Grace Pacifica

Visas for southern Europe ⤵

I'm a Canadian living in the Netherlands trying to move my parents to Europe so we can see each other more often.

I recently traveled through Spain, Portugal, and France to see if any of those places make sense.

Here are the practical logistics for each country.

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Location scouting in Portugal ⤵

While on a group trip with my friends!

One thing I love about living and working in Europe is that it's so easy to travel on the continent and time zones are very similar so it's easy to workcation from time to time.

I've been traveling through Portugal working, sightseeing with friends, and getting a feel for the country to see if it makes sense to retire my parents here so we can see each other without flying long haul.

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Exploring retire-abroad options ⤵

My parents live in Canada and don't own a house, so retiring in Canada will be difficult, so I'm looking for more financially friendly options in Europe so I can also see them more option.

I live in the Netherlands and don't have options to bring them over, so I'm exploring countries where there are options.

I'm workcating my way through Portugal to check out the situation and have so far decided that the Algarve is off the list due to price vs stage of development.

Location scouting in Portugal ⤵

As part of my retiring parents to Europe series, I'm visiting Portugal for the first time to get a sense of the environment.

I've visited all of the other countries on our shortlist except Portugal and would like to see it before making an further decisions.

Since I have the ability to work remotely part of the time, I've combined a work and leisure trip, starting off in the Algarve, which has been very popular with internationals in recent years!

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Legally moving to Europe ⤵

My parents can't afford to retire in Canada because they don't own a house and have now been priced out so I've been going through visa options for every single country in Europe to see if I can help them retire there instead.

I live in the Netherlands and unfortunately the only options for them to come to the Netherlands are:
1. If my dad delays his retirement by 5 years, finds a job, gets a sponsored visa, brings my mom as a dependent, manages to not get laid off (difficult in today's labor market) and they can apply for PR in 5 years OR
2. If 1 parent passes away and my brother also leaves Canada and the other parent is unable to take care of themselves and relies on me for financial and other support, then I can petition the Dutch immigration office to bring them over

So we need another option and I've started exploring possibities around Europe. Stay tuned for a home-scouting and workcation trip to Portugal!

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So many are priced out ⤵

I talk a lot about moving, working, and living abroad, and now that I've built a new life for myself that I'm happy with in Europe, I want to try and get my parents from Canada to Europe as well so we can be closer.

Vancouver area where my parents now live is too expensive to retire in despite my dad having a great career, healthcare is extremely slow, and the rest of Canada is very cold in the winter.

Meanwhile, Europe has a lot of beautiful, affordable rural homes, and they want a quiet, countryside retirement. This is impossible in Vancouver, and home don't become affordable unless they're truly in the middle of the wildnerness far from major towns or hospitals. The healthcare in Europe, while not free, is universal and faster than in Canada.

I'm going to explore homes, livestyle, and visas to retire in Europe so follow along if that interests you!

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Definitely a snowball effect ⤵

It was very difficult and I had to take a lot of risks to get my first job in Europe, but once I got things going, my life has overall gone quite smoothly.

Since I don't have family money, I need a job to survive but I couldn't get a single interview from abroad.

So I showed up in London on a Working Holiday visa, applied for 150 jobs in 1 month (before the age of AI!) and got hired.

After 2 years in London, I was able to get hired and relocated to the Netherlands by my conpany and sponsored for a Dutch work visa.

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Time and cost to be Dutch ⤵

To get Dutch citizenship, you need to live in the Netherlands on a valid visa for 5 years (3 years if you're on a spouse visa).

Then, you need to take 5 tests at €50 each and pay an about €1,100 fee for the citizenship application.

It took me 3 months to get an appointment to apply for citizenship, then about 4 months to receive a letter that my application was approved.

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