Why We Chose Portugal
My husband and I always wanted to move back to Europe. We talked about it daily. We loved our time in Germany, experiencing European culture, and the travel opportunities. We’re very interested in gaining dual citizenship in Europe so that our kids can have more opportunities to live and work in Europe and the United States. We had our sights set on Spain and Portugal because of the weather, food, and proximity to the ocean. After the pandemic, Portugal opened up its digital nomad visa process and its residency requirements alongside the famous golden visa program and we saw an opportunity to get back to Europe sooner than we originally planned.
Making it Official
In mid-2023, we said “Let’s go for it” and began learning more about what a move would entail. By the fall of 2023, we had engaged with an immigration consulting company who was helping us with the details of getting a digital nomad (D8) visa in Portugal. One of the requirements to gain residency in Portugal is to secure housing so in October 2023, we signed a one-year lease on a rental property in Vilamoura, Portugal. At the same time, we were buying a landscaping business in San Diego, California. By the end of October, we had purchased that business.
Our New Business
Although it was a lot of change at once, we were confident that we could build the business in such a manner that it could be managed remotely. All of the employees in the company were retained, and the teams were operating as they had been in the past. The primary changes that we were making to the business were through digital transformation efforts like accepting digital payments, online portals, and adding new software tools. These types of changes were things that we felt confident implementing remotely with quarterly on-site visits. In fact, for the first six months that we owned the business we were mostly working remotely, even though we were physically located close to the office.
The Move
In March 2024, we began the process of selling our San Diego home and moved to Portugal. The plan was to use some of the proceeds from the sale of our home to add some much-needed financing to the business and the rest would go to savings. The cash was tight and a lot of work needed to be done.
Business as Usual
After a lengthy trip, we finally arrived in Portugal on April 11, 2024. For the next two months, everything progressed relatively smoothly. We still had a lot of the same financing and supply issues that we had in the past but every month we were doing a little bit better than the previous month. We were excited about our home sale and the extra cash injection would pull the business ahead. One of the primary constraints of the company was the fact that accounts receivable were greatly delayed as all customers still paid in cash or check. As a result, the business had very little liquidity so a significant cash injection towards working capital would have made a substantial difference.
A Turn for the Worse
However, on June 3, our luck ran out. A couple of our key customers had withheld sizable payments at the same time that some of our largest insurance bills were due. As a result, we found ourselves looking at a $45,000 cash crunch that we simply couldn’t recover from. Consequently, our employees walked off the job and we were forced to close operations. Within three weeks half of our customers were gone and we knew the business was over.
What’s Next?
Once it became clear that the business was not going to be recoverable, we decided to pack up and move back to the United States until we could figure out our next steps. At this point, our home in San Diego had been renovated and we accepted an offer and nearing escrow. We flew to North Carolina where my brother-in-law owns a home and we’ve been staying with him.
This certainly wasn’t the outcome that we had hoped for or expected. We are still very much interested in dual European citizenship, but we have some different avenues we want to explore such as the Golden Visa option.
To read more about our time living in the Algarve, check out https://itsmejessicajean.com/why-ill-never-go-back-to-vilamoura-portugal/
