How We Moved from Las Vegas to Portugal: Our Story

Moving from the US to Portugal

People always ask us how we did it. How did two people in their 30s, with a house, jobs, debt, two pets, and absolutely no retirement savings go about moving from the US to Portugal? The honest answer is that it took about two years of planning, a whole lot of letting go, and one life changing health crisis that made staying feel scarier than leaving.

We are not wealthy or retired. We are just two people who decided they wanted something different and figured out how to make it happen.This is our story.

What We Had to Figure Out Before Moving from the US to Portugal

Moving across the world sounds romantic until you actually start making the list of everything standing between you and the dream. We had a house, jobs we couldn’t do remotely and honestly didn’t want to, a mountain of debt, and a truly embarrassing amount of accumulated stuff. And we had absolutely no idea what part of Portugal we even wanted to live in.

I had made big moves a couple time before actually. I left my small town in New Mexico at 18 for college in Miami, and then again at 21 for Las Vegas. My husband had grown up moving around and then joined the military at 18. We both knew we could handle a fresh start. But this was a different level entirely. This wasn’t a new city, this was a new country, a new language, a new everything, and we were going to have to figure out a lot of details before we could make it happen.

So we started making a plan.

Then Long Covid Changed Everything

At the end of July 2020, I caught covid. We had been careful, barely leaving the house, and I still have no idea how I got it. I didn’t have to be hospitalized but what followed was one of the hardest periods of my life.

I became a long hauler. If you want the full story of what that journey looked like, read about it here. But the short version is this: the effects of covid don’t go away after the initial infection. The symptoms linger, sometimes for months, sometimes longer, and they can be completely debilitating. I went from lifting weights five days a week, living an active life to barely being able to stand for more than five minutes. Taking Bodhi for a walk became a major undertaking. I was going from doctor to doctor, undergoing test after test, and getting no real answers. The medical bills were piling up and I had no income.

Returning to Work with Long Covid

When work finally reopened I tried to go back. After my first shift I knew it wasn’t going to work. My job required being on my feet for 8 hours. I barely made it three hours before I had to stop. I took a leave of absence shortly after.

As hard as that time was, it clarified everything. We literally could not afford to stay in America if my health issues continued. The cost of healthcare is just way too high, even with insurance. The cost of living is insane. And the financial pressure of being sick without a safety net, it all pointed in the same direction. We needed to go. Not someday. Soon.

Long covid is no joke, and I want to be honest about how it affected our lives. And our decision to leave. It is still something I manage today. Luckily, swapping the stress of Vegas life for the slower pace of southern Portugal has made a world of difference.

The Research Phase: Planning Our Move from the US to Portugal

While I was recovering and we were figuring out our finances, I started doing two things simultaneously: getting rid of everything we owned and researching the heck out of Portugal.

The decluttering process took the better part of two years. I sold clothes and accessories on Poshmark, furniture and household items on Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. We had garage sales, estate sales, and many trips to donation centers. I gave things away to friends and family. Every time I was tempted to shop, I would ask myself: is this going to get packed up and taken to Portugal? It was a surprisingly effective filter.

On the research side, I got lucky early on by finding some incredibly helpful Facebook groups, particularly Americans and Friends PT. This group is filled with people who have either already made the move or are planning to. If you are considering moving to Portugal I cannot recommend joining this group enough. The information in there is invaluable and the people are genuinely helpful.

It became clear pretty quickly that Portugal was having a moment. It felt like the whole world was moving there, which meant there was a lot of information available but also a lot to sift through. We learned about the D7 visa, which is the visa we would need as non-retired, non-remote workers. The paperwork requirements alone were enough to make your head spin. We needed a Portuguese bank account, proof of income, an address in Portugal, and an appointment at the consulate in San Francisco just to apply. And we hadn’t even decided where in Portugal we wanted to live yet.

Choosing the Algarve: How We Found Our New Home

With so much of Portugal to choose from we had to narrow it down. The Algarve kept rising to the top of the list. The photos alone were enough to make anyone want to pack their bags immediately, stunning beaches, whitewashed buildings, golden cliffs. But beyond the aesthetics, the climate was a huge factor for me. I need sunshine. I do not do well with grey skies and gloom, and everything we read said the Algarve’s climate was similar to San Diego. That sealed it.

We connected with a local realtor who understood what we were looking for and he found us an apartment in Tavira, a beautiful historic town in the eastern Algarve. Even though we had never set foot in Portugal and had never seen the apartment in person, we signed the lease anyway. When people say we moved here sight unseen, we really mean it.

Looking back it was a leap of faith but honestly one of the best decisions we have ever made. Tavira turned out to be the perfect place to land. But more on that in a future post!

The Final Countdown: Quitting, Selling, and Saying Goodbye

In the spring of 2022 we made it official. We listed the house. I loved that house, we had so many incredible memories there and it genuinely felt like our dream home. We had considered renting it out but between the potential headaches of being long distance landlords and the fact that I had been out of work, we needed the equity to make this whole thing work. Selling it was the right call even if it was hard.

We quit our jobs in May. We spent the last few weeks packing up our lives, checking off our Las Vegas bucket list, and soaking up as much time as possible with the friends who had become family over 16 years. Finally, we submitted our D7 visa applications the week before we left.

On June 30th, 2022 we said goodbye to Las Vegas.

It was bittersweet in the most real sense of the word. We were leaving behind a life we had built, people we loved, and a city that had been home for a long time. But we were also driving away toward something we had been dreaming about and working toward for two years. We did a road trip across the country to Miami, spent time with friends and family along the way, and eventually boarded a flight to Lisbon.

Just like that, we were doing it. We were moving to Portugal!

Was Moving From the US to Portugal Worth It?

After actually living in the Algarve, I can tell you without hesitation: absolutely yes.

It was not easy to get here, it took two years of planning, decluttering, researching, saving, and letting go of a lot of things we thought we needed. We had to sell our dream house and walking away from stable careers and a city we had called home for over a decade. It took navigating a visa process that is genuinely not for the faint of heart, and doing all of it while I was dealing with a health crisis that turned our timeline from “someday” into “we have to do this now.”

But we did it. And if you are sitting there wondering if it is possible to make a move like this without being wealthy or retired, the answer is yes. It just takes a plan, a lot of patience, and the willingness to bet on yourself.

I will be going into much more detail about the specific steps we took, the D7 visa process, finding housing, moving with pets, and what those first few months actually looked like in future posts. So if you are considering moving from the US to Portugal, stick around. I have a lot to share.

And if you have any questions at all, drop them in the comments below. I love hearing from people who are on this journey!

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Follow me on Instagram @vegas.to.portugal for more of what my life is like as an expat in Portugal, my travels around Europe, and my gluten free food adventures. For a more unfiltered look at daily life abroad, come find me on TikTok @expat.in.portugal! And if you are new here, take a look around the blog. There is plenty more where this came from!