I feel this frustration as a self-employed immigrant in Portugal anxiously awaiting our SEF appointment (Portuguese border control, essentially) after which we will, hopefully, be awarded legal resident status. Portugal is notorious for its slow and labyrinthine bureaucracy, and I am among the more fortunate ones so far, greatly owing to hiring a Portuguese immigration attorney to help us navigate the system more smoothly. Even so, we've faced some frightening, not to mention costly, setbacks to even get to the point we have the SEF appointments officially scheduled.
On the U.S. end, I'm facing other catastrophic failures of the system (from my point of view it's a failure, in any case, but the system is working just fine from the PoV of the ownership class). Among these: mere days after finally getting my visa approved, which is contingent on my earning a sufficient amount of non-Portugal derived income, the U.S. organization with which I had converted my W2 contract to a 1099 contract (via a middleman agency) advised me they were not going to need my services any more after all, which came as quite a horrible shock. I've since heard that this is happening to a lot of U.S. independent contractors, that their contracts get terminated shortly after they move abroad. So I'm also in the position of changing jobs (I had another gig the very next day with a previous client) in the midst of changing countries, though as far as I know Portugal doesn't have a requirement to be with the same employer for at least 6 months like Germany does (unless they are also not putting that information on their website). I think a call to my attorney for some assurance may be in order!
All this to say, I empathize with the experience you shared greatly!
Self-employed immigrant here 👋🏻 It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster to DIY this stuff with young kids without the support of an employer or organization. We have ended up paying a German helper to accompany us to appointments and even with her help still find this same experience. I feel stupid all the time and all
The other feelings you described. And after a year here my Deutsch ist nicht gut. Soul crushing.
I feel this frustration as a self-employed immigrant in Portugal anxiously awaiting our SEF appointment (Portuguese border control, essentially) after which we will, hopefully, be awarded legal resident status. Portugal is notorious for its slow and labyrinthine bureaucracy, and I am among the more fortunate ones so far, greatly owing to hiring a Portuguese immigration attorney to help us navigate the system more smoothly. Even so, we've faced some frightening, not to mention costly, setbacks to even get to the point we have the SEF appointments officially scheduled.
On the U.S. end, I'm facing other catastrophic failures of the system (from my point of view it's a failure, in any case, but the system is working just fine from the PoV of the ownership class). Among these: mere days after finally getting my visa approved, which is contingent on my earning a sufficient amount of non-Portugal derived income, the U.S. organization with which I had converted my W2 contract to a 1099 contract (via a middleman agency) advised me they were not going to need my services any more after all, which came as quite a horrible shock. I've since heard that this is happening to a lot of U.S. independent contractors, that their contracts get terminated shortly after they move abroad. So I'm also in the position of changing jobs (I had another gig the very next day with a previous client) in the midst of changing countries, though as far as I know Portugal doesn't have a requirement to be with the same employer for at least 6 months like Germany does (unless they are also not putting that information on their website). I think a call to my attorney for some assurance may be in order!
All this to say, I empathize with the experience you shared greatly!
Self-employed immigrant here 👋🏻 It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster to DIY this stuff with young kids without the support of an employer or organization. We have ended up paying a German helper to accompany us to appointments and even with her help still find this same experience. I feel stupid all the time and all
The other feelings you described. And after a year here my Deutsch ist nicht gut. Soul crushing.