mightyfinest

Hello all,

I am both a British and Irish citizen who resides in the UK with my US citizen wife. She has had residency here for the past year and a half. We are aware she will lose her residency here when we move.

We are looking to move to Portugal in the coming months and not sure where to start! We have been looking at houses and I have spoken with a mortgage adviser. She has asked what is our "marriage regime". Due to tax issues with my wife being a US citizen we were hoping to keep her off the mortgage. Is this what they call a "Separate Property"? Any issues with this in terms of my wife getting residency?

Another question, I have a UK Ltd and i'm hoping to take advantage of the Non-Habitual Resident scheme. I have an accountant here who can keep on top of the UK side of things. So would I just set up as self employed in Portugal, and invoice the company? Does the NHR scheme only apply to dividends from the company? Does this require a lawyer to set this up?

What else is required for getting residency and can any of this be applied for from the UK?

Are the borders even open for people moving over? We were hoping to drive with our furniture and dog.

Sorry, lots of questions but thanks in advance!

dmu

Hi from the France forum!
I obviously can't advise on visas, residency, employment status, healthcare, etc... in Portugal, but if you're intending to drive down via a French Port, you should follow the French News concerning travel restrictions, nearer the time, or read the most recent posts on "Transit through France", for example, in the France forum, or post a New Thread, to ask. At the time of writing, there's no way of knowing what restrictions there'll be "in the coming months". At present the whole country is under curfew after 18h00 and travelling down through France after that time isn't an Exemption if you can't prove residence in Portugal. You should also research any restrictions in Spain.
For your dog, make sure it's got the appropriate Pet's Passport before you arrive in France.
HTH

Lou71

I'm an Irish and UK national too!!!

I can't help re the mortgage but I can tell you that as an Irish national, obtaining residency in Portugal will be a doddle and you can just go to your nearest town hall (camara) and sign up immediately ie just like in the good old days of freedom of movement for UK nationals! Your wife will also benefit from your being an Irish national and will also be able to obtain residency in Portugal with ease.

For the residency appointment, we took our passports, a couple of passport sized photos, latest tax returns and proof of accommodation which were house deeds in our case - this could be a rental contract. We received our residency certificates on the spot and it was all so easy. Our lawyer secured our NHR a few weeks later.

Although I'm an Irish national, my partner and I took residency as UK nationals before the dreaded Brexit deadline.

My advice would be to hold off coming over here until travel restrictions have eased. I can't see you having any problems bringing your dog as long as you have all the correct vaccines and paperwork but you need to check first.

Good luck!

Rambling archer

Hello MightyF - for the dog here is some info to start you off - the most important being that the UK pet passport is no longer accepted in the EU so read up on the following links. When you get to Portugal and get your NIF tax number, bank account, residencia, and health number (utente) from a local Centro do Saude (usually in that order) applying as an Irish citizen with an Irish passport, with your wife as your "dependant" at least as a starter until she sets up her business arrangements and then you both get onto the Social Security system - you should visit a local vet to ask about the Microchip number being registered/changed into the national Portuguese system of pet registration, get sorted as to when next rabies and other health jabs for the dog are due and get an EU Pet Passport for the dog so you can travel about within the EU AND to the UK without having to get the stupid UK "Certificate" every time you travel. It is a legal requirement that the dog be registered locally in Portugal.

Note if you already have a Pet Passport from the UK - keep it as it is a handy reference for chip number, previous vaccinations, etc etc. If the dog already has had rabies vacc, and is within annual date of repeat, that is fine, but if not check with your vet how long before travel you have to have the first vaccine (and possible confirmatory blood test). You might also like to discuss with your vet the vaccination against Leishmania which is endemic in Portugal and Spain - this normally can only be administered to a dog that has not previously been infected (ie has not travelled into the endemic zones of Europe). This is certainly worth doing if you can. At least these days you do not have to have the tapeworm treatment done 24-48 hours before travel - that was a nightmare to work out! Vets charges on the whole are much cheaper in PT than UK and a lot of them speak English!!

When you get settled think about civil/third party responsibility insurance for the dog (in case it should run out onto the road and cause an accident, or frighten a child, or whatever!) - usually can be included very easily in your house insurance. Note that legally you cannot be refused accommodation because you have a dog - eg for rental temporarily or permanently - but people do find excuses if they do not want a dog in their rental-property. So tread warily there.

https://www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-a...rthern-ireland
and this from a pet-transporters point of view - https://www.animalcouriers.com/pet-t...-after-brexit/

Hope you and your OH get organised and enjoy the experience - good advice above, to wait for a bit til the pandemic is rather more settled - and get your Covid-19 vaccinations done before you come or you may slip through the cracks - PT is subject to the EU-distribution delays so you probably have a better chance as residents in the UK!

Rambling archer

This depends on where you got married - if in the UK, just tell them that. In France, Spain and Portugal it is normal to identify a particular marriage regime - a bit like an american pre-nup - which goes back to Napoleonic days!

bons

I didn't see this and I just started a thread. Do you know much is it to register the chip at the new Portugal address?

Rambling archer

Bons - see your other thread which refers directly to Dog Chip which may help others too - actual cost of registering the dog locally at the vets in Portugal was part of the first consultation fee for us, and it is only filling in a form on the computer for them.

mightyfinest

Thank you all!

We were married in the US. I'm still not sure about the marriage regime or why it's important though. Maybe I need to speak to lawyer over there whilst I ask about the NHR stuff. Can anyone recommend a good lawyer? I read somewhere that there are a lot of promises on the NHR scheme but some of the lawyers can't follow through with it.

dmu

It's also important in France (Napoleon!), and governs who can inherit what in the case of married couples. There are several different regimes which often depend on your families' situations - for example, rich families would prefer their children to keep the property, money, shares.... in the family and not bequeath a good proportion to their spouses. Or divorced spouses might want to keep what they owned before the subsequent marriage, to provide for their first spouse/children, which makes for another regime. Yet another is the "community property", meaning that the married couple will own everything which each spouse owned before the marriage.
The type of marriage regime has to be included in contracts, such as property deeds, bank loans, businesses, etc... to determine the Succession (including any debts) after the death of one of the couple.
Sorry for the pedagogy, but the concept of this particular Continental quirk is difficult for an expat to appreciate!

Rambling archer

Its the sort of thing that the lawyers dealing with house transactions meet with all the time so get a lawyer and discuss with them. Do you have any ideas what area you are likely to move to, so perhaps someone can help with local knowledge ?

fredscubed

HI We have just had an offer on a property in Lagos accepted and hope to move from the South East of England July/ish, covid allowing. So the slog begins of working through the processes and administration that needs to be done to allow the move the happen. One of the items in my to do list today was to contact removal firms to get some quotes. Sadly Brexit is already having a negative impact. One of the companies I contacted Tenterden Removals who are very highly recommended and were very experienced in International removals sent this reply. "Thank you for your enquiry but after leaving the EU and the new legislation, paperwork required we are no longer carrying out any European work, I would suggest speaking to Bournes of Rye".

It was very kind of them to make the recommendation. I am now braced because of the added complexities involved and the reduced competition for prices to now rise significantly.

bons

Can you not drive yourself? Covid permitting of course. I used to live near Tenterden, a nice part of the world.

fredscubed

Not really its a full house move.

bons

Yes, that's a bit trickier, we're not bringing too much.

SgtTroy

If the quotes exceed £5,000, and assuming there would be nothing to pay to the customs here, I think you would be better off simply selling all your UK stuff and buying new/second hand here.