Get A NIF Online From €64
Need a NIF number for your visa application or to buy a property? In this article, I’ll show you how to get one fast and cheap.
James Cave
Can I Move to Portugal If I Have a Criminal Record?
Thinking about moving to Portugal but worried your minor criminal record might be a problem? Concerned about the clean criminal record requirement for visas like the D7, Digital Nomad Visa, and golden visa? You’re not alone, and this is a common question that comes up in Portugalist webinars. The good news is that Portugal might be more welcoming than you think. Let’s break down some expert advice from Lisbon-based lawyer Sandra Gomes Pinto in a way that’s easy to understand …
Portuguese Permanent Residency—Not Quite As Good Citizenship, But A Major Stepping Stone
Ever since Portugal doubled its citizenship timeline in May 2026, a particular reassurance has been doing the rounds: don’t worry about citizenship, you can still get permanent residency at five years. But is permanent residency really almost as good as citizenship? No. Not quite. But, I will say there a few major positives: And it’s not like there are many fast tracks to citizenship left in the EU. While Portugal was extending its citizenship requirement to ten years, Sweden went …
Portugal Golden Visa Stay Requirements: How Much Time Do You Actually Need to Spend Here?
If you’re researching Portugal’s Golden Visa, one question comes up again and again: “How much time do I actually need to spend in Portugal?” Sometimes it’s framed as minimum stay requirements. Sometimes it’s how long can I be away? But really, everyone’s asking the same thing: I want the security of EU residency, but I don’t want to uproot my life to get it. The short answer is: the minimum requirement is an average of 7 days per year in …
13+ Ways to Learn European Portuguese for Free (Or Very Cheap)
There are more free resources for learning European Portuguese than ever — apps, YouTube channels, podcasts, dictionaries, phonetics tools, and language-exchange communities. Used well, they can take you a genuinely long way, and this guide rounds up the ones I’d actually reach for. But I want to start with the honest version, because it’ll save you months: you can’t learn a language entirely on free apps. Not really. I think you can learn a language for free, but it helps if you’ve …
Grocery Stores in Portugal: What’s Different, What It Costs, and Where I Shop
People ask me what grocery stores in Portugal are like, and the short answer for anyone coming from the US is: smaller, cheaper, and there are a lot more of them. Smaller isn’t a high bar—American supermarkets are enormous. There’s no Walmart-style store here, and even the hypermarkets, the big out-of-town ones, would look modest parked next to a Supercenter. Your fridge and kitchen cabinets will be smaller too (unless you buy an American-size fridge), so your habits change. The …
How to Open a Bank Account in Portugal Online (2026)
If you’re applying for a D7 or the digital nomad visa, you’ll almost certainly need a Portuguese bank account. It usually has to hold your savings or show your means of support. It’s one of the questions I get asked most, mostly by visa applicants and occasionally by people buying property here. People are always surprised they can’t just go online and open an account with Millennium or Novo Banco themselves. But I couldn’t easily open an account in America …
Portuguese Food: What I’d Eat & What I’d Skip (From Someone Who Has Eaten Everything Here)
I’ve eaten a lot of Portuguese food. Some of it I’d fly back for. Some of it I ate once, understood, and never ordered again. This is my honest list. Reality check first: Portuguese food is simple, fresh, and comforting. It is not spicy and it is not sauce-heavy. If you’re expecting Thai or Mexican “boom-pow” flavor at every meal, you’ll think it’s plain, and you won’t be entirely wrong. But if you lean into great ingredients, charcoal grills, stews, …
What A1 European Portuguese Actually Looks Like (And Why It’s Worth Aiming For)
Most people learning European Portuguese aren’t really aiming for A1. They’re aiming for A2 — because that’s the level you need for citizenship and permanent residency, and it’s the one the exam (the CIPLE) actually tests for. That’s also why so many courses just bundle A1 and A2 together and march you straight through both. Which is fine. But it does mean A1 gets treated as a sort of half-finished thing you pass through on the way to somewhere more …
Mia Esmeriz On Learning Portuguese in 6 Months
If you’ve spent any time hunting for Portuguese-learning resources, you’ve probably run into the big frustration right away: most of what’s out there teaches Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. That’s the gap Mia Esmeriz has been filling since 2017. Through her website, her YouTube channel, and a full set of online courses running from A1 to C1, she’s helped thousands of people learn real, everyday European Portuguese — pronunciation, listening, grammar, and natural conversation. I’ve since gone through her courses …