Programs of tax benefits promoting residence permits or immigration of citizens with solid financial resources have been present on the political agenda of the European Union for some decades (Schachar & Hirsch, 2014; Surak, 2021). In line with other European countries, in Portugal, one of these programs, Non-Habitual Residents (NHR), has played a decisive role in attracting individuals privileged by their economic capital, by their wealthy consumerism, and their urban and cosmopolitan lifestyles (Ampudia de Haro & Gaspar, 2021). Although this program has attracted some attention of the media and public opinion, we still know little about the decision-making processes and motivations on the migration of these privileged citizens to Portugal. As such, it is important to understand not only their reasons for moving, but also – and utmost –, their motivations to stay in the country. This paper unveils to disentangle the motivations of migration and permanence among European migrants living in Portugal and benefiting from NHR tax regime. The empirical data is drawn from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 EU individuals of both genders, highly qualified, and living in Portugal for at least one year. The results are partly aligned with previous studies (McGarrigle, 2021), indicating that their narratives to move or stay in Portugal are enmeshed with a) an urban lifestyle imaginary revealing their privileged citizenship position vis-à-vis other non-EU migrants; b) and an ambivalent decision-making attitude when considering given up their fiscal benefits when equating to stay or to move to another country.

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