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News
Plan B Walkthrough: A US Software Engineer's Path to Ireland (2026)
A 34-year-old senior software engineer at a Boston fintech runs the Plan B analysis in July 2026. Goal: legal EU residency in 12 months, EU passport in ~5 years, minimal salary hit. This walkthrough reveals the top 3 country matches — Ireland at 92%, Portugal at 87%, Germany at 84% — with the honest tax, application, and cost-of-living math for each.
Jul 9, 20268 min
News
Spain vs Portugal for American Digital Nomads in 2026: The Reality Check
For five years Portugal was the default American digital nomad destination. In 2026 that's changed — but not as cleanly as most comparison posts suggest. Spain's DNV income floor is €831/mo lower than Portugal's D8. The Beckham Law saves W-2 employees €10K+/yr in tax, though freelancers get a much harder path to it. Meanwhile Portugal's IFICI regime — poorly understood — actually favours tech workers, potentially beating Beckham on the math. Here's the honest side-by-side.
Jul 8, 20269 min
News
Ireland Is Now the Fastest EU Passport for Americans — Here's the Math
Portugal's revised nationality law took effect May 19, 2026, doubling most citizenship timelines to 10 years. Malta still requires €600,000-plus. That leaves Ireland's 5-year Stamp 4 path as the mathematically fastest EU passport for an American without EU ancestry or a large check.
Jul 6, 20268 min
News
Bringing a pet to Europe in 2026: the new rules taking effect October 1
The EU's new non-commercial pet travel regulation (EU 2026/131) takes effect October 1, 2026 — and the rule that catches most American applicants out has nothing to do with the obvious requirements. Here's the actual current process, the sequencing trap that disqualifies thousands of pets, and the timing math that determines whether your move-with-dog plan is realistic for late 2026 at all.
Jun 30, 202611 min
tools
Thailand's Destination Thailand Visa (DTV): the complete 2026 guide
Thailand's Destination Thailand Visa: 5 years, 180 days per entry, 500,000 THB in seasoned savings. Here's every 2026 rule (including the May visa-free rollback), the proposed two-year tax exemption that hasn't actually been enacted, real cost of living, and how the DTV stacks up against the LTR, Privilege, and Education routes.
Jun 30, 202620 min
tools
Portugal D7 vs Spain Non-Lucrative Visa: which actually qualifies you in 2026?
Portugal's D7 needs €920/mo in passive income. Spain's Non-Lucrative needs €2,400 — nearly 3× the bar. Here's the full side-by-side on tax, healthcare, family rules, and the realistic path to PR and citizenship (with the dual-citizenship caveat for Americans).
Jun 25, 202613 min
News
Europe's new border system is live. What every American traveler missed.
April 10, 2026: Europe replaced passport stamps with biometric tracking across 29 Schengen countries. Six months in: 66 million crossings, 32,000 refused entry, around 7,000 overstays caught. Here's what changed for US travelers — and what ETIAS adds this autumn.
Jun 24, 20269 min
tools
Plan B walkthrough: an American retiree couple, leaving the US by year-end
$4,500/mo Social Security, $400K savings, recently retired Americans ready to leave. Here's what Plan B generated — top 3 destinations, visa paths, and the 90-day plan.
Jun 18, 20268 min
News
EB-2 India Just Retrogressed 10 Months — Your Realistic Plan B for 2026
The June 2026 visa bulletin pushed EB-2 India's Final Action Date back to September 1, 2013 — a 10.5-month retrogression and the steepest single-month move in years. Wait time from priority date is now roughly 13 years. Here's what it means for Indian applicants currently in the US, and how the realistic alternatives — Canada STEM draws, Germany Blue Card, UK Skilled Worker, Singapore EP — actually compare on timeline after the recent rule changes in each system.
Jun 4, 20269 min
guides
8 Countries Paying You to Move There in 2026 — and the Break-Even Math Nobody Shows You
Italy €30K, Switzerland CHF 25K, Japan up to ¥5M, Greece €500/mo — the headline numbers are real. The property commitments, age caps, and residency rules behind them are the part the viral headlines never show. We ran the math.
May 30, 202611 min
Visa
European Visa Appointments: How Bad Is the Summer 2026 Backlog, and What Actually Works
Long-stay visa appointments for Portugal, Spain, Italy, France are booked 4–9 months out across US consulates. We mapped the picture across consulate jurisdictions, ranked the secondary consulates with shorter queues, and laid out the five strategies that actually move your timeline forward in 2026.
May 30, 20269 min
News
Portugal's 5-Year Citizenship Path Is Gone — What Lei Orgânica 1/2026 Changes
Portugal's revised Nationality Law (Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026) was signed by President Seguro on May 3, 2026 and entered into force May 19. Citizenship now takes 10 years for most foreigners (7 for CPLP and EU citizens). The transitional rule protects only applications already submitted by May 18 — there is no general grandfathering for residents who hadn't yet applied.
May 30, 20269 min
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