New members of the Portugal forum, introduce yourselves here - 2022

Hi everyone  we are prtuguese Canadians  retired  living  in quarteira ,we moved from Ontario  in September 2021 we are looking forward  to meet fellow Canadians

Hi there,

My husband & I (Australians) have recently settled in Foz do Arelho. We are looking to make some English-speaking friends who live closeby, like in Caldas da Rainha or Obidos etc, and also a community to be associated with. Feel free to get connected here. Thanks.

Hi There and welcome to Portugal.

I am a NZ resident (uk born) also a recent arrival, (5 months).  I recently moved from the Algarve to Gaeiras, (between Obidos & Caldas).

There is a meet up Bird watching & walking at the Lagoa de Obidos, Saturday 29 @9am.

To connect with other locals join the Silver Coast our Home FB page, its very active. Johnthan Guillot is organising the walk.

My name is Vanessa Nancekivell.

Feel free to contact me & would love to meet & say hello.

All the Best
Vanessa

Many thanks Venessa 🌹 Will add you on FB to chat more. 😄

Hi everybody. My wife and I are retired and live in New Mexico, USA. We have hopes to visit Portugal for the first time in May to get a feel for the country and the people, and to check out possible places to live next winter. Our plan now is to spend two weeks visiting Lisbon (along with Cascais and Setabol), the Algarve and Porto. (We like being near the water.) We're in the early stages and would appreciate any advice or opinions, especially about places to live.

Thanks and best regards,
Hack

Hi, apologies for the long first post!  I presently live in the British Virgin Islands and I'm looking to move to Portugal to the central or southern area.  I've never been there so this whole process seems a bit daunting.  Does anyone have any resources or contacts who show people around for a fee?  I would prefer not to take one of the standard tours because those are more tourist oriented rather than geared towards persons seeking to view the country from a practical, residential point of view. Intention is to look around and purchase a reasonable property to prepare things in advance so I can hit the street running.  Thanks!

HI,

check expatsportugal.com they do have lots of information and guides. 

Best of luck

Vanessa

Hello, we just bought a property in the Algarve, just outside of Loulé and will be moving there over the next months. We currently live in Vienna, Austria, so the logistics of the move are a bit daunting, even more so then when we moved from California to Vienna. Now we have to deal with car import, moving companies etc. which is quite a learning curve! And we are hoping to make new friends soon, so if anyone here lives in the area it would be great to connect! Thanks for adding me to the forum, best wishes Tania

Hello my name is Jose Lobato, I am native Portuguese and I think I can help you explaining you and showing Portugal out of the touristic environment  ! If it is ok for you just send me a email to ***> and I will send you my contacts - WhatsApp etc ! Kind Regards !

Hi!  My wife and I are moving to Lisbon in June and are wondering which neighborhoods are good places to live in.  Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

Hi everyone,
I would like to move (from Italy)  with my wife and my little dog to lisbon next year.
This year in the summer we would like to rent an apartment for two or three months to get to know the place better.
We will appreciate your help in getting in touch with real estate agencies that rent for a long period.

Hello! For a 2-3 month rental, consider VRBO.com and Airbnb.com. VRBO offers better cancellation policies in my experience. For longer term, check out idealista.com, which includes many real estate agency listings as well as some listings from individuals. Good luck to you.

Hello everybody,

Hope you all doing well?
I am planning to move to Porto, in April/ May, and would like to rent a long term flat.
After reading some posts / topics here, which are really helpful—
If I understand right, it’s also possible to get the NIF,
as EU citizen before moving to Porto, afterwards open a bank account, right?
Or just request when I will be in Porto?

Thank you in advance & have a nice day!
Fatima

Hi Fatima & Mcoder32, Welcome

As EU citizens, you can do all this yourself in Portugal. Remember that to open a bank account and make a lease contract, you must already have a NIF.

Renting Management Companies (Short/Long-Term Rentals)
https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=908693

Johnny, thank you for your reply!
All right, to sum up at first I nned to rent a flat, then I will get NIF and Bank account.
And I will check out that link too.
Obrigada

I am from Egypt. life and born in Aswan which is in the south of Egypt. I am 39 years old on 6 April 2022. I work as a Road engineer in government. I planning to get my second bachelor's in informatics or information security or data science in Portugal or another country in Europe according to budget and course content. I am an INTP personality with a Visual personality deal great with image data and relationships between things. when I was a child my dream is become mathematical science but found that I can not in Egypt because I did not like the traditional method of learning. Hope to get this dream as soon as possible.

Hello everyone.   I'm Lydia 59 from South Ontario.   Looking to get D7 approved by Nov
before winter.  Tips from fellow Ontarians/Canadians would be great.  Accommodation, how to open bank from Canada...   As I will be volunteering for 4-6 months accommodation are included, I'm interested in a room/shared accommodations as it is required to commit for a full year to start. 

Look forward to hearing from you and one day meeting you.

Blessings,
Lydia

Hi all, we're a Dutch-Indonesian family with two children who previously lived in Dubai. We'll be moving to Cascais/Estoril area in July. Children will be in international schools in Oeiras/Tagus park.
We're kind of struggling to see when to visit to secure a rental property for a year. I was thinking to visit soon but agents seem to be disinterested, possibly because it's still early to secure something.
Would like to get in touch with others in the area to exchange ideas. So connect or send a DM!

Hi,  I am a US citizen. I  have visited Portugal and am seriously considering retiring there. I am interested in information on the D7 visa. It is particularly confusing re: the required length of a lease agreement before applying for the visa and scheduling an appointment with the consulate.

I am also interested in apartments in Lisbon or Porto that are not tall modern buildings but have more of a Portuguese character.

w. elford

Looking for a house within 30 minutes of Tavira ideally, but really any of the international schools in the Algarve for a 40 something British couple with a 4 year old daughter and 2 very domesticated cats.
We visited last week from our home in Spain, where we've lived since 2019, and am excited about starting our new life in Portugal and meeting lots of lovely people! Any tips / guidance / introductions on the house hunting front would be hugely appreciated, as it seems hard to find a property!

alexemma wrote:

Looking for a house within 30 minutes of Tavira ideally, but really any of the international schools in the Algarve for a 40 something British couple with a 4 year old daughter and 2 very domesticated cats.
We visited last week from our home in Spain, where we've lived since 2019, and am excited about starting our new life in Portugal and meeting lots of lovely people! Any tips / guidance / introductions on the house hunting front would be hugely appreciated, as it seems hard to find a property!

Don't forget unless you hold another EU nationality you will need a visa to work and live in Portugal because of Brexit.

Hi all, thank you for accepting us into the group.
My name is Grant and my wife’s name is Charmaine, we moved here in December from Wales U.K, we are both ex South Africans excited about the future here in Portugal.

Hi everyone
I am a Canadian/Belgian living in Scotland for close to 30 years now. Was born in Ontario, Canada, then started my professional life in Alberta. All of my brothers and sisters live in Canada. My career took me to lovely Scotland and we are still here - with 3 adult children. Really would like to explore Portugal for our retirement home. Thinking the Belgian passport will help - but our children have Canadian and British passports. Would really welcome some insights as we start exploring Portugal for our retirement home. With warm wishes from beautiful Scotland xx

Would like to hear about experience in opening bank accounts in Portugal as EU national. thanks!

Hi All

My hubby and I are UK/NZ citizens currently in BZ negotiating our S7 application and looking to buy a home in central Portugal.  Working with our Portuguese lawyer and real estate.   We are selling up in NZ to make the move long term to Portugal.   We are keen to hear any experiences, guidance and tips from expats own journey from the home country to Portugal. 

We don’t use Facebook I’m afraid so will check back here. 

Take care all and thank you for any tips

Donna and Ian 😊

Hi there I’m Rob from Australia and the UK (dual national) and for some time as a retired senior looking to retire and relocate to Portugal so any advise will be much appreciated. My thinking at this stage is, that whilst it might be a lot of fun., that Lisbon might be a tad too expensive. I do like the more relaxed beach and countryside environments but not village as I also like the city environments and the ability to get out and get some ( not so strenuous exercise) like swimming , walking, exploring , golf. Thank you in advance for any thoughts and ideas on locations etc and what and where.

Hi, welcome to the group. Just a quick suggestion of Alvor. It's a lovely village near the beach but also only 10 minutes' drive from Portimão, a city with amenities. There are other places in Algarve which you can look at, however, Portimão and Alvor is relatively cheaper than the other areas in terms of housing costs.

Hello,

I am a retired European citizen who wants to live in Portugal.
I've plan to go this year.

Hello, I am Afaf 29 years old and I am a voiceover and content Creator . I plan to go to Portugal for living , but I prefer first to go to learn the language and get to know the country more. I plan to live in Porto, but I am now confused. I find many immigrants prefer Lisbon, so I am hesitant looking for a Portuguese language school  Accredited and official as well, and I hope to find help from someone who has experience or previous experience. I wish all have a happy trip

I am currently in the US with hopes of possibly moving to Portugal. I am receiving social security but still work part time. I may come to Portugal to attend language school and welcome any recommendations for same.
Thanks

Hi to all
While the world seems to roll from the COVID epidemic, to the Putin epidemic, it may seem a bit difficult to plan 10 - 15 years ahead.
We are a Dutch couple (my family is from eastern Europe) of around 50. Both working busy jobs, we would like to find our place in the northern part of Portugal (not a fan of hot weather...) and possibly buy property at the edge of a medium-sized city, and possibly retire there in due time.
I come here to read about other people's experiences.
I wish you all a peaceful weekend
3XL

Hi there,

My name is Jessica and I am going through the citizenship process as we speak, as my father was born in Madeira.

I am looking to move to Lisbon this year and I would like long-term rentals. I have been looking at different locations, but due to business and work, I would rather be in Lisbon.

If anyone has any information or websites to pass along for long-term stays that would be wonderful.

Kind regards,

Jessica

Hi Jessica, Welcome 

Try these Real Estate Website Portals, eg. Idealista, imovirtual, etc...

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 93#5069701
(post #4)

Best Regards

Hola to all, my wife and myself are new to the group and find that many conversations are very helpful. We are looking to move to Puerto Rico as it is mi esposas homeland. We are looking forward to hearing from many of you and any advice or recommendations.

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I will be retiring in about 4 years. I have started to look around to find the place that is going to give us the most bang for the buck. Portugal is looking good so far, but I am hoping to learn a lot more from this group. I was looking hard at Mexico but iffy safe freedom of movement around the country and not being able to drink the water are having me look elsewhere.

Being in an EU country seemed like a pipe dream but Portugal seems affordable.

David

@Julien 

Hello All,

First visit! Exploring July & Aug ‘22. Looking to buy. Could use some rec’s for lake / river beach areas inland Silver coast.

 50+ loving a hike / kayak lifestyle! 

Cynthia 

Hello I am french and I live now in Setubal (Portugal).

I lived before in Morroco, France, Canada. I work on line (as a psychologist for individuals and companies and teach the meditation on live... ) but I met some profesionals portugaise people and other nationality.

Setubal is a good place to leave and to work. As you know with beaches, mountains, inbfront of island, near Algarve and Lisbon (aeroport)...There is a international community, international school also in Palmela. 

Renting an apartment is not easy ( nothing less 600€/800€...). Not a lot of free apartment. A lot of humidity, no heating sometimes...

I am still looking for a house 🙃

With pleasure if you need help ...

Hello,

My name is Will, I answer to Bill and generally anything if its my children who are calling me ;-)

My eldest girl moved to Portugal 2 years ago and lives with her husband and my 2 Grandsons in Almancil whilst they look for a plot of land to build their own house. I have visited Portugal many times now and being an ex Navy Man I have been around a fair bit but Portugal is to be home for me all things being equal. My daughter has a bungalow built into their plans for their new house but I am keen to live a little removed. I am sound in wind and limb so no need for medical aids and I have all my own teeth ;-)

My youngest girl has just qualified as a Nurse and after a few visits to see her sister she has been bitten by Portugal too. My son, a production Engineer is also smitten. It looks like a family move over the next couple of years which suits all of us just fine.

May I say a big thank you to the chap (?) who provides all the useful information. It will certainly make the move far easier. I owe him a beer or two when I finally make the move. I aim to spend this coming Winter in Portugal (Nov - Jan) just to make sure I am 100% certain. 

Although I cannot offer any assistance to this useful club but if you drop by and say Hi it will be much appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my introduction.

Kind regards and God bless,

Will.