Oh My Goodness - it's almost time to go!

 

Sorry we've been a bit silent. Multiple family emergencies - JR and I are fine - collided with preparation for our Portugal Visas.

Here's the timeline:

September 2025 - decided on Portugal and got an appointment with VFS San Francisco for January. We had heard that is was taking a long time to obtain them and we didn't want to dilly-dally.

November 2025 - Familiarization Trip - previously written about on the blog

January 15, 2026 - We had our VFS SF appointment for D7 visas; I did not apply as a dependent, I applied on my own. They took us together. They DID ask for our apostilled Marriage Certificate, which we had. It's not supposed to be a requirement, but we were adequately prepared. We were told 6-8 weeks. Empirical evidence suggested 117 calendar days, but we crossed our fingers.

March 12 - Contacted the consulate via email for an update. 

March 16 - They responded that our applications were approved on Friday, March 13 and were in the queue for visas and mailing.

March 20 - FedEx delivered my passport with approved visa and AIMA appt. FedEx tracking was the same number as given by VFS SF in January. When mine arrived, I looked on the FEDEX website to see when James Ronczy would come using the original number provided by VFS SF and it showed 'duplicate entry - select one' so I selected the most current date and it showed it was at FEDEX SF. My AIMA appt is Dec 3 in Vila Real at 9am.

March 21 - James Ronczy Visa arrived with AIMA appt of Dec 2 in Braga at 14:30.

Visas timeframe for entry begin on March 25 which is our original purchased ticket date provided at our VFS SF appt. We did get secondary passports, but now we won't need them which is OK.

We are absolutely stunned that it all worked out at lightning speed. We were prepared to not have the Visas until May/June. We had even obtained a second passport so we were going on March 25 regardless (more on that later).

Anywhore, we are repacking everything that we are taking to ensure fit/weight restrictions. We are not shipping anything (more on that later).

We'll try and catch up some blog stuff before we leave, but I suspect it will be once we get there on Thursday, March 26th.

Toodles!