From Italian Citizenship to the D2 Visa: How We Found Our Path to Portugal

In early 2023, my cousin texted and asked if I knew that we might be eligible for Italian citizenship. Wow, no way, I thought. Our great-grandparents had come to the US in the early 1900s, how could it be possible for us to qualify? We submitted for a free analysis and were told, yes, we in fact did qualify.

We were in the very early days of dreaming about a move to Portugal. What perfect timing! All we had to do was get birth, marriage, naturalization, and death records from every ancestor starting with the immigrant who left Italy. It seemed simple enough. It sounded like an opportunity to do a little light genealogy, à la Finding Your Roots. That optimism lasted for exactly one day.

It turned out, not only did we need to get all of these documents, we needed to get them all apostilled. Also, if there are discrepancies on the documents (and we’re talking hand written documents, many as far back as the 19th century) we’d need to get a judge (yes, an actual judge) in the United States to say that Adelina is the same person as Adeline. And that was before we could either get an impossible appointment at an Italian consulate in the US (which can sometimes take years) or file a lawsuit in Italy. Since our line went through our great grandmother, we decided to go the lawsuit route.

Two years later in early 2025 (yes, you read that right!), we were in great shape. We had 90% of our documents apostilled, we had lined up the lawsuit in the United States to prove that Adelina and Adeline were one and the same, and along with our cousins, we had paid our last installment to our lawyers in Italy to file the lawsuit. If all went well, we’d have it filed in early spring.

Then we came across an instagram post that changed all of that. It was our worst nightmare. In March 2025, we quickly learned that the Italian government via decree said that henceforth no one from the great grandchildren generation was eligible anymore. Poof, no exceptions. Our house was about to go on the market, and our most viable path to living in Europe was gone with one decree. There was some hope this could be appealed, but that could take years.

If ever there was a moment to rethink our decision to move abroad, it was this one. In that devastating moment, the one thing we knew was that this was not going to stop us from moving. Portugal was the right place to build our lives. We would rely on sheer persistence to figure out the rest. We began speaking with lawyers to find the right attorney and right visa for us and we started to feel a bit like goldilocks.

We were told that even though we had income generating investments, we wouldn’t be good candidates for the D7 Passive Income Visa because we did not have proof of using those investments for living expenses.

We had one lawyer who advised us that the D8 Digital Nomad Visa was just right for us. Since I worked remotely, I should try to get my company to agree to it since they wouldn’t even have to pay anything to sponsor me. I quickly learned the difference between a Remote job and ‘Remote US’ job. Even if this route had worked out, having our visa dependent on a US corporation felt a bit like having our path dependent on Italian judges…

That’s when we took a serious look at the D2 Entrepreneur Visa. D2 seemed just right. It would enable us to build our own business. After searching, we found the right attorneys to work with and were back on track. It was not an easy process, but for us, it was the right process and we felt it as soon as we started.

The process involved:

• Establishing a private limited liability company, or LDA, in Portugal

• Opening a business bank account

• Preparing our application with our attorneys

• Completing an FBI Background Check and Fingerprints

• Attending our interview at the Portuguese Consulate

• Waiting patiently (easier said than done!)

• Getting set up with accountants in Portugal to make sure our books are done correctly for our residency appointment

From our decision to apply for a D2 Entrepreneur Visa to approval took five months. Navigating complex processes and persisting no matter what are key to immigration, and it's one of the reasons immigrants make great entrepreneurs. Ultimately, the D2 Visa was the right choice for us because it enabled us to have more flexibility in our daily lives, contribute to the local economy, and build a business we care about.