It was a pleasure to speak with Rebecca Thomson, Co-founder and Real Estate Consultant at Liberty Real Estate ( about a number of tax and financial issues surrounding moving to Portugal.

We spoke about how to apply for residency in Portugal, various visa options and how to benefit from the Non Habitual Residence (NHR) scheme.

Non-EU citizens, including the British post-Brexit, who wish to permanently settle in Portugal, must apply for a visa for the right to stay. EU citizens on the other hand have the right to freedom of movement and therefore have an automatic right to stay, so do not need to apply for a visa.

There are several visa options available in Portugal and the most common are the Golden Visa and the D7 visa.

Both visas allow access to the Schengen area, ultimate permanent residence or Portuguese citizenship, and a gateway into the Non Habitual Residence (NHR) tax scheme.

The key difference between the two programs comes down to one of cost versus flexibility. The D7 visa is clearly a lower cost route to Portuguese residency, both in terms of the fees and that there is no investment requirement as for the Golden Visa. However, the D7 route does have substantially longer minimum stay requirements.

So, if you are thinking of making a move to Portugal, or would like to benefit from the available tax incentives, watch the full interview in our video.

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