Hello, we are on our first Portugal GV card that is valid till Apr next year. We are looking to send our daughter for education to a European University - where as a resident in Europe, she could qualify for better entry options and lower fees.
While her residency will be valid now, as of April, the card expires and looks like there will be a break before the next card is issued. Does anyone have any experience of what the break in having a valid residence card does to applying for college programs as a ‘qualified resident of the EU’ ?
I researched this a few years ago. There are a few countries like Germany where fees are low for all, international or EU citizen, with the catch that undergrad programs are mostly taught in the national language, with few English options.
I don’t know of any countries where holding a Portuguese temporary residence permit gives a lower fee advantage, like the fees applicable to an EU citizen (or EU long term PR or EU Blue Card holders) - typically you need to pay the international rate. Not sure about Portugal itself.
A lot of English language universities in Europe offer EU rates to people with long term residence visas but they require you to actually be a tax resident for at least a couple of years or you pay the international rate. In other words, unless you’ve actually been in Portugal and paying taxes for 2 years before your kid starts this is a no-go.
Interesting, I didn’t know about the tax residence rule, any specific examples of universities/countries?
Last I checked (for the Netherlands), the GV doesn’t qualify because it is a temporary permit. Even a GV PR or national PR won’t work, I think, it must be the longa duração (EU LT PR) to count for lower fees in countries outside Portugal.
True, I went back to the University websites and it requires nationality or physical residency for a period of time. So it would just be the regular international tuition fee.