Best Places In The World To Retire

The word I would use to describe what it’s like to live in the Chapala area is “quiet.” I have my business and I spend most of my time here. I grew up in Chapala so my friends are here. Guadalajara is an hour away and has everything you find in any large city, great opera, theaters, art shows, and international standard shopping and restaurants.

 

Overall, living on the lake is very quiet. There are many varied and well-run clubs. The...

The word I would use to describe what it’s like to live in the Chapala area is “quiet.” I have my business and I spend most of my time here. I grew up in Chapala so my friends are here. Guadalajara is an hour away and has everything you find in any large city, great opera, theaters, art shows, and international standard shopping and restaurants.

 

Overall, living on the lake is very quiet. There are many varied and well-run clubs. The American Legion, French society, quilters club, writers club, bridge club, art classes, garden club, culinary society swimming classes, spas, horseback riding, golf, and those are only a few. If you want to get involved in a charity there are many who will gladly welcome your support.

 

The Lake Chapala Society is a good starting point for any new person arriving to town. They are a vibrant expat community club and there are always people around happy to share information or direct you to someone who can. They also have a library.

You can’t get bored here unless you try very hard!

 

(Embroidery classes offered at the Lake Chapala Society, Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)

When renting a house or apartment in Nicaragua, first, you need to establish a budget. Secondly, you need to determine how many people will live in the house or apartment. Third, you have to decide whether you will live within the inner circle or the outskirts of the city. The closer you are to the city, the more expensive the rent. Then you ask a credible real estate agent to take you to see the houses. That is part of our company’s service. We do not charge our clients for...

When renting a house or apartment in Nicaragua, first, you need to establish a budget. Secondly, you need to determine how many people will live in the house or apartment. Third, you have to decide whether you will live within the inner circle or the outskirts of the city. The closer you are to the city, the more expensive the rent. Then you ask a credible real estate agent to take you to see the houses. That is part of our company’s service. We do not charge our clients for showing them around. Recommending places to live is part of our job and service to foreigners.

It is better for an expat to go to an agent than going online and looking for a house or apartment to rent on his own because owners of the house prefer foreigners who come with a real estate agent. As for the real estate agent, they have to get to know their foreign clients first before recommending them to a landowner. Any expat can disappear the next day. It happens. They rent the house and then the next day, they are out.

If you come with me and I take you to a house, I can speak with the owner on your behalf.  If, on the contrary, you come on your own to speak with the owner and declare that you are from the United States and are going to rent for a year, the landowners are not sure if you’re going to stay that long.  I recommend that you go with us and we will help you look for an owner. Our services are free.  Also, it would cost you more for your rental if you go on your own.   On the contrary, we can make arrangements and ask for discounts or rebates or whatever you need to take the price down.

Nicaraguans see foreigners as having big fat wallets, so why should they give you discounts? But if you send me with my big mouth and my knowledge, I will speak on your behalf and I will look for an owner willing to rent to you for a price that you have in mind. That’s the difference. We can negotiate from a better position because we know our local culture and sometimes, we know the owner personally. We have friends who have houses for rent, so we can just call our friends and get you a place to stay.
 
We also have a reputation to uphold to two different parties. We have a reputation to uphold to the landlord because we don’t want the landlord to think that we’re bringing them bad renters. We also have a reputation to uphold to the clients to make sure that we get them a good deal because we want to stay in business.

And if our clients are satisfied, they will talk to their friends and recommend us to them. They will call us the next time they are in Nicaragua. We make sure that both parties are happy and satisfied with our business.

 

(Outside of apartment for rent in Pinares de Santo Domingo, pictured.)

Some months ago there were so many mosquitoes, more than I had ever seen and they were relentless. People who lived on the island for years said it was unusual and had something to do with the winds. While that was unusual, what is typical is that there are hardly any mosquitoes during the day, but a few out just after sun set for an hour or so and then they are gone. They mosquitoes also tend to be more prevalent in the rainy season.

Some months ago there were so many mosquitoes, more than I had ever seen and they were relentless. People who lived on the island for years said it was unusual and had something to do with the winds. While that was unusual, what is typical is that there are hardly any mosquitoes during the day, but a few out just after sun set for an hour or so and then they are gone. They mosquitoes also tend to be more prevalent in the rainy season.

Portugal has an agreement with the US under the Visa Waiver Program. Each stay of less than 3 months does not require a visa for American citizens. Americans can stay and visit the country of Portugal up to 3 months without having to request a visa. They can simply arrive, stay, and depart again. For stays longer than 3 months or if the objective is not come and visit but to actually come and live here permanently, Americans have to apply for a separate type of visa that has to be...

Portugal has an agreement with the US under the Visa Waiver Program. Each stay of less than 3 months does not require a visa for American citizens. Americans can stay and visit the country of Portugal up to 3 months without having to request a visa. They can simply arrive, stay, and depart again. For stays longer than 3 months or if the objective is not come and visit but to actually come and live here permanently, Americans have to apply for a separate type of visa that has to be done at a Portuguese consulate in your area, which on the West Coast would be San Francisco, and on the East Coast would be Washington, DC. If you are applying for a resident visa, you need to apply at a local consulate and you may then be requested to attend an interview in Washington before you are granted your permanent visa, which then entitles you to come and move into Portugal.  In summary, you don’t need a visa if you are staying in Portugal for less than 3 months. If it is more than 3 months or if you intend to come and live here permanently, then you need to apply for a visa at your local consulate. 

 

If you are coming to Portugal to work, you have to apply for a working visa, which is very much like when you are going to work in the US. We also have a special type of visa called the Golden Visa, which allows you to buy permanent residence in Portugal by buying or spending € 500,000 (US $ 550,000 or £ 370,000) on real estate or € 350,000 (US $ 385,000 or £ 260,000) on real estate if it is in a rehabilitation zone of a main city. The Golden Visa is like an EB-5 Visa in the US, in that it allows you to get residence in Portugal automatically through an investment route. 

 

As far as your initial application is concerned, my understanding is that you can do the initial application via email and sending the initial documents to your regional consulate. They can deal with your application via electronic means, but for the interview, you have to be physically present. The interview is always conducted in Washington, DC, so you will need to go there in person. I am not aware of any exceptions for the interviews to be held elsewhere but I could be wrong as I am not an expert on specific immigration issues. Once you are done with the interview, you fly back home, and wait to see whether they will grant your application for permanent residency in Portugal.

 

If you just want to stay in Portugal for more than 3 months but do not need to be a permanent resident, there are many other ways to do it, such as by getting an extension once your 3-month visa is expired, which is sometimes possible depending on your motivation. You can also apply for a slightly longer visa in advance if you explain your situation to your local consulate. They may have the discretion to approve that. Overall, you don’t need to go to an interview if you just need a visa that is longer than 3 months but you do need to go to an interview if you are getting a permanent residency visa.

 

If you are coming to Portugal because you want to know if you would like the country or not, you still have to make your intention clear to the consulate. They will ask you for your intention, whether you are going to work, how you will support yourself, and so on. It is no different in any other country. If your intention is to come to Portugal for 6 months, for example, to see how it is, and you have a possibility of staying here, my suggestion is that you declare your intention well in advance because just as it is in the US, if you land in Portugal on a tourist visa, and then suddenly you decided that you are want to live here, and in some cases you wanted to get a job, you will be illegal because you haven’t declared your situation and intention truly. So it is very important to actually express your interest to the consulate more than just stating the length of your intended stay in the country of Portugal.

 

The other reason that I say this is because your tax situation may be affected by the number of days that you actually remain in the country. The general global rule is that when you stay in a country for more than 183 days, that country typically (though not always) has the right to claim that you are a resident there for tax reasons unless you say otherwise. So people who come to Portugal need to be aware of the impact of the length of their stay.

 

If you are going to Portugal for 6 months with a view of seeing what the country is like, the first thing you need to do is apply for a visa that is longer than 3 months. You can do that in one of two ways. The first is you can either come for 3 months and then while you’re in Portugal, go to the local immigration department and tell them that you want to extend your visa. You have to do this well in advance of 3 months. They will ask you for the reasons why you wanted to do so. They will either approve or decline your application to stay for another 3 months. If you are staying beyond 6 months, it becomes more complex because for the consular authorities and to the immigration department, it feels that you are perpetually extending your stay and they will start to ask more questions about why you are not going back home and applying for a resident visa or why you didn’t apply for a resident visa in the first place. Any stay that is beyond 6 months starts to feel like you are going to permanently stay and hence the consulate would find it questionable if you do not apply for a permanent resident visa upon coming here. Once you are already here in Portugal for 6 months and then you decide that you want to stay for good, you have to go back home first and then apply for a permanent residency from there. It is no different than applying a permanent residency in the US.

 

Since Portugal still manages to require interviews if you want to apply for permanent residency that tells you that there are not a lot of people coming from the US to Portugal, so this is a huge and untapped market and one of the reasons why our business is increasingly focused on the US.  Most Americans and Canadians who visit Portugal love it. I know it is a very broad generalization but this is the reaction that we get from most Americans and Canadians. Seeing is believing in this case. Most North Americans can’t figure out why they haven’t come here before. That is the kind of reaction that most people have. At the moment, there are very few people from the US and Canada who are actually coming to Portugal to live permanently.  It is my view that the Portuguese government should be doing more to make Portugal more generally known to North Americans. 

 

If you are from the UK or from any other European country, you can come and live in Portugal with no questions asked. If you are part of the EU, there is a permanent and total right of migration of nationalities within the European Union and because of that you can come and live freely in Portugal. You don’t even need a visa to come to Portugal if you are from any European country. As long as you an EU national with a passport or an identity card issued by any state within the European Union or the European Economic Community, you are entitled to travel freely within the zone and to settle in any EU member country.

 

(The Palace of Queluz., Portugal, pictured.)