Secrets. I have a few. I figure everyone does.
Well, secrets sometimes need to be revealed, explained, or clarified—especially if the secret has anything to do with the criminal record you submit with your application for a visa to travel to Portugal to establish residency.
Does it sound like I have a story to tell you? The story illustrates something important. Be proactive when you submit requested documents to apply for a visa to immigrate to a foreign country—in this case to move from California and retire in Portugal.
One application requirement for our D7 residency visas was a recent (not older than three months) FBI Criminal Record for my husband and I. Sounded straightforward.
Oh… but wait. A few years had passed since I submitted my Criminal Record to anyone. Twenty years had passed since I was the applicant for a resort owner’s liquor license. That application needed my FBI Criminal Record. My secret was revealed. Of course I had forgotten about it. You guessed right… I had a lot of explaining to do. I wish I had explained it to the owner before he read it.
The thing about secrets is this: if I don’t tell anybody the secret, eventually I forget that there is a secret. I forget that anything happened.
That was the case in 1999 with the liquor license application. It was the same scenario in 2020 when I applied for my D7 Visas and Portuguese residency. The secret is so well guarded, even I didn’t remember it! I’m sure a therapist would have fun chewing on this with me.
No doubt you are curious. “What is on Joch’s FBI Criminal Record?” you must be asking. “What is your secret?”
It’s just a misdemeanor.
The kind of thing that legal assistants tell you won’t raise a red flag or prevent granting your application. It is not a felony.
But my misdemeanor has a story attached to it… and the misdemeanor is in a category that can cause some hiccups with a residency visa application… or liquor license application.
Long, long ago. I was 26 or 27. I lived in Salt Lake City and worked in the marketing offices of a nearby ski resort. My younger brother worked at the same resort. We rented a duplex together. We hadn’t been roommates since I left home for college at 18. He was a night auditor working the graveyard shift. I worked in the daytime. We were like ships passing in the Panama Canal.
On the September night of this story, my brother was working when I was drinking and dancing at a nightclub with friends. My brother was making numbers balance when my inebriated friends and I exited the nightclub. My brother was unaware that I thought it would be funny to moon the statue of the Angel Moroni on the top of the LDS Temple. The Mormon policeman that none of us saw at the end of the block did not think mooning the Angel Moroni was funny.
I was arrested, spent the night in jail, and was bailed out with just enough time to make it to work. My brother never found out. No one knew I appeared before a judge, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for indecent exposure, paid a reduced fine of $250, and was not sentenced to jail time. I believe the judge saw the humor in my situation.
The important part of my story: be proactive and submit a letter of explanation with a requested Criminal Record when applying for a Residency Visa to Portugal if you have any items listed on that record. The list of required documents doesn’t mention providing an explanation letter.
I’m telling you, this was the best advice we ever received from our lawyer. It makes sense that a Portuguese staff member at the consulate would deny a visa to an applicant with a Criminal Record that read, “Misdemeanor Indecent Exposure.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we were introduced to our lawyer by the staff of Live And Invest Overseas, Inc. at one of their conferences in 2019. Best thing we ever did. (Should you need to, you can contact them here.)
I’m a Woodruff, so of course I had to ask our lawyer if the Portuguese will know what I mean when I say, “I mooned the Angel Moroni?” I continued, “Is there a Portuguese word for mooned?”
Our lawyer patiently explained, “Just write that you dropped your trousers and exposed your derrière in the direction of the statue. We’ll translate the whole letter into Portuguese.”
That’s what I did. No denial or delay. Our visas were issued promptly. There were no questions when we went to our Residency Appointment with Immigration Services after moving to Portugal. Whew. Crisis averted.
It’s six years later. Our Portuguese Citizenship applications are being reviewed and processed. Yup, you got it. I had to submit a new explanation letter with a new FBI Criminal Record last fall. The secret misdemeanor that keeps on requiring explanation.
Here’s one final piece of information about Criminal Reports. Applications for citizenship in Portugal require a Portuguese Criminal Report, too.
Golly, it was very easy to get this report.
We just went to a nearby town hall office. We waited maybe five minutes before we were called to the clerk windows. We showed proof of our address. We paid €5 (I think). We chatted with the clerk (not more than two minutes) while she printed and stamped our official Portuguese Criminal Records.
Easy.
I guess I shouldn’t keep calling my Salt Lake City misdemeanor a secret. My brother will probably read this… I hope he’s in a forgiving mood.
Sincerely,
Joch Woodruff
Portugal Circle Liaison
