Seattle

Once more into the fray. There are few places nicer to dive in though.

After some reflection and discussion it became increasingly clear that we needed a bit more focus on defining the long term situation relative to residency in places we would like to spend more time than visa on arrival permits.

The rough idea we started this journey with was to basically wander around the world for a while and determine what areas and towns we enjoyed most then contemplate any desired longer term arrangements. We already knew about paths to residency in Spain and Portugal that would provide wider EU access long term but we had not worked through all the details and differences. Plus we had only spent a short amount of time in either place. As we mapped out our travels and learned more we concluded Croatia was not as easy or attractive as previously thought and also learned some of the key differences between Portugal and Spain. Both countries are great places to be and offer almost any type of life desired. Through direct comparison it does seem like Portugal has a little more flexibility in getting residency and provides a little more to those that have residency (speaking from an expat perspective only, both countries appear to take very good care of their citizens).

My main vision is still something like finding a new hangout every 2 to 3 months but it does seem that EU residency can open significantly more options even for that approach. That being the case, and knowing that applying for residency in either Spain or Portugal requires me to physically apply from the US, it makes sense to spend a bit more time stateside.

Knowing that it will take at least 6 months to get the application together and possibly another six months to get the visa, it seemed reasonable to take advantage of the fact that we are still on leave from our jobs in Seattle and spend a bit more time making money. I felt the poorest I have in a while after leaving the attorney’s office in Lisbon who informed us of the numerous fees and required taxes for each step of the process. (Did you know you are required to hire a tax accountant as an expat on a residency visa? At least until you are granted citizenship.)

On a professional note, a few work items developed over the first part of this year that have drawn my interest as well. A few folks have reached out to me directly to get back into some of the work I enjoyed immensely in the past but had slowly waned in the past couple years.

This combination of factors seemed to come together within weeks of each other resulting in the decision to head back to the Pacific northwest in June. The travel bug is certainly not going anywhere any time soon but as I have been reminded over the past 10 years every time I return to Seattle from my travels, Seattle is a nice place to live, even compared to some of the nicest parts of the world.

We don’t have any defined timelines at this point but currently expect to call Seattle home for at least several months.