FAQ: Your Questions About our Moving

Why Portugal?

It's quite simple – work. We lived in Montenegro for the same reason.

Overall, I have read and watched various bloggers, and I still don’t have a formed opinion about this country. Everyone has their own expectations and disappointments. Life here is more or less like in Montenegro – laid-back people, a lot of bureaucracy, different perspectives. My only hope is that there will be a good selection of goods at reasonable prices (considering my hobbies).

Why did you apply for a visa?

This is the most common question from my compatriots, as Ukrainians have visa-free access to EU countries. But it's not that simple. The visa-free regime allows a stay of 90 days within six months, but we need a longer stay. Entering Portugal visa-free and then applying for a residence permit is no longer an available option, as mentioned in the articles about how we obtained the visa. Another option is arriving and applying for “temporary asylum,” but the only way to stay in the country afterward is to apply for a residence permit based on being a highly qualified specialist.

If obtaining a Portuguese residence permit is in your plans, you should consider it before moving. It all depends on your goals. We had a long-term goal, so our options were limited – entrepreneurship, digital nomad, or highly qualified specialist (the last option had many nuances for us, so it was a backup plan).

Why did you apply for a visa through Serbia (Belgrade)?

Yegor covered this question in his article "Visa to Portugal" and in part 2. For those who don’t want to read, the short answer is – because there is no Portuguese embassy in Montenegro. Citizens and residents of Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Serbia apply through the embassy in Belgrade based on their citizenship or residence permit.

How many times did you visit the Portuguese embassy in Belgrade?

Twice. The first time was to submit the documents in person after they had been reviewed and approved in advance. The second time was for the visa sticker, about a month and a half after submission.

You can take an overnight train, but the local trains are so smoky that after a couple of trips to a neighboring city, I no longer wanted to travel that way. By car, navigation suggests a 6.5-hour drive, but in reality, it takes 7-7.5 hours with stops and border crossing. So, we arrived a day earlier.

Where do you plan to live in Portugal?

Obviously, Portugal is a broad term. Since the office is in the suburbs of Lisbon, that’s where we are looking for housing. However, if I had a remote job, I would choose a cheaper city.

What about rental prices?

In reality, rent is insanely expensive. Since 2022, when many refugees arrived in Europe, rental prices have skyrocketed everywhere. Neither Montenegro nor Portugal are exceptions. Renting in Portugal will cost us significantly more than in Montenegro because, in Montenegro, we last moved into our house in 2020, and since then, our rent has only increased by €30 – and that only because we needed an official rental contract for the residence permit, which subjected our landlord to income tax.

How are you searching for housing remotely?

People say that in the past, you could find real estate websites and contact agents who would search for a place based on your request and budget. This was standard practice. However, since 2022, with so many people moving, many scammers have emerged, trying to make money off people in distress. Prices have soared, and finding an honest real estate agent online has become much harder.

We contacted a realtor I found on Instagram. He was recommended by people who relocated and found housing through him, signing contracts before arriving. I will definitely share more about him and provide his contacts later.

What do you need to rent a home in Portugal?

First of all, decide on the location.

Landlords have different requirements, which you can check on real estate websites. The most common ones include:

• A guarantor (someone who ensures payment if you fail to pay, leave before the contract ends, etc.). Landlords prefer a local (Portuguese) guarantor. At the same time, they rent to foreigners at higher-than-market prices and require a local guarantor. I’m not sure if this is even legal, but it’s a requirement in most listings.
• 2-3 months' rent upfront + 1-2 months' deposit.
  The deposit part really bothers me, especially when it’s higher than the rent. But maybe it's just my personal bias, since in Montenegro, getting your deposit back is nearly impossible – landlords can claim damages like scratches or dust to avoid returning the money. They will find a million reasons to keep it.
• Tax declaration from the previous year (a frequent requirement, and I find it strange. Why should they care how much tax you pay? In our case, we haven’t even been to Portugal yet, so we don’t have such a declaration).
• Last 3 pay slips. Again, questions arise. I signed an NDA that prohibits disclosing my salary to anyone, yet here I am, being asked to provide my payslips. What’s next? Should I transfer my salary directly to the landlord’s account to make them feel safer?
• Tax number (NIF – equivalent to a tax ID).
• Employment contract (proof that you have a job for the rental period).
• Bank statement (the higher the balance, the better). It doesn’t necessarily have to be from a local bank.
• Minimum lease term of one year, but listings often mention 2-3 years, and sometimes even 5 or 7 years. You need to pay attention to this.
• References from previous landlords proving that you have no debts or disputes.

In general, all these requirements are meant to prove your financial stability and responsible attitude toward someone else’s property. However, most of these demands seem excessive and invasive of privacy.

Of course, I need a place to live, but if landlords don’t want to rent, they simply shouldn’t. I am not planning to live in someone else’s apartment for free, and I also want security guarantees. When giving out my banking and personal information to a stranger, I can't be sure that it won’t end up in the hands of criminals. Just my thoughts.

What types of apartments are available for rent in Portugal?

Most rental apartments come unfurnished but with an equipped kitchen. Appliances such as a refrigerator, washer-dryer, and dishwasher are usually optional.

Apartment sizes are listed based on the number of bedrooms. For example, a "two-room apartment" means an apartment with two bedrooms, a living room combined with a kitchen, a bathroom, and possibly a storage room. This is true in 95% of cases. So, what people from post-Soviet countries call a "one-room apartment" (with a separate kitchen and living space) would be considered a studio in Europe. Meanwhile, what we call a "two-room apartment" would be classified as a one-bedroom apartment.

Just like in Montenegro, apartments in Portugal do not have wallpaper. Due to the lack of central heating, mold is common, and it's easier to treat and repaint walls without wallpaper.

Where to find information about the country?

When we decided to move to Portugal, I joined several Facebook groups to see what people were asking and what issues they were facing in this country. I don’t know much more about Portugal now than I knew about Montenegro when we moved there six years ago.

I see many comments from "old-timers" saying things like: 
 ❌ "Why are you moving to Portugal?" 
 ❌ "At least read something before asking!" 
 ❌ "This is a poor country; there’s nothing to do here." I just want to reply, *"If it’s so bad for you, why are you still there?"*

But I don’t argue with narrow-minded people. I understand why they react this way – they emigrated long ago when there were no online communities, no one to ask for advice. They faced all the challenges themselves, learned the language the hard way, searched for jobs and apartments in newspapers, and got stuck in that era. Now people like us have the audacity to simply ask questions and expect answers and help. After reading these groups, I lost faith in people. Nowhere else have I seen as much rudeness and bitterness as in comments under posts where people ask for advice or assistance. But this isn’t our first move, so I try not to take it personally (though it’s not always easy).

So, where to look for information? Everywhere: 🔹 Online sources 🔹 Personal experiences and those of acquaintances 🔹 Reading and filtering information from Facebook groups 🔹 Contacting expats directly

I messaged a few expats about things that interested me. Most didn’t reply, and some responded reluctantly and dryly, so I didn’t continue the conversation. Of course, you can’t prepare for everything, but we’ll figure things out once we arrive.

How to get from Montenegro to Portugal?

The same way as to any other country – by land or air. By sea isn’t an option because Montenegro only has ferry connections with Italy and Croatia, and only in summer.

If you’re driving, remember that you need to register your car within six months and get local plates. "Euro plates" are not allowed. Even though Portugal is in the EU, it has its own rules regarding vehicles. Any imported car must receive local plates if used for more than six months. EU-registered cars get preferential import rates and procedures. If your car has Ukrainian plates, customs clearance is cheaper than for cars from non-EU countries. But these rules can change anytime, so check the latest regulations before your trip.

We decided to fly. There are no direct flights from Montenegro to Portugal, so we are flying with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul (unfortunately, all layovers are around 8 hours, which isn’t great). But Turkish Airlines offers the most generous baggage allowance among available airlines. We have three suitcases of approximately 30 kg each and three carry-ons of 8 kg each. That’s all we have left from six years of living in Montenegro. Everything else was sold, given away, or thrown out. We are applying lessons from our previous move six years ago.

Why aren’t we taking our car?

I love our car in Montenegro – it’s like a family member. Despite its high mileage, it’s in excellent condition, and if we could transport and register it in Portugal at a reasonable cost, we would. But unfortunately, Montenegro is not in the EU, and customs clearance for such a car is expensive and complicated. Registering it would cost about the same as buying a new car. So, we made the practical decision to sell it and fly.

Money doesn’t fall from the sky, so we approached this decision pragmatically.

Why are we leaving Montenegro?

Montenegro is a beautiful country. I will miss its nature, though I have seen that Portugal is also stunning in that regard.

But there’s only one reason – we have no future here. Montenegro’s policy toward foreigners is simple: **"Come, pay taxes, and leave."** You can apply for permanent residency (PR) after five years of living with a residence permit (RP), but if you are an employee, you must take a break every three years. This means you cannot live here for five consecutive years, so PR is out of reach.

To obtain PR, you need to: ✔ Open a business, even a zero-profit one ✔ Be self-employed and pay taxes ✔ Hope they don’t introduce new restrictions ✔ After 10 years, theoretically apply for citizenship, but very few succeed

For us, PR and especially citizenship are out of reach. We are employees, and as soon as we leave our jobs, we must return our residence permits and leave the country within a week.

I already returned mine.

Bureaucracy in Montenegro

In six years, we never submitted the same set of documents twice. Every time, the rules changed: 🔹 One year, a bank statement was required; another year, a guarantor. 🔹 One time, a criminal record certificate from Ukraine was fine; the next, it needed an apostille and an embassy stamp. 🔹 Sometimes, a lease agreement had to be translated; sometimes, the landlord’s presence at signing was enough. 🔹 One year, a tax payment confirmation was required; another year, they checked it themselves. 🔹 Sometimes, the whole family could apply together; sometimes, only one person at a time.

There’s no official website where you can see the exact list of required documents. The queue at MUP (Montenegro’s Ministry of Internal Affairs) is chaotic – waiting times range from an hour to several days. They used to have a ticket system, but when it broke down, they removed it altogether, leaving people in a free-for-all line.

People hire lawyers and “fixers” to navigate the system. It’s terrible that they created a system where you can’t figure things out on your own. I know some countries have it worse, but in others, you can do everything online, and your residence permit arrives by mail. Considering Montenegro has only **620,000 people and 90,000 foreigners**, they could have modernized everything long ago. But no – in six years, bureaucracy has only worsened. Sometimes, it feels like they enjoy this bureaucratic mess, even though they don’t understand it themselves.

Do we need to change our driver’s licenses?

By law, both Montenegro and Portugal require this within six months of arrival.

In Montenegro, it’s written in the law, but no one actually enforces it. Yegor drove with his Ukrainian license for six years, and the police never questioned why he, as a resident, didn’t switch to a local license.

I changed mine to a Montenegrin one because my Ukrainian license was expiring. The process of exchanging it during COVID and then receiving a new 30-year Ukrainian license by mail is a story for another time.

Portugal is stricter about license exchange. We plan to switch to local licenses as soon as we get residence permits. We read that we need to provide proof that our licenses are valid from the Ukrainian embassy. We ordered this document from Ukraine because getting an appointment at the embassy is nearly impossible. If they accept the document – great. If not, we’ll deal with problems as they arise.

School questions in Portugal?

How do we transfer our child? Which school – local or private?

For now, I don’t have clear answers except that we won’t choose a Ukrainian school. There are no Ukrainian schools in the EU, only Saturday schools. Zhenya studies online at a Ukrainian school while attending a local one. We will likely continue with this setup.

Recent statistics claim that **Portugal has the worst school education in the EU**, which made me question which school to enroll our child in. At first, we will base our decision on where we live and solve problems as they come.

Maybe later, I’ll have more answers and write a separate article about it. I couldn’t find a detailed guide on enrolling a child in a school, and bloggers who talk about Portugal didn’t answer any of my questions (as if they never dealt with it themselves, or someone else handled it for them, or they simply don’t want to share). By the way, such bloggers immediately went into my blacklist – **useless content that provides no value.**

How much money do you need to live?

This is the strangest question for me because **everyone’s needs are different**. Some families live on €1,500 per month (including rent), while others spend that much just on beauty salons. It’s all relative.

Based on research, I estimate our expenses as follows:

• 🏠 **Rent** – up to €1,500 (I’m not mentally prepared to pay more for a rental).
• 💡 **Utilities + internet + mobile (for three people)** – up to €200 (hopefully).
• 🚗 **Car (rental + fuel)** – around €500 (partially covered by my husband’s employer).
• 🏫 **School** – hopefully free, or just minimal expenses for supplies and uniforms.
• 🛒 **Groceries** – €400-500 (same as in Montenegro). Honestly, we need to start eating less anyway.
• 🍽 **Restaurants, entertainment (museums, parks, etc.)** – whatever fits the budget.
• 👕 **Clothing** – as needed. Probably a lot at first since we have very little now, but later only necessary items.
• 🐾 **No pets = no pet expenses.**
• 🏥 **Health insurance** – I don’t know the cost yet. In Montenegro, it was provided by our employer. In Portugal, we’ll see if we need to pay for it.

Taxes

I can’t answer tax-related questions yet because I don’t have the necessary information. I plan to stay with my current employer, open an account in a Portuguese bank, receive my salary there, and pay taxes accordingly. How it will work in practice – I have no idea yet. As soon as we get our residence permits, we will deal with this issue.

In Montenegro, we paid taxes and even received an official confirmation. I’ll write about that experience later.