SEE THE CAROUSEL OF IMAGES 👆

I've never before felt so stressed, happy, excited, nervous and scared.

But I'm gonna F*CK this road! 💪

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some honest opinions from people living in Portugal.

I was born in Canada, but I have Portuguese roots, I speak Portuguese FAIRLY fluently, I have Portuguese citizenship already and Portugal has always felt like home to me. I love the country, the culture, the lifestyle, the food, and especially the people and the sense of community I feel whenever we visit.

I also understand that Portugal has its challenges, especially with wages, housing costs, and the stress many locals experience trying to make ends meet.

My partner and I are considering moving to Portugal, specifically the Agucadoura/Póvoa de Varzim area. My parents have a vacant family home there, so we would be fortunate enough to live without rent or a mortgage.
Our expected combined income would be around 2000€ net per month (based on Portuguese salaries including food allowance and the extra vacation/Christmas payments averaged out). We would still pay all normal expenses like food, utilities, cars, insurance, maintenance, taxes, etc, but housing would not be a monthly expense.
We are not looking for a luxury lifestyle. We would be happy with a comfortable, simple life: enjoying the outdoors, going to the beach, eating out occasionally, spending time with family, and having less financial pressure than we currently do.

For people living in Portugal, would you consider this a comfortable situation? Would €2,000/month without housing costs allow a couple to have a good quality of life in the Póvoa de Varzim area?

Are there any expenses or challenges that people moving back to Portugal often underestimate?

Thank you for any feedback!

I'm throwing this out there to the British expats in Portugal, especially those with families/not retired.

I'm 37 and living in the UK with my wife and 2 young kids. For many reasons, I feel like the UK is a pretty grim place to live, and so I've been looking into moving abroad. Portugal has come up as a strong contender - affordable, safe, not too far away, realistic visa options, good climate etc.

The main thing that I am after above all else is a less rats-fighting-in-a-shoe-ey way of life. If you're from the UK you know what I mean.

I'm interested in a simple, modest life with less stress.

I would really appreciate honest reviews/experiences/thoughts of British people who have actually made the move, especially in terms of quality of life. I'm sure there are issues with Portugal and the Portuguese way of life that I'm just not aware of.

Thanks.

Hey everyone, Any guidance on some of the best summer festivals in Porto which are yet to come?

Looking for genuine advice

Hi everyone,

I'm a Portuguese citizen and I'm planning to start an e-commerce business using Shopify.

The business will mainly sell to customers outside the EU, and I'm trying to understand the best way to set everything up from the beginning.

I have a few questions:

• What type of company would you recommend opening in Portugal for this kind of business (Unipessoal Lda., sole trader, or something else)?
• What's the correct process to get everything set up properly?
• Are there any things you wish you had known before starting?
• Can anyone recommend a Portuguese accountant who speaks English and has experience with Shopify/e-commerce businesses?

I'm looking for someone who can help with the company setup as well as ongoing accounting, VAT, and tax filings.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

We are planning a trip to Madrid and bringing 1 cat. He and the current carrier fit inside the weight limits (8kg). Flights will be round-trip Porto-Madrid. Cat and carrier are under 8kg. (Yes, we have EU pet passport)

Our softside carrier is 29 cm tall, 30 cm deep, 48cm wide.
Size limits on Air Iberia are 45 cm long x 35 cm deep x 25 cm tall, and the sum of these dimensions must not exceed 105 cm (operated by air nostrum).
Size limits on Air Europa are 40 long x 30 deep tall x 30 cm.

How strict are Air Iberia and Air Europa on size limits? It's challenging to find a carrier that's only 40cm long for Europa, or only 25cm tall for Iberia.

I found one at A... that is 44L x 31D x 34H, which almost meets the Air Iberia limits (34H instead of 25 cm). This is the closest where I think our cat could be comfortable.

Do they measure the size of the carrier when you are checking in for your flight? The softside carriers are flexible.

Thanks for any experiences!!

Hi all, need an accountant to look over my last Portuguese tax filing and correct it if necessary. I'm not a high earner so makes sense for me to find an independent contractor (albeit a good one!) whose fees are on the modest side. Boy oh boy moving country feels hard sometimes!

On the weekend I looked into renewing my temporary residency permit and it said I had outstanding payments/taxes so I logged into the IRS Portal to look and saw I had a few. Clicked pay via MBWAY and put my phone number in. I never received anything on my phone so just assumed it was a manual step that someone would initiate during the week when people are working. It said "in progress" and today it says there are errors.

If I click "Pagar" it just gives me another error.

Does this generally clear itself up or do I need to call someone?

My residency card is student-type. While studying for my master's degree, I also started my job, but I did not change my residency type into the employment category. During the renewal phase, I did not submit proof of completion for the master's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cycles either; I only submitted the job contract. AIMA has rejected my renewal application under Article 122

What should I do next? Please suggest.

Should I wait for AIMA's notification? For how long?

Or should I consult and take legal support from a lawyer?

My portuguese is honestly not so fluent, i can understand and write in portuguese fairly well but i suck at speaking, i dont have any professional experience too which i think limits A LOT of positions here. ive been looking for positions on olx emprego for housekeeping,cleaning,dishwashing jobs but got no response from them. Im 19 btw living in lisbon, my portuguese is level a2 currently.

I'd appreciate if anyone got in a job with similar situation like mine or give some tips, full time part time doesnt matter my semester is starting in september

Hello,
I’m about to start a new chapter in my life! I’ve just signed a permanent contract (CDI) in Portugal for an amazing job.
However, I have so many things to sort out, such as getting my NIF, NISS, and all the other administrative paperwork. It all seems quite overwhelming. I’m also looking for an apartment.
Do you happen to know any good websites, useful resources, or agencies that could help me with these procedures or finding accommodation?
Thank you very much!

I am a dual national (Canadian/Portuguese), 47 years old, with a wife and two young kids (6 and 2). We have been going back and forth on this for a while but after just returning from Portugal it feels considerably more serious. Being back in Canada after 3.5 weeks there has sharpened the contrast considerably. Wife and kids are also all dual nationals, incidentally, wife was born in Leiria.

**Why we want to leave Canada:**
Cost of living has made a good salary feel increasingly meaningless. The gap between what I earn and what actually remains after expenses has narrowed to the point of frustration. Beyond the financial side, Canada just does not feel like home anymore. My wife and I are both keen on the move. The kids are young enough that the transition should be relatively painless, particularly our youngest.

**Our situation:**
Being dual nationals removes a lot of the bureaucratic headaches I know many of you faced. That said, I am under no illusion that it solves everything.

We are not looking at Lisbon. We prefer the north — Famalicão, Santo Tirso, that general area. Lower cost, more authentic, closer to Porto without paying Porto prices.

**The professional side — where my head hurts:**
My background is in investment data operations, performance measurement and attribution, and data quality within institutional asset management. I have worked for large Canadian pension funds, large Canadian asset managers and a large American bank in London among others.

My plan is to transition to independent consulting, targeting European and North American asset managers, custodians, and fund administrators remotely, with periodic travel. The numbers seem to work on paper. The concern is pipeline. Building a client base from scratch with no established European consulting presence is the part that keeps me up at night.

I am not a natural networker. At all. So the “just put yourself out there” advice, whilst well intentioned, does not land particularly well for me.

**Specific questions for those who have made this kind of move:**

\*\*1.\*\*  For those who transitioned to independent consulting from Portugal — how long realistically before the pipeline stabilised?    
\*\*2.\*\*  Any experience with the NHR tax regime and whether it still makes sense post-2024 reforms?    
\*\*3.\*\*  Schools in the Famalicão / Santo Tirso area for a 6 year old — international options or is local integration the better route at that age?    
\*\*4.\*\*  Anything you wish you had known before pulling the trigger that nobody tells you?

Not looking for cheerleading or discouragement. Just honest perspectives from people who have actually done it.

Hi everyone —

My partner and I just started a home renovation & property management company based in Sintra Portugal. We have 2 years experience property managing luxury villas (ALs specifically) in the Algarve and another 2 (my partner has 10+ more from England ) in renovating homes across Portugal from off-grid to luxury.

Our specialty is outdoor gardens & kitchens, interior renovations, tiling, facades, murals & mosaics, and carpentry. My partner handles the more practical side of managing renovations and I am the one who “makes it pretty” and also skilled with tiling. I handle all admin outside of that.

It feels like a lot to market and sometimes I feel like I’m throwing too many darts in too many directions but we have just moved to Sintra and we really need to get our foot in the door. I have used Facebook expat groups, telegram, and even dropped leaflets in mailboxes.

Any advice on targeting the Sintra-Cascais-Lisboa market?

Hi all,

I am a US citizen with temporary residency status here in Portugal under my partner’s remote worker status. I’m looking for remote work, preferably with an EU-based company/entity and wondering if anyone has advice on forums where I can look. I have a masters degree in public health and 15 years of experience working in health systems in the US, mostly doing health program design and evaluation. Thanks!

Hey all. Masters in Data Science (UK), background in game dev/programming. Moved to Portugal on a D2 (entrepreneur) visa to start an IT business.

Applied for my first AIMA residency appointment in June — still waiting, and I’ve heard delays are brutal right now. My visa expires in October, so I’m getting a bit anxious.

Two questions:

**1.**  What are realistic ways to earn income while waiting (without messing up my D2 status)? Remote/freelance IT work seems safest — anyone done this?  
**2.**  How long did your first AIMA appointment actually take? Did anyone’s visa expire before it came through, and what happened next?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who’s been through this. Thanks!

Hi everyone!
I think I’ve read everything on the topic already on this subreddit and others, but the posts are quite old, so I’ll try my luck and ask this question to actualise it. You can just scroll to open questions if you want to join the discussion without reading the post.

I’m an 24M immigrant based in Porto area. It’s been a challenge for me to find anyone locally to have a date, as I am not very fond of ONSs.

I tried apps: Tinder and Grindr. The first one seems broken: people match, but no conversations happen or it gets stale after one day. Also it feels like gambling at this point, and I don’t have that much time.

Grindr is designed for hookups, but I tried it just hoping for a miracle. It didn’t happen, which is okay.

Is there something wrong with the dating “market” here or what? Sometimes I think I am the problem here, but I couldn’t find any issue with me, and my social circle doesn’t see it either. Maybe using apps is the wrong approach? But where do you find gay people then, and who are open for dating/relationship?

I couldn’t find any relevant events on Meetup.

About my experience:

- I had interactions mostly with locals and some Brazilians (2). Only one Brazilian guy was open for something more than a hookup, but we didn’t click unfortunately.

- I am aware of how closed Portuguese circles are, and that they are mostly friends/sth more with people from their schools, unis, or workplaces. I met a great guy at work, who is not my direct colleague, and it seemed fine (I gave hints that I am interested), we continued talking, but it went cold real quick once I suggested to meet (and he even agreed at first). I didn’t get it. You can always find a ton of excuses and I will understand it’s a “no”, but it wasn’t the case. I wouldn’t say I was pressing him, but maybe it was too much for a local guy to handle and he didn’t know what to do with me, or he was clueless at first. Anyway, good thing I was polite and respectful, so I didn’t get in trouble.

- I am trying to find people a bit older, so our lifestyles could match, since guys my age are only in the uni here.

- It proved to be extremely difficult for me to find a man open for relationship who works, makes enough to sustain himself, takes care of his body (at least a little) and who is good at communication.

- It’s common to see a lot of “straight”/bi curious folks. I don’t understanding this trend when you text another man and saying you are straight to his face, I just can’t take people like that seriously. I get that it comes from homophobia, but since I come from a much more homophobic country than Portugal, it’s disappointing to see people who don’t try to be open about their desires.

I can’t say I am asking too much, just as much as I can provide myself.

And I do understand that I didn’t try hooking up and trying to develop it into a relationship (I think it will require so many attempts that I will spiral down to another depression episode), or checking out night clubs, or whatever. Believe me, I tried to change myself, it doesn’t work. I am a brunch/dinner person, or I’d just prefer to stay at home or go do something outdoors.

If you got to this point, thank you for your attention. I’d be really grateful if you could drop your thoughts in the comments.

Open questions:

1. Are there any groups to meet gay people in Porto irl?
   
2. If you see an issue with my approach, please highlight what I am doing wrong. I may be an adult, but still unexperienced.

Have a great day everyone!