That is one way to get over your fears, to stare them in the face and drive through them. Not all of us are going to be brave enough to do that.
If I were starting now, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t do it. It isn’t worth the wait and bother that people are clearly suffering now. There are other options that would meet my requirements. It might be worth it for some others, of course; personal requirements vary.
Do I have regrets now, am I going to back out? No, not really. I started earlier and had a few good breaks and managed to miss just about all the kerfuffle, so my experience has been basically fine. But that isn’t an option for anyone starting new.
What I would ask myself:
do I know what my actual goal is in going through this process? is it well-defined, or is it based on a vague and fuzzy desire? I don’t even mean “EU citizenship” but “what am I trying to achieve by pursuing RBI/CBI”?
have I reviewed all options that get me to that goal? am I pursuing the right option?
how badly do I want the end result? how much of a risk am I willing to take to get it, really?
do I really understand all of the risks and costs? All the information you need is here at NG of course, but you have to dig for it in a huge, huge pile.
(Really, what might be useful here is pinned threads added to the PT GV Guide page. There are a few threads here that contain the bulk of the useful info around the topic of fund selection, fund risks, PFIC and taxes, citizenship, paperwork, etc. Several of us have dumped a lot of time and thought into posts in those threads and while the details may change, the core principles don’t. )
If you have this part down, then I think it’s easier to take tommigun’s advice and walk into the fray.
I totally agree about knowing your objective. My objective was to get a european passport (again, having lost it through brexit). I am on track to get that objective. However, I did not read this forum before starting, so actually believed the various websites which described the process… this is the ONLY place I have found realism. The reality is that it takes about 5x as long to do anything, and you are treated like shit by the authorities. But, you get there in the end. If you KNOW that before going it, it really helps as you know what you are getting into! My main frustration came through the slow learning of how inefficient the process is and how wrong most of the guides are!
The change to backdate the waiting time to when I applied has a large impact on my current views. It was a massive plus on the end of a years-long string of “minuses”.
You lost the european passport by brexit. It implicitly means you are british. Have you considered the option of living in Ireland and getting the Irish passport? If you could go the irish option, it is much cheaper and surely you will get it within reasonable amount of times.
If you are US citizen, it does not help. If you are english, you are allowed to live in Ireland freely. English people can live in Ireland for 5 years and then apply for citizenship. I do not know about Irish GV. What I’ve just mentioned is the zero cost pathway to get irish citizenship for english people.
If your life is flexible enough to mean you can move to another EU country full-time, then there are a number of options other than the PT GV. I think most people selected the GV because they can’t move easily at this stage in their lives.
It’s definitely made me give up my fear of flying. At this point, who cares if the plane goes down. At least I won’t have all these Portuguese Problems to deal with….
