I am yet to apply for the D7 visa in my home country. They need a proof of accommodation (lease agreement) to support my D7 application. I am not sure how many days or months it will take for the approval of the D7. I should ideally have the lease agreement starting form the date of landing in Portugal after the D7 is granted.
If I rent the house immediately, I would end up paying 2-3 months of extra rent. How do I decide the starting date of the rent contract for the purpose of lease agreement and paying rents? Please help if anybody has any experience with this situation.
If you identify your home country, those who have been granted D7 visas could tell you how long it took.
I was fortunate to get a lease with a start date 3 months and 3 weeks after the date I submitted the request for the D7. That was OK with both the embassy and SEF.
Thanks Dan. You were definitely fortunate. How did you manage to convince the landlord for the lease to start after 3 months and 3 weeks? Any tips on that…
I got lucky. Really lucky. I came to town for 6 weeks to find an apartment. Stayed in an airbnb for the first 2 weeks. The couple that owned it were friendly and very helpful. As my departure date approached, I decided one way I could show appreciation for their kindness was to leave the unit as clean as when I arrived, and to return everything I’d moved to their original positions. I gave the place and the landlords the rave review they’d earned. The landlady gave me a rave review.
The next day she called to expand on her written review. Then she asked me where I was now. Told her I was still in town, looking for an apartment. She said I have a furnished one for you to look at. Turned out they had 3 airbnbs, which was 1 too many to deal with. That one was almost always rented by families, and almost always left in a mess with minor damage.
She showed me the place. I told her I wanted it. It was early Oct. Said I’d be ready to submit my visa request by early Dec, then asked if she’d start the lease in mid March. She agreed. I never asked if they continued renting it until soon before my lease started.