# Retiring in the Algarve and more.



## Marthinus (Feb 22, 2015)

My apologies if any of my questions have been answered before. 

I am a 50 year old semi-retired man from South Africa. My wife and I, with our 2 adult children with their partners are planning to move to the Algarve.

Here are a few questions that I am struggling with and any help will be appreciated.

1. My wife and I want to retire in the Algarve. I am not of retirement age but do not need to work. I earn my income from investments in South Africa. 

a. What type of visa would I apply for? Could my wife and I get immediate residence status if we invest in property in Portugal?

b. If we were to invest in property to get residence, how much is the investment?

c. Will the income I receive from my investments in SA be taxed in Portugal, if they have been taxed in SA already?

d. My wife runs an online business in SA. What would be required for her to continue running her business from Portugal? The business is 10 years old.

e. Would we be able to travel to other EU countries if we have a retirement visa in Portugal without having to apply for Szchengen visas in SA? We travel quite a bit to the EU, perhaps 4 months of the year. 

f. Would it be possible for me to start a business in Portugal if I came there to retire? Let's say after a year I want to start a business? 

g. I have never been to the Algarve and obviously we will do that soon, but where would you suggest we look at relocating to? We are looking for reasonably quiet, English speaking, coastal, middle to upper class. It would be great if we could get a place that is on the beach somewhere. We can spend in the region of €1m.

2. Our kids are adults (24 and 21). They both have partners. They also want to move.

a. My daughter and my son's girlfriend work for the onlines business. They will continue as if they were in SA. They will obviously require a work permit. Will this be possible considering that the business is not located in Portugal? What are the requirements to get them work permits and residence status? I can also buy them property if required.

3. Can someone suggest a very good immigration lawyer with a very solid reputation that can assist? In addition an estate agent with a similar good reputation.

I know this is a long post and sorry if the questions have been answered somewhere else. I did look but got a bit confused with all the posts.

Many thanks for your assistance.

Marthinus Strydom
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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Marthinus :welcome: to the Portuguese section of EXPAT FORUM

PLEASE check your Private message as i have just sent you one..


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Marthinus

Your name suggests an Afrikaans background without and family/ancenstral links to the UK or Europe within the last couple of generations?

Assuming that's right, your easiest way to get permanent residency is through the golden visa scheme and for that, you need to invest at least €500k...... I'm not sure if your kids being that age could come in with you or not or if they'd need a separate application/investment but hopefully someone else (perhaps C/M) can chime in on that but I'd suspect they may well need to apply separately. 

You can start a business but would have to pay national insurance and the amount you pay will (I think) depend on the income of the business. 

I believe SA has a reciprocal tax agreement with Portugal but you might consider paying tax here rather than there because it'll make your life a whole lot easier....... if nothing else, dealing with SARS at anytime is a royal PITA (as I'm sure you know!) and dealing with them from this far away is even more of a PITA. - Also, if you feel like me, you'd prefer to give the ba*tar*s as little as possible! 

To find the best estate agents, you really need to settle on an area first.

Oh and welcome to the forum...... we came to Portugal from SA about 3 years ago and although the first few months were hard because we missed Africa and our friends there so very much, we settled in eventually and are very happy here now.


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## Marthinus (Feb 22, 2015)

Thank you ver much for your quick reply. Glad to meet someone that has made the move successfully. Where are you located and where would you suggest we go to?


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

We're in the central zone and if you check the link at the bottom of my posts, then click the icon marked 'About Central Portugal' and the flyoffs from there, you'll see a bit about our area. 

I can't really comment about best Algarve areas because I don't know the areas well enough to comment on good from bad. 

We did consider the Algarve but decided there were too many people there.


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