Hi everyone,
I’m hoping to get some advice from people who’ve been through this for a while. I’m finding it hard to plan work, travel, and family commitments around the uncertainty of GV timelines, especially with renewals and AIMA delays. For those who are further along, how do you manage expectations and stay organized when things keep shifting? Any practical tips or lessons learned would really help
Choose what is most important and prioritize it
In my situation, i can drop everything and run to Portugal on a moment’s notice if necessary.
It isn’t my favorite, but it is something interesting to talk about occasionally. You become a person of affairs that gets in legal entanglements with foreign governments. Makes me feel a bit like a 19th century upper crust sort of person. I try and play the part with my penchant for port. If I could only grow a reasonable moustache
When buying tickets, including tickets for Portugal, shell out the extra to make them exchange/refundable. Might never need it, but you’ll sleep better at night.
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I concur that travel tickets should be refundable. The process is slow and can be stressful. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
As renewals are now online, unless your biometrics are over 5/10 years you shouldn’t need to travel.
As for our regular trips to PT, we’re working on basis that we do 7 days in first year, and 14 days every 2 years after that. As far as I’m aware it’s not linked to card validity dates.
If you always buy refundable, you’d spend much more money in total as compared to always buying non-refundable with a few episodes of having to buy a ‘second’ ticket due to some travel plan change. If you travel plans ALWAYS change then sure, go for the refundables.
It’s like buying insurance for every single thing in your life. Surely sometimes you would claim the insurance but %% wise what’s the odds of the insured event happening vs. not?