LIFE GROWS TOWARDS THAT GOAL

Good evening

Happy emigration Thursday.

There have been two happy and important developments for our emigration to Portugal on which I can report. Both relate to finances.

The first is that we have now received our Número de Identificação (NIF). The NIF is the Portuguese tax number. If you have foreign citizenship and want to live and work in Portugal you will need to register with the Finance Department and Social Security.

The Portuguese Government website sets out the reasons that a foreign person, resident or non-resident in Portugal, who works and pays taxes in Portugal must have a Tax Identification Number (NIF). Registration with the Finance Department gives you a Tax Identification Number (NIF).

Citizens of Portugal have a NIF as part of their Identity Document. Once a non-resident qualifies as a resident, the ID document will also incorporate the NIF.

As a foreign citizen, the NIF is a Portuguese identification which allows you to make any sort of financial transaction, from simply getting a phone subscription to buying a property in the country including the authority to work, open a bank account or comply with tax obligations in Portugal. However, in order to apply for a D7 national visa (the one for which we are applying), it is necessary to have a NIF submitted with your application.

Applying for a NIF is free of charge in Portugal. There are, however, costs incurred if the application is done from outside of Portugal. We paid an agent the equivalent of €150 each for our NIF. This included authorising, through a Power of Attorney, the agent’s counterpart in Portugal to apply for the number on our behalf. The normal cost of doing this is between €150 and €200. If you have any doubts about obtaining an NIF, Steve Robinson, who used to live in South Africa and now resides in Portugal, has a very valuable and informative site on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/479205349249922/) called South Africans Helping South Africans in Portugal. Although this is set up to help South Africans who are emigrating, the information provided by Steve is invaluable to anyone wanting to relocate to Portugal. It’s well worth a visit.

The second development is that my investment accounts was opened. As part of the D7 visa, you have to have sufficient funds in an investment account to sustain you on a monthly basis for at least 12 months. This assures the Portuguese authorities that you are able to provide for yourself financially and will not become a burden on the State. Simon Batten has assisted hundreds of people to sort out this aspect of the visa process. He is a wealth of knowledge, who’s contact details can be found on the South Africans Helping South Africans in Portugal site, has been invaluable in sorting this out for us. The information required by the investment company is extensive but not onerous. I’m retired and, as such, do not have salary information to provide. In order to confirm for the organisation that I will qualify to open an investment account with them, they requested a brief career summary, including the name of my previous employer as well as a short overview of my professional background.

All in all. Wonderful progress.

[Source: Own photograph]

LIFE GROWS

Where do dreams
Like this belong?

Dreams of Times
Of Freedom
Dreams of Times
Of Glory
Dreams of Times
Of Bonds so forceful
They feel intoxicating

Perhaps one day
In some indeterminate way
We’ll comprehend
That dreams like this belong
Exactly where they are
In Time
Exactly where they are
Right now

There are times when life really takes its toll on us; when we consider all that we are doing to make a better life for ourselves and yet, we are stuck; stuck in a job we hate; stuck in a relationship which is not good for us; stuck in a country which no longer feels like home; stuck in a financial situation from which there is, seemingly, no escape; just stuck.

If we are able to withdraw from all of our circumstances and allow ourselves to dream or (in other words) to meditate and reflect on our life, we may discover that, throughout all that we are enduring, there is hope and there are solutions. I am a God-fearing disciple of Jesus so I seek God during such difficult times. If I didn’t, I know that I could easily slip into a dreaded depression. That’s when I need the presence of God’s Glory the most. The comfort in His Word has saved me more times than I care to admit.

Ezra 9:9 (KJV)

“For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.”