it was our dream house. We contemplated renting it out but that would just leave so many possible problems and since I was out of work, I hadn’t been able to save what I had originally intended. So it was sell or give up this dream. 

We settled on the Algarve for our new home. Pictures showed stunning beaches and the weather looked great. I need sunshine and not a lot of gloom and we read that the climate was similar to San Diego. We found a realtor and he was able to find us an apartment in Tavira! 

The beach in Lagos, Portugal. How can you not want to live near here!

We quit our jobs in May. We packed up our house, spent the last few weeks with friends and wrapping up our final Vegas bucket-list, and finally said goodbye June 30th of 2022. It was such a bittersweet time, we were leaving friends that had become family and the lives we had for 16 years but heading on to do something incredible. We had submitted our D7 Visa applications the week prior and decided to spend the couple of months waiting time visiting friends and family and doing a road trip across the states to Miami where we would fly out to Lisbon. 

June 30th, Good-bye Las Vegas