This Is Getting Out of Hand in Portugal (5 Year Review)

Comments · 612

• HO

  @houseofroos · 11 months ago

  For the people leaving, the grass is always greener. New place, new rules, new quirks.

  11

• AR

  @arlettedumais5776 · 11 months ago (edited)

  It&apos;s difficult to accept bureaucracy when you&apos;re used to the USA&apos;S customer driven experience. We own a vacation home in Portugal but live in the US, between Boston and NY, where it&apos;s all about efficiency. Here&apos;s what I&apos;ve learned about the bureaucratic process there.<br><br>1. Avoid deadlines if at all possible. They will drive you crazy.<br>2. Always begin a dialogue in Portuguese. &quot;Olá (or &quot;Bom Dia&quot;, tudo bem?&quot; Hello, how are you? <br>3. If you can mange it, say this, &quot;Desculpe, o meu &nbsp;Português é fraco. Posso falar um pouco English?&quot; My Portuguese isn&apos;t great, may I speak a little English?<br><br>They will love that you&apos;re trying. You&apos;re establishing that there is a language barrier. And of course, English is spoken in most places and you don&apos;t have to ask, but you&apos;re a guest in their country, and it shows respect.<br><br>This is a good foundation for a more meaningful dialogue and they will go the extra mile for you. This happened to me just recently when we were at the &apos;Financas&apos;.<br><br>Finally, dress well. It matters.<br><br>Thank you for choosing my birth country and working hard to assimilate! 🇵🇹❤🇵🇹

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• HE

  @hemlock40 · 11 months ago

  In the US there is plenty of bureaucracy, &nbsp;immigration issues, nasty neighbors, vandalism, flakey unreliable contractors, just like most places. I&apos;m an American who also moved &nbsp;to Portugal almost 5 years ago. Some things suck everywhere you go. Americans have a short attention span and move on to the next shiny place. I&apos;ve seen it many times. But i also had enough of big city problems so i bought a house inland in a less urban setting. Totally different experience. Our neighbors are glad we&apos;re here, breathing new life to a place dark for 15 years. I have more friends now than I did in California, and as my Portuguese gets better that will grow.

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• RO

  @roberthopman-f4y · 10 months ago

  Não ha muitos Americanos que aprendem Português, bem feito! Da mais prazer e mais fácil a fazer amigos também! Eu sempre achei um pouco arrogante a esperar toda gente falam Inglês?

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• SU

  @suem2001 · 11 months ago

  I came in to comment because I appreciate the honest approach you&apos;ve always taken to moving to and living in Portugal. We started following you as you were going through the visa process in 2020, as we were just a few months behind you in our journey---we arrived in Feb 2021. Your insights have always helped us, and we had fun being interviewed by Kalie in 2023 for your podcast. Your insights on the negatives after five years in are very insightful, and I hope the negative comments people are posting here won&apos;t deter you from continuing to share your experiences. They are, after all, YOUR experiences. It takes a thick skin to put yourselves out there, but know that it&apos;s valued. Life in Portugal isn&apos;t a bed of roses, but like you, I remain happy with our decision to move here. I appreciate hearing your take on things because it either helps me to see things from a different perspective or confirms that I&apos;m not alone in the way I see something. Best of luck with working out your building issues!

  131

• AC

  @accursedpanda · 11 months ago

  Yeah, housing took Portugal off our list. Within a year or so we went from &quot;Wow! We could buy a decent house with a sea view outright!&quot; to &quot;Ok, maybe it&apos;ll have to be an apartment a little more inland,&quot; to &quot;I guess we could get a small mortgage,&quot; to &quot;Ok, this isn&apos;t happening.&quot; I can&apos;t imagine what it must be like for locals.

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• BI

  @bistrobmusic · 11 months ago

  We were ready to go to Portugal 2 years ago as a digital nomad but things kept going wrong on the US end and then things started looking uneasy on the PT end. &nbsp;Finally I realized I can get Slovakia citizenship through descent and once that is done I will have less trouble settling in the EU.

  55

• RO

  @RodrigoM0379 · 11 months ago

  As a Brazilian who has a Portuguese father-in-law and frequently visits Portugal, I’ve noticed a decline in the larger cities like Porto and Lisbon, especially during my last visit in 2024. In Porto in particular, where you live, I observed more chaotic traffic, a busier city, and even some concern about rising insecurity (this was mentioned by a supermarket clerk I spoke with). Portugal is a unique country, and I have nothing but praise for the Portuguese people. Overall, they always treat me with respect.<br>It’s important to understand the dissatisfaction among the Portuguese population. Immigration has driven up property and rental prices. Since the average salary is low, it’s very difficult for a Portuguese citizen to afford rent or buy a home under current conditions. But I see that this rise in housing prices is happening in many countries.<br>I live in southern Brazil, and here it’s much more organized, safe, and modern than the national average — something many foreigners don’t realize. In recent years, we’ve also seen rental and property prices soar, with both internal migration and immigration contributing to the trend.

  2

• LI

  @LillianMedinaLCSW · 11 months ago (edited)

  The underbelly of dealing with the Portuguese in business is not discussed openly, especially around the grift of real estate transactions, it’s epic!Do not deal with locals without credible lawyers….Thank you for talking about this.. we have a whopper of a story….. However, we still love being here… you gotta be careful for sure!

  3

• IT

  @ItllBeFun · 11 months ago

  &quot;We&apos;ve encountered numerous hurdles trying to purchase and close properties in Portugal. The experience has been incredibly challenging, culminating in the vandalization of our latest property on the very day we took possession. Maybe that&apos;s a sign we should reconsider our plans.&quot;

  28

• RE

  @rebeccagutierrez1960 · 11 months ago

  I was trying to pursue Portugual so intensely and even after visiting three times, I still love that country so much. However, I came to the conclusion that it&apos;s not going to be suitable for me. I&apos;ve been living in Puerto Rico for almost nine years. Although I am Puerto Rican, I was not born or raised on the island it&apos;s taking me a while to get used to it. I think the hot humid weather lately has been affecting me. But I do have to say I think the bureaucracy isn&apos;t that terrible here. <br>I&apos;m so sorry for what you guys have been through. Having terrible neighbors must be the worst situation.<br>That actually shocks me as I&apos;ve had this impression that Portuguese people are so &quot;kind.&quot; At least you have each other to fall on in hard times. Stay strong and keep movin.&apos;❤️

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• ST

  @starveartist · 11 months ago

  Love your realistic description of mixed ups and downs experienced in moving to a different country. Even the negatives can be seen as &quot;mental exercises&quot; and challenges for growth that is kind of an adventure compared to just staying at home, easy, doing the same things you know for the rest of your life.