Can you tell me about how long you can stay as an American. We looked into moving to Portugal, but we had to go to the nearest Portuguese embassy ( in SF, CA) and go through an interview, plus prove we had to have enough money to live without working and then I think our temporary Schengen visa was only good for a a short time.
Because the US is not part of the EU agreement, we would have to completely move out of one of those countries after three months, for three months. So for example, if we did not have the extended visa, we could live in Portugal, France and Belgium up to three months combined, but then we would have to leave for three months and go back to the US or live in Bulgaria or somewhere that was not part of the Scavenge agreement.
Otherwise, we would be living in Portugal in a heartbeat. I loved my travels as a single woman through Spain too, but I love Portuguese food better:)
90 days is a standard tourist visa, you don't have to do anything to get that. If you need to work it gets a lot more complicated. If you don't need to work you can get a visa that is good for 3 years and is easily renewed as long as nothing changes. I'm married to a Brit so my visa is good for 5 years.