Introducing Cutting Edge features of AskRudy

In this process, we hit some real barriers. For starters, just understanding what steps we needed and how to apply for the right visa that would eventually lead to residency and later citizenship; it was all confusing. We heard about a family reunification visa and a D7 visa for expats and retirees with passive income and were unsure of which to apply for and how to apply as a family. I remember this being our first hurdle. We had visa attorneys recommending that we apply for family reunification, but I was reading horror stories that it was near impossible to receive a follow up visa appointment for family members in Portugal. We didn’t know what this meant or how hard it could be, but knew we wanted our family of 4 to apply and travel together and not be stuck in Portugal if we needed to fly out for some reason. This was just one of many questions we would have in the coming months, where we would get multiple answers that would conflict with each other.

This is why we created AskRudy. In this situation, we could have asked the question to the AskRudy Personal Assistant and gotten clear information while also saving time on our endless research on digital nomad and visa processes, while saving money consulting with attorneys and relocation experts. Just sharing, the answer is that we each apply for a D7 visa (children included) and we provide the same paperwork for each application.

Finding safe, reliable housing, especially while being abroad, was really important to us. We wanted a furnished place, in a good (walkable, near grocery stores, cafe’s, etc) location, with options for schools close by. In trying to find a place to rent, we immediately were challenged by language barriers and we didn’t have any contacts that could be the intermediary for us. With the time change and language barriers, we really needed someone to help us to find a place to rent. After hiring a company to find us a place and support through negotiating the terms of a lease, we were given a lease in Portuguese. When we used DeepL to translate the lease, it was partially translated, with symbols showing up as letters. We could understand about 75% of it, but not knowing what it said in its entirety was concerning. Simultaneously, we read horror stories of others who made the move prior to us, about shady landlords or arriving to a dirty apartment and so on. As we dug in more and asked questions about the lease, we found out that what we negotiated in months of deposit to be paid upfront and length of lease had changed from 1 year to 5 years and 2 months deposit not 1. Whether these discrepancies were from the agency we hired, the housing attorneys involved or the landlord, we had no clue but we had to pause signing the lease so we could get some answers. At the same time, we were navigating the need to have a signed lease in place for our D7 visa appointment with VFS Global, which was coming up in a month. While we weren’t opposed to changes, it was an uncertain feeling having these differences in writing and trying to navigate these conversations was not as simple as picking up the phone or sending an email due to language and culture barriers.

Throughout the visa and moving abroad process, we consulted with relocation experts and visa attorneys trying to get clarity, and would leave the “clarifying call” with some information, but also 100 questions. Each time we made progress, you still felt like you had a question mark over your head, where we understood half of what occurred and just hoped things would work itself out.

This is where AskRudy Snapshot and Chat and Translation would have helped! There are times when you know you are at a deficit because of culture and language barriers, however, this doesn’t change the fact that you need to navigate this bureaucratic process and you want to do so with respect and certainty. AskRudy could have easily translated documents in a foreign language, made contractual edits, and provided professional support bridging language and cultural gaps, guiding you through bureaucratic processes with confidence and clarity.

It sounds cliche, but this rang true throughout our whole process and in our daily lives living abroad.“We don’t know, what we don’t know.” At least for me, when something is completely new, my questions are so open ended, like “how does this work? and, what do I need to know?” We have all been the ones asking these questions AND we have been on the other end of trying to answer and it can feel like a needle in a haystack trying to figure out what am I asking and what do I need to know. Every situation is different and it’s hard to say what info is relevant to you.

You have finally solved the lease and you have a signed contract, but then you need to get utilities set up and you hit a wall of being exhausted with adulting… you have this feeling even in your home country, but in a foreign country, it all feels so complicated. So now it is time to get utilities, internet and a cell phone set up. Being abroad, but knowing we would arrive in 6 weeks and would still need to be working, we had to navigate how to do this and heard that it could take 2-3 weeks to get this set up. We used the same local Portuguese business to help us get these services in place, but we still needed to do our due diligence to understand contract rates and services. After using DeepL to translate the emails and contracts, we still had questions but it was hard to get clear information and understand what services would be part of the contract. In the end, we just picked companies and figured we would deal with making changes when we arrived, as we just needed things to be working upon arrival.

AskRudy Instant Translation and Follow-Up Questions can help you to better understand the emails and contracts you are receiving. AskRudy Follow-Up Questions solves this issue by providing you prompt questions, to start to narrow down what you need to know and get you thinking about what other questions you may have. These prompts are there as suggested questions, which you can use, or if you have specific questions, just jump in and ask. The Follow-Up Questions will help you to understand the issues, find gray areas within the contract and will help you to be more specific on what information you need so you can move forward. The Follow Up Questions feature may pose questions you have not thought of and will provide answers to these questions so you can make informed decisions as you take steps through the visa process and life abroad.

Finding a school and setting up your kids for success. As it came time to find a school, this was another area where we struggled. We heard the public school system was really good and it is free! We were all set to get them enrolled in the public school and when we arrived, it was during the school registration window. We asked our landlord, asked the company that helped us to find housing, we asked strangers outside of the school trying to figure out how to get our kids enrolled in school. Challenges were knowing where to go, what documents did we need, where to get the documents we needed and how to fill out the forms. After 3 weeks and 75+ hours of trying to navigate this, we finally got our kids registered and were now waiting for the list to see if they got into school. A month later we checked the school board and saw they were enrolled! However, in the weeks leading up to school starting, we tried to tour the school and learn more about the specific school they were enrolled in, hoping to get our kids comfortable, meet the teachers and be set up for success. This was near impossible and not knowing the culture, where information is released a few days before the start of school, we were stressed. By this time, we felt we needed a Plan B, as we needed kids to be in school and we wanted our kids and ourselves to be prepared, but were finding language and bureaucratic barriers left and right. After sitting in a school presentation, and a classroom introduction, all in Portuguese, we were exhausted and had minimal new information but a school supplies list in Portuguese. We were worried that this would be too much to expect from our children to take on. We were already living in a new country, away from family and friends, and now they would be sitting in a school for 8 hours in a new language. How much culture shock can we put on our kids? Would they make friends, understand what was going on in class, or just be happy in their new environment? Last minute, we decided to find a different school, where school staff spoke English and we would be able to integrate our kids easier into a new school system. Picking a school is stressful, let alone picking a school in a new country. As a parent, we always have doubts and worries and question our choices and the impact these decisions will have on our children. (Fast forward - our kids are thriving and love living in Portugal!)

Being able to utilize the AskRudy personal assistant and ask questions about the school registration process, or what to expect at a specific school around resources for our children to integrate into the school, all would have helped to ease our minds and help us to make an informed decision. AskRudy Snapshot and Chat and Source and Citation Tracking would have also given us the opportunity to upload the school manual and other documents for registration into AskRudy and translate the documents but also ask it questions. The in text citations would help to give us clarity about where specific sections are in the documents, so we could share with a school administrator to ask clarifying questions on specific needs. AskRudy would have given us a lot more information so we could make informed decisions sooner!