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Moving to Portugal and Greece
Everything we wish we had known before we left, gathered in one place. Checked figures, official sources, and the shortcuts you normally only pick up once you are there.
Everything we wish we had known before we left, gathered in one place. Checked figures, official sources, and the shortcuts you normally only pick up once you are there.
A move happens in four stages. Each one has its own questions, and none of them is a silly question: we asked ourselves every one of them before you did.
What life actually looks like once you are there, in real figures. For the role itself and the package, your recruiter is the one who tells you, and it is much better that way.
This is the first thing that surprises people when they arrive: you go out more, you eat out more often, and you spend less. These are the real prices, not the ones you see in the tourist areas.
| Lisbon | Porto | Athens | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunch, the dish of the day | €7 to €10 | €6 to €13 | Gyros €3 to €5, taverna €10 to €20 |
| A beer on a terrace | €1.50 to €3 | €1 to €3 | €3 to €6 |
| A month of unlimited travel | €30 to €40 | €30 to €40 | €27 |
| Mobile plan | from €5 (Digi, 100 GB) | €14 to €22 | |
| 1 Gb fibre at home | from €10 | €28 to €38 | |
| A room in a flatshare | €450 to €650 | €350 to €500 | €250 to €420 |
Rents: median room prices on idealista, first quarter of 2026, and the local Greek market. Transport: official Navegante, Andante and OASA fares for 2026. Telecoms and eating out: two matching sources per city.
In Athens, a room goes for €250 to €300 on the local market, against €400 to €525 on the international furnished platforms. Book from home and you pay almost double. The method that works: something short term to land with, then you look on the ground with someone who knows the neighbourhoods. That is exactly where the community puts money back in your pocket from month one.
It is not on this page, and that is deliberate. It depends on the role, the language, the client and the country, and a good number of our roles also come with help towards housing and your travel paid for. A generic figure here would be no use to you: it would be wrong for your case by definition. Your recruiter gives you the exact detail, role by role, package included, before you commit to anything.
Two things can be settled before you even have a plane ticket. Doing them early saves you weeks once you land.
The NIF is the nine digit tax number. Without it, no employment contract, no bank account, no tenancy. The good news: an EU citizen can get one before even arriving, as a non resident, with a passport or ID card and proof of address in their home country.
And contrary to what you read everywhere: if you live in the European Union, the EEA or Andorra, a tax representative is not compulsory. Plenty of companies will sell you one anyway. It is free and you do not need it.
Cost: free · Where: Serviço de Finanças by appointment, Loja do Cidadão, or online on the Portal das Finanças
The Greek equivalent of the NIF. The application is made entirely online on myAADE, without needing login codes beforehand, and your identity is checked either by video call through myAADElive or at an appointment in person at the tax office.
The Taxisnet activation code, which you will then use for almost every Greek online formality, is issued at the same time. Foreign documents have to be translated into Greek.
Where: myAADE · Note: the procedure only applies to people acting for themselves, not through a representative
A valid ID card or passport, the bank details of your current account, recent proof of address, and your European Health Insurance Card. That last one only covers temporary stays: as soon as you are working on a local contract, you move over to the host country's system. It helps you through the first few weeks, it does not replace registration.
The formalities in the order they need doing. Each one unlocks the next, and getting the order wrong is the number one cause of wasted time.
Sources: gov.pt, Portal das Finanças, Segurança Social, Banco de Portugal, Portaria n.º 13/2024
Sources: gov.gr, mitos.gov.gr, AADE, e-EFKA, Greek Ministry of Labour
To be registered as a tax resident, the Portuguese authorities ask for the European registration certificate. But that certificate can only be requested after three months in the country. So the only workable route is this one: NIF as a non resident first, certificate at three months, then the switch to tax resident. If a counter sends you away, that is what to explain to them.
Your rights once you are in post. Two pieces of good news most candidates only find out about on arrival.
The first: in Portugal as in Greece, you are paid fourteen times a year, not twelve. A Christmas payment, a holiday payment, and an Easter payment in Greece. The second: paid holiday starts building up from your first year.
| Portugal | Greece | |
|---|---|---|
| Payments per year | 14 | 14 |
| Weekly hours | 40 hours maximum | 40 hours under the collective agreement, 45 hours legal maximum |
| Paid holiday | 22 working days minimum. In your first year: 2 days per month worked, capped at 20 | 20 days in year one, 22 from year three, 25 after 10 years with the same employer |
| Probation period | 90 days on a permanent contract, 180 for skilled roles or a first job | 6 months maximum |
| The payments that make up the 14 months | Christmas payment before 15 December, holiday payment made before you go away | Christmas payment, Easter payment, holiday allowance paid in advance |
Portugal: Código do Trabalho, art. 112, 203, 238, 239, 263 and 264. Greece: law 5053/2023, law 4808/2021, AN 539/1945.
Since 1 January 2026, twenty four islands in the North Aegean and the Dodecanese with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants have had VAT cut by 30 per cent: the main rate drops from 24 per cent to 17 per cent. It makes a real difference to the cost of living there. It changes nothing about your employment contract, which stays national.
Every formality on this page is dealt with in a few weeks. What takes time is no longer feeling foreign. The third Sunday is harder than the first day, and nobody warns you about that. It is precisely why we run events every month and introduce you to people who arrived before you did.
Fifteen minutes on the phone with someone who has been through it. No commitment, and in your own language.
Guide checked in July 2026. Rules and prices change: if in doubt, the official source cited is the one that counts.
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