Another urgency: the availability of NHR. If we don’t become tax residents this year, we lose the NHR benefits, which are significant and for those of us who already stretched financially to do this, essential
While I know it may be possible to declare yourself a tax resident and apply for NHR before actually moving there, I imagine this will create significant tax liabilities in the country you’re essentially depriving of taxes if the declared tax residency doesn’t match with lived reality.
And there are at least some of us who can’t/won’t emigrate to another country with our loved ones, our pets, and our remaining worldly belongings without having our visas in hand.
For us, this creates a catch-22: 1) Abandon the GVs and hope we still have enough “passive income” and assets (after parking a large portion of our assets in an illiquid “interior” PT property) to be approved and lose the time we’ve already waited and the freedom to travel that was part of the GV bargain, or 2) keep waiting/suing etc. in hopes we will ultimately be granted the GVs, but lose the benefit of the NHR.
It’s a pretty terrible choice to have to make given that the dilemma was entirely created by PT’s failure to make good on it’s duty (“shall,” per the GV statute) to process our applications within 90 days.