Hi Simon, I see a there is a fair amount of saffers/ ex-saffers on steem. What do you miss of SA now you live in Portugal? My wife and I currently live out side Cape Town, but we have given some thought to eventually living in Portugal. Have generally heard good things plus affordable for us Saffers.
Hi. I was basically forced to leave SA. I suffer from chronic kidney failure and due to a mix up with my permit application, I was forced to return to my home country of Portugal. I was waiting for 4 years for them to process my application and during that time I was not able to enter the waiting list for a kidney transplant.
My wife is South African and because she has a business there, it didn't make sense for us to uproot our life entirely with no plan for the future, so she is still in SA along with my 11 year old daughter. All that to say, the thing I miss the most about SA is my family. South Africa is a very beautiful country with a lot of wonderful people. I would not have left if I hadn't been forced to.
Portugal is also a great place to live, especially if you are earning an income elsewhere. The cost of living is still very cheap. I tried to find work when I first got here and I found that to be a bit hard, I eventually settled for doing remote work for the company in South Africa that I had been working for.
I know of a few people that have married South Africans and the BS they have to through to become citizens is a joke. And of course, you need the proper permits to even open a bank account. Hope everything works out - must be tough at them moment. Thank goodness for Skype!