My view on 'home base' apartments shifted after a year in Lisbon

I used to think I needed a permanent address back in the States, paying $1,200 a month for a place I barely saw. After my visa in Portugal ran out, I tried a new setup. Now I book a furnished flat in a new city for 90 days at a time, which is the usual tourist visa limit. It cuts the anchor feeling and lets me plan around seasons and events. How do other nomads handle the legal need for a longer-term address?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan_wells302mo ago

You mentioned the 90 day limit being for a tourist visa, but that's actually the Schengen Area rule for visa-free travel. A tourist visa itself, if you needed to apply for one, would let you stay for the exact period it's issued for, which could be different. For the address thing, a lot of people use a mail forwarding service or a family member's place. It keeps things simple for bank stuff and taxes back home.

blairc902mo ago

Ah, the classic "family member's place" move. So when the tax office asks for my address, I just give them my cousin's apartment in Ohio that I haven't seen since 2012. Totally normal and not at all like we're all just pretending to live somewhere for paperwork's sake. My official residence is basically a P.O. box with sentimental value.

caseythompson2mo ago

My permanent address is still my parents' house. I get all my bank statements there and just hope nothing important shows up while I'm gone.