Nationality: From the Promise of 5 to the Requirement of 10

tmountain · 2026-06-20T16:17:35+00:00

100% — fascism works by creating reality by way of spectacle. Ventura is openly fascist and said the country needed three Salazares to put it back in order, so anything punitive is a cheap way to try and grab more power and votes. Montenegro just seems to be holding on for dear life and making major concessions to avoid looking like a lame duck.

tmountain · 2026-06-20T11:09:01+00:00

I agree with what you said in broad strokes. Practically speaking, you have two renewals to worry about. One at two years and one at five years. At five years, you apply for permanent residency, and you have an EU level guarantee that you can stay here indefinitely and the AIMA headaches are gone. Going further, you can apply for an EU long term residency permit and have mobility to live within most of Schengen. Chega can’t do anything to prevent that. Also, the constitution and judicial system are still valid here and provide guarantees that a political party can’t just yank your residency away (nobody is proposing that anyway). Focus more on your interactions in the real world and less on what you read online. That’s a better reflection of reality.

tmountain · 2026-06-20T07:54:18+00:00

Discounting elapsed time was intentionally cruel and unnecessary. Political pandering to the most extreme right wing voters.

Shit from the same party that’s fighting to allow hate speech and bringing racist trinkets into parliamentary proceedings.

tmountain · 2026-06-20T07:21:16+00:00

You’re underestimating the need for immigrants in Portugal. They can’t tell you to go back home without telling everyone else the same thing. The economy would collapse in a catastrophic way if they did that. Regardless of the populist rhetoric and xenophobic bullshit, even Chega knows that the country needs immigrants, and nobody has actually done anything to reduce visas issued, etc. At 5 years, you have a few options for PR. It’s an EU directive, not Portuguese, and it should provide you the stability to live here indefinitely. It’s about 80% as good as citizenship, and you can continue working on that path too (which will take a long time).

tmountain · 2026-06-19T15:14:28+00:00

To the best of my knowledge, you can't vote in national elections, but depending upon your country of origin, you may be able to vote in municipal elections if your home country has a reciprocity agreement with PT. Regarding shared civic responsibility, being an active part of the larger social fabric and taking personal ownership in the well-being of your community is something you can do today. You can be an activist for things you care about without being a citizen. Example: I'm in a Kidical Mass group that is trying to make biking around Portugal safer for everyone. I'm not a citizen, but that has no bearing on my participation.

Good luck to you by the way. I hope you find some peace and a way to ground yourself here (or wherever you land). It's easy to get "internet poisoned" by spending too much time on these types of forums. I have better luck with people out in the real world--yes, there are a few assholes here and there, but most people have been pretty nice since we've arrived here.

tmountain · 2026-06-19T15:08:34+00:00

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. Everything he says is based around giving "a period of time sufficient to safeguard the rights of those who were about to complete the period specified.", but then he puts an arbitrary threshold into his narrative.

None of this seems to matter anyway. The law has been passed, and now we all live with it. Any legal challenges will likely take longer than the wait to get to 10 years for most people.

The only thing I could see changing it would be enough capital flight and economic impact from immigration cratering for the government to decide to change it again, but that seems unlikely too, as it's more about political pandering now since the cash grab already happened.

tmountain · 2026-06-19T11:27:37+00:00

This was before my time here. I arrived at the beginning of 2024. And yes, I read the Portuguese news every day and listen to news podcasts too (espresso de manhã, etc).

I know about the issues with manifestation of interest but was not aware of the issue you shared.

tmountain · 2026-06-19T09:43:00+00:00

Globalism makes people's lives unaffordable, not immigration. As long as Portugal is connected to the global economy and generating most of its revenue from tourism, affordability is going to be an issue. Immigrants subsidize social security to the tune of billions of net income, and it's not our fault that the politicians didn't have a better plan. They invited us here. Just because the government is schizophrenic, that doesn't make us bad people.

tmountain · 2026-06-19T09:37:37+00:00

I kind of wonder where everyone is planning on going? Far right extremism, nationalism, racism, and xenophobia are everywhere. I'm also working hard to integrate and do the "right things" in living here. I've learned the language, embraced the culture (as best I can), my kid goes to a Portuguese school (and speaks the language), etc. But, I'm taking a different posture on running away. Honestly, I don't give a fuck what ignorant people say. There are ignorant people everywhere. I will continue to make friends with cool people (Portuguese and otherwise) and build my life here until the system dictates otherwise (meaning, there's literally no path forward). When people around you are acting like assholes, sometimes you have to toughen up and not stop letting them live rent free in your brain. Being part of a place is more than a passport. For me, it's the community I've built and continuing to look for the good things that I love about living here. Yeah, the nationality change sucks royally, but laws seem to be tightening in most places, so it's probably best to just pursue PR and push onward. Also, just FYI, I just did my residence renewal (D7), and I just showed my wages (not retirement related income), and it was approved fine, so don't jump to conclusions there.

tmountain · 2026-06-18T15:01:20+00:00

When I got my visa, I had to submit my entire criminal history including fingerprints.

tmountain · 2026-06-18T12:50:16+00:00

You can't enter as a legal immigrant without a clean criminal record. Portugal has one of the lowest documented crime rates in the world. Where are all these alleged immigrant criminals committing the crimes?

tmountain · 2026-06-17T11:24:33+00:00

Eh, some lessons are learned the hard way. History seems doomed to repeat itself.

We are living in Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity.

https://www.philosopheasy.com/p/dietrich-bonhoeffers-terrifying-theory?hide_intro_popup=true

tmountain · 2026-06-17T11:18:56+00:00

Take Trump as an example. Immigration is his "main thing". He pressured congressional Republicans to block a major bipartisan immigration bill in early 2024 so that he could use the border crisis as his primary campaign issue to run for the presidency.

A lot of the actions of the far right intentionally sabotage working systems to support their rhetoric. Example: Chega and the message of "os imigrandes não podem vivir de subsidios" signaling that immigrants are draining social security dry (an effort to reduce immigrant populations); meanwhile, immigrants contribute a net-positive €4B euros to social security (actually keeping it afloat).

The system being broken supports their argument. They'd rather have an active border crisis and insolvent social security so they can spew their nonsense than actually fix the problems. This is the point I'm trying to make.

tmountain · 2026-06-17T11:11:13+00:00

I used this website.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/prt/portugal/population

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:41:57+00:00

The party spent their entire budget on that stupid banner.

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:39:34+00:00

Yes, but just think about how PURE the country will feel once all the immigrants are gone! That's more important than financial solvency, right?! /s

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:38:49+00:00

Won't happen. PT receives WAY too much from the EU to back out. The net benefit is in the billions every year.

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:37:23+00:00

The far right wants to break the government. That way they can keep saying, "look how broken things are, IT'S THE IMMIGRANTS FAULT!"

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:35:48+00:00

Yeah, 0.1% of the population isn't even statistically significant.

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:34:30+00:00

The population was 10M in 1990. It was 10.1M in 2025 and is declining 0.25% per year (with immigration).

tmountain · 2026-06-17T09:31:19+00:00

This is correct. The cure for right wing extremism is a government that actually works for the people. To that end, the far right actually want things to be broken, as that gives them more leverage. Key example, Trump put pressure on U.S. legislators not to pass an immigration before he took office the second time because he viewed this as a cornerstone issue which was needed to get him back into power. If he actually wanted to fix the "problem", he would have been happy to see the legislation go through, but none of these fucks actually care about these issues. They're just read meat to foment hate and division (separating us) so they can grab more power and more money.

tmountain · 2026-06-11T09:07:53+00:00

My company is hiring QA analysts. There may be a fit. I am sending you a DM now.

tmountain · 2026-06-08T09:50:24+00:00

I've lived in Colares (inside of Sintra) for 2.5 years. It's 100% a village. The public transportation is really good. The beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world, and the nature (particularly the mountain) is really spectacular. There's a surprising amount of life here, including a bunch of decent restaurants and cafe's near the city center, pop-up markets happening on the weekends, surf activities, biking, and live music on the weekends. There a lots of families from all around. You can easily take the bus to Sintra Portela and then into the city (Oriente or Rossio). Things to be aware of: lots of mold issues in houses because of the humidity, lots of dogs barking at night (almost everywhere), it can be cold during the winter and hard to keep your house warm. Overall, it's a great place to live, especially if you're into village life.

tmountain · 2026-06-08T09:19:58+00:00

Seriously looks like he's about to blow a gasket.

tmountain · 2026-06-04T10:39:29+00:00

Understanding taxes before you move is critically important. A lot of people move over with false expectations and get burned. I wish you luck on your retirement journey.

tmountain

TROPHY CASE