What It Actually Cost Us to Move to Portugal (Spoiler: Nearly $40,000)

One question that keeps coming up: “How much did it cost to move to Portugal?”

And honestly? We get why people keep asking. Most of the answers floating around online are somewhere between vague and useless. “It depends!” Cool, thanks. Very helpful. 🙄

So we went back through everything as best we could — receipts, bank statements, Airbnb bookings, visa invoices, legal fees, the panicked 2am Google searches — and did the math (we converted everything to USD to keep it simple and everything below includes the price for the two of us).

The real number: around $37,000 USD.

And that’s before factoring in the €30,000 (~$35,000 USD) we were advised to keep parked in a Portuguese bank account to show we had means to support ourselves for the first two years in Portugal (more on that below).

Let’s break it down.

1. The Scouting Trip: ~$6,000

Before we committed to anything visa-related, we wanted to spend more time in Lisbon and Porto to figure out where we wanted to live. This wasn’t about sight-seeing — we walked neighborhoods, grocery stores, pharmacies, and malls. In the end, we were drawn to the overall vibe and feel of Porto and the character it had. We also used this time to open a bank account in person and get our NIFs.

What	Cost
Flights	$2,144
Lisbon Airbnb	~$1,500
Porto Airbnb	~$725
Food, transport, “misc.” (read: pastéis de nata)	$1,607
Total	~$6,000

2. Visa Prep: ~$8,840

One of the most nerve-wrecking parts of the process is having to find a secure a 1-year lease in Portugal…it feels very cart before the horse, but it’s a D7 Passive Income visa requirement. Before we even got to our VFS appointment, we’d already spent thousands.

What	Cost
Immigration lawyer	~$2,000
Apartment deposit (3 months rent)	~$6,300
FBI background check, marriage certificate + apostilles	~$220
Passport copy + notary + passport photos Travel insurance	~40 ~$300
Total	~$8,840

If you know our whole story, you know that we enlisted the help of an immigration lawyer the second go around….but I thought it’d be helpful to include here as our advice is to use a relocation team right from the get-go if you have any sort of nuanced situation or want the ultimate peace of mind. Yes, it can be done on your own, but it gave us a lot of peace of mind to consult with someone who has helped thousands of people + other benefits (e.g. having a lawyer attend our AIMA appointments).

3. The Money We Had to Show (But Not “Spend”)

At the time of our application, the official “proof of financial resources” requirement for a couple was roughly €16,500. Our lawyer’s advice? Keep closer to €30,000 (~$35,000 USD) in your Portuguese bank account to strengthen our application and show we can support ourselves for two full years (VISA + AIMA process covered).

We also needed to show qualifying savings, investments, and months of “passive income” documentation.

This isn’t money that vanishes. But it is money that’s tied up while you’re navigating the process — and that’s a real constraint most people might not factor in when they’re doing their move-abroad math.

4. Visa Appointment: ~$1,100

From Seattle, our nearest Portuguese consulate was in San Francisco. Given how important this appointment was, we flew down the day before and gave ourselves another day buffer in case anything happened given the horror stories we’d seen recounted on Facebook…

What	Cost
Flights (Seattle → SF)	$600
Hotel	$350
VFS + Visa fees	~$200
Total	~$1,100

5. Actually Moving: ~$5,900

This is the part where you start Tetris-ing your life into suitcases and realize you own way more stuff than you thought…🙃

One logistical wrinkle: we rented a car and drove from Lisbon to Porto specifically so our pup, Matcha, could fly direct on TAP Portugal. That was actually the only flight we could find that would fly a large breed, “potentially dangerous” breed (she’s a pitbull mix) in cargo.

What	Cost
Flights to Portugal	$2,124
Airport transportation + car rental	$747
Extra baggage fees	$475
Matcha’s cargo spot (TAP)	~$255 (€230)
Required crate + vet visit + health certificate	$1,296
Total	~$5,900

Quick note on the Matcha line items: we got quotes ranging from $8,000–$15,000 to use a pet relocation service, which was outrageous. But moving a pet over is not for the faint of heart….and 10x it if you have a bully breed. We have a full post breaking down exactly how we navigated the whole process here.

6. AIMA Appointment Travel: ~$5,900

This is the category we never would have thought to budget for…and if you’ve spent any time in Portugal expat Facebook groups, you already know where this is going.

One thing worth noting here: private health insurance is a residency requirement, not a VFS one. You don’t need it for your consulate appointment, but you will need it by the time you’re sitting in front of AIMA. We paid ~$3,200 for a year of coverage for both of us and opted to start this right when we moved over.

Then there’s the travel itself. Due to cancellations and reschedules that AIMA has become notorious for, we ended up with appointments scattered across the country. And even though Mark was listed as a dependent on my application, we were in completely different cities (this is very common). Vila Real. Aveiro. Figueira da Foz. And Braga — which we kept on the calendar even after things shifted, because we couldn’t get a refund on the Airbnb.

What	Cost
Private health insurance (1 year, both of us)	~$3,200
AIMA travel (Vila Real, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Braga)	~$2,700
Total	~$5,900

The bureaucracy is real, friends. Build in buffer. And we rolled with the punches, and made great trips out of our AIMA scavenger hunt.

7. The Cost of Getting Rejected: ~$3,000–$4,000

And here’s the one we really didn’t see coming.

Our first visa application was rejected. 😭 😭

We originally applied through Portugal’s D8 pathway and, without getting into every painful detail right now (full story linked here), we had to start completely over with a different visa strategy. That meant:

Flying back to the US
Gathering a whole new set of documents, rush fees, apostilles…because the original set had expired
New background checks and apostilles
A second passport

Our best estimate: this added $3,000–$4,000 to our total.

Yep, this one hurt. And this is why we do think there’s real value in having an immigration team or at least a lawyer holding your hand here…

Other not-so-fun, but important things to keep in mind

Taxes

Visas, housing, and healthcare dominate every Portugal research rabbit hole. And we fell into that trap too. We talked to a few accountants before moving, but it was hard to get a clear picture of what the math would look like. Toplining it for you all: Portugal’s top income tax rate is 48% AND this kicks in at €81,199. Then you need to tack on social security contributions (21.4% on 70% of your income as self-employed, so effectively ~15% of gross and paying for an expat and US tax accountant to help with your filings.

Currency conversion

When you’re moving tens of thousands of dollars internationally, the exchange rate isn’t just a fun number to watch. A small difference can mean hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars depending on your timing and your platform. Not a line item you’ll see on most relocation checklists, but very much a real expense.

Opportunity cost

All that money has to be liquid and available at the same time: deposits, bank account requirements, visa documentation, international transfers. It didn’t disappear, but it wasn’t working toward anything else while we were in the middle of all this. That’s worth accounting for.

So, what’s the grand Ttotal?

~$37,000 USD — and that covers:

✅ Scouting trip
✅ Legal fees
✅ Health insurance
✅ Apartment deposit
✅ Visa fees
✅ Flights
✅ Moving our dog
✅ AIMA-related travel
✅ Reapplying after our rejection

Not included:

❌ The €30,000 held in our Portuguese bank account
❌ Ongoing rent
❌ Furniture and household setup
❌ Future residency renewals

Final Thoughts

Moving to Portugal is still one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. And this isn’t meant to put anyone off who is thinking about moving here…or moving abroad. But we’d be doing you a disservice if we pretended it was cheap to get here.

We hope these numbers help you build a budget that’s actually realistic — one with room for the surprises, the detours, and yes, a celebratory pastel de nata.

If you’re in the planning stages and want to know more about any of this, drop a question in the comments. We’ve been through enough of the process to have opinions. 😅