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Hi Cheryl,

You are very welcome in Portugal.

Portuguese are friendly and helpful.

We really appreciate it when people are kind and have good manners. I suggest learning a few magic sentences before you arrive, such as "Obrigada," "Desculpe," "Por favor," and "É muito gentil da sua parte."

You can find groups of Americans, British, and Canadians online who will be delighted to have you on board.

If you need certified translations, please let me know

You will love it here!!

Obrigada - Only used by women.

Obrigado - Used in general

Hi Everyone,

I am currently based in Ponta Delgada on San Miguel Island. I would love to connect with the expat community here in town, any advice suggestions? like blogs, WhatsApp chats, events and the like?

I would appreciate any comment suggestion, thank you so much in advance.

I have been living on the Island for four month now. My experience has been very positive so far, people are really nice and helpful, though it could be challenging navigating the bureaucracy and the dealing with government offices and institutions; it can be trying and at times frustrating...lots of patience and slowly with the time everything works.

Another challenging part could be finding jobs and/or starting your own business...I am in the middle of that and it is certainly challenging.

Thank you.

M.

Me and my wife are EU citizens and we are living in Portugal for 10 years after being expats in different countries for over 20 years.

My wife wanted to live in Europe to be able to see her aging family and friends more often. I wanted to live by the sea and in a climate without really cold weather. Portugal ticked these boxes, plus it provided low cost of living. A little later I found out about NHR and that was an addition perk. Also, English is widely spoken, which made life easier at the beginning.

After the formalities were completed with the help of a Relocation Agent and the Portuguese partner of our international removals company we found a very nice rental apartment in Cascais. The owner herself is an expat living in the USA, which made things much easier. We had also immediately bought a car, which provided flexible mobility. A couple of years later we bought an apartment north of Lisbon and we are very happy with this decision.

We met other expats via Internations.org and Meetup and we are still in contact with some people we met there early on. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ provided some valuable information. The majority of our acquaintances or friends are expats themselves. We feel that the Portuguese like to stick with their families and old friends. The latter doesn’t say that we are not friendly with our neighbours or the people we meet regularly. 

Over time the Portuguese government has decided to make Portugal s major tourist destination and a place for immigration. However, they have never prepared for the consequences of this decision. At least this is my opinion! So now there are parts of Lisbon where Portuguese cannot live anymore, because rent and home ownership are just too expensive. The SNS is hopelessly overloaded as is the immigration department and other public services. It takes forever to get a residence card or a new drivers license. If arriving from outside the EU one has to stand for hours in line for the passport checks.

My feeling (!) is that many Portuguese had enough and the Portuguese are not that welcoming to foreigners anymore. In Lisbon it isn’t as bad as in Barcelona, but it could get similar.

I still like to live in this country, but in reality it is much more „normal“ than the hype on the Internet makes many believe.