MichaelHaw 08/15/2026 10:13 (UTC+00:00)
Thinking back to her decision to relocate to Portugal on her own five years ago, Paula Dreyfuss jokes that many people questioned her state of mind, as she’d never even visited the European country before.
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But the mother of two, now based in the coastal city of Porto, famous for its Port wine and spectacular bridges, has no regrets today, as her life is much richer in many ways.
“I have a lot more life here,” Dreyfuss, who is originally from Texas, tells CNN Travel, before blissfully describing her frequent trips to local museums, movie theaters, and pop-up wineries in the Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage region in northern Portugal.
“My daughter came to visit one time, and asked, “Well, what do you guys do all day?” she recalls. “And my friend holds up a glass of Champagne and goes, “You’re looking at it.”
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Paula is able to live a comfortable life on an "adequate income" in Portugal, which she feels wouldn't have been possible if she'd stayed in California.
Paula is able to live a comfortable life on an "adequate income" in Portugal, which she feels wouldn't have been possible if she'd stayed in California. Courtesy Paula Dreyfuss
Dreyfuss loves the local food and usually eats out at least three times a week, something she simply couldn’t have afforded to do when she was based in San Diego, California, where she lived and worked as a teacher previously.
When she began teaching after working in corporate finance for years, Dreyfuss thought she’d end up with a retirement income that would provide her with a comfortable lifestyle.
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But as the years went by and the cost of living increased, she realized that this was unlikely to be the case.
Dreyfuss considered moving within the United States, and recalls driving up to Seattle and “stopping at a bunch of places,” but says she couldn’t find anywhere affordable enough to tempt her away.
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She’d always dreamed of traveling around Europe extensively, but Dreyfuss knew that this would likely never happen if she stayed where she was. So what better way to explore the continent than actually moving there?
After doing some research into European countries, Dreyfuss found that the only visa that she qualified for at the time was the Portugal D7 visa, which allows non-EU nationals with a stable passive income to reside in the country.
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“I’d never been to Portugal. So I had no way of doing a scouting trip or anything,” she says. “I thought, ‘I’m going to go over there. And If I don’t like Portugal, then I’ll move to Spain or France.’”
While she put her plans on the back burner for a while, Dreyfuss says that the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 ultimately prompted her to finally leave the US permanently.
“I was really ready to get away from the political situation in the United States,” she admits.
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