EuroTrash

But you would still need a visa and permission to live there. Would Portugal give you a visa to live there and work remotely for a UK employer?
If not, on a British passport you are limited to spending a maximum of 90 out of 180 days in Schengen as a tourist without the right to work. (You are normally classed as working in the country where your butt is during your work time, so if your butt is in Portugal you would be classed as working in Portugal).

But if your employer will let you work remotely, you could look at countries that offer digital nomad visas https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/new...al-nomad-visa/ The conditions vary from country to country but you may find one that suits, and more and more countries are considering introducing them, but they are not normally for pernament residence.

EuroTrash

But, getting a work permit can be an issue. It isn't sufficient that your UK employer or even a local employer wishes to employ you in the country, there is normally the need for the employer to justify employing a non EU citizen by showing that they tried and failed to recruit an EU worker to do the job. And in many countries the employer has to pay an extra fee for doing so.

TomGardner21

My understanding is that it's possible to do this via the D7 visa and then applying for Residence permit, and then onto PR if you wish. https://digitalemigre.com/relocation...o-beat-brexit/

Regarding the option, I have no idea but it was a very brief conversation with a HR rep last week. I should be getting more info on this soon. Surely there are ways around this though because digital nomads are a thing aren't they? I am contracted as a home worker (my office is in Exeter but I live in Oxford)

Moses2013

You can find info here: https://imigrante.sef.pt/en/#sabermais

agree_to_disagree

On long as you´re existing employer is happy to go along with you on this then tease the topic out with the HR department but I think that it is probably vital that you line manager is also happy for you to proceed with home working from another country. Be careful not to jeopardise your relationship with your existing company or management by going down a route they might not be happy with. You should be well protected if you have a permanent work contract but if are contracted, you basically have zero job security. As to this nomads business, I have no clue so others on here can anwer you on that one.

Lou71

Tom, we split our time between Spain and Portugal and I can tell you that generally speaking, Portugal is easier relocation wise for third country nationals. For the non lucrative visa equivalent, the minimum income requirement is much lower and they offer free healthcare to all residents.

Jobs are low paid and often in short supply. For example, my Portuguese neighbour is in the police force (he works in the police station at the border) and says that Spanish police are paid twice as much as Portuguese police.

I'm not sure about the rules for remote working but I think you should post on the Portugal section of this forum and you will get plenty of helpful advice.
​​​​
Our place in Portugal is right on the border with Spain (Castro Marim) and it's a brilliant location. I like that contrast and interaction you get between the two places.

Portugal is definitely worth pursuing.

Fred James

I understand Spain is going to bring in a "digital nomad" visa to cover remote working.

https://www.spainvisa.eu/spain-visa-digital-nomads/

Red Eric

Butting in from the Portugal forum here.

My (admittedly very sketchy) awareness of this area is that there is definitely provision for those on D7 visas to work as freelancers, or set up as self-employed in PT after gaining residency. There's also the D2 visa for entrepreneurs which might serve independent workers looking to relocate to PT.

However, remote working for a UK employer doesn't fall into either of those categories and even prior to Brexit would have been (or was) fraught with difficulty, if trying to go straight, in terms of getting everything sorted with regard to tax, Social Security and healthcare. On the latter, for example, whilst it's certainly true that all residents are entitled to enrol in the public health system, in order to do so you need to be classified correctly in order that the costs of your care are assigned to the right place. So saying you're working will lead to being told you must get a PT SS number, which in turn will prove difficult if your work is for a single remote employer.

Rosemary

The next person who derails Toms thread will be given a lovely BE holiday which may even be forever.

Rosemary

EuroTrash

Wouldn't this all be sifted at the visa application stage, though?
If an applicant explains exactly what their situation is and what they intend to do, then one would hope that Portugal is sufficiently joined up that they won't issue a visa if what the person is intending to do is going to be fraught with difficulty.
Pre-Brexit a lot of Brits used to move to another country and do all kinds of things they weren't supposed to, but that is because there was nothing to stop them, nobody checked that they knew the rules and that their plans conformed.
On some French visas for instance, if you get a visa to set up a business, you have 3 months (I think) from arrival to get everything set up and then you have to show evidence of registration etc in order to get your residence permit. If you want to work for an employer, your employer has to obtain work authorisation in advance and you need to submit this as part of your visa application. Does Portugal not have similar systems?
So really there shouldn't be a situation where a person arrives on a visa and then has difficulties fitting into a category for social security/tax etc, because the visa people should have headed off the problem by saying, Sorry but you can't do that in Portugal, make a different plan.

Red Eric

Short answer - I'm not really sure.

For a start, that would depend on the OP actually putting all his cards on the table during the visa requesting process and being absolutely crystal clear about the nature of the work arrangement. However, as far as I know, a D7 visa is not granted on the basis of being a full-time employee of a UK-located business, so presumably the primary thrust of the application would be around proving that he has income or savings sufficient to meet the subsistence requirements without that coming into it.

But yeah, trying to get it checked out during the visa application might be the wise thing to do. I do know that in the past, though, people did sometimes get into an administrative tangle through trying to do the right thing with regard to remote working and came up against problems particularly in the health / social security areas.

Chipmonk

I imagine that the remote worker Visa will be subject to fairly strict requirements. For example, not sure that being an employee for a UK based company will be allowed or that a vague business plan will cut the mustard. Spain needs to gain something and the double taxation agreement won't really favour them so I imagine it has to be quite a realistic business plan with a income flow that offers a net gain for Spain. If not then absolutely anyone from 3rd world countries would go online and then transfer to Spain. That said I can't see it being up and running until the end of 2022. Spain are still trying to ratify their labour laws which effectively was agreed over a year ago.

Fred James

This thread make me realise how lucky I am to be a pre-Brexit pensioner with healthcare paid by HMG and no visa complications!

For others it now seems to be a nightmare.

Moses2013

Same here and just glad that we don't have these problems in Ireland. Certainly not easy and it's still just a Visa, what happens when you lose the job etc.?

Chipmonk

Any remote workers Visa will only be for a year so it is quite expensive to get for only 12 months living in Spain