Portugal's immigration agency AIMA is terrible

AIMA is a malfunctioning organization with poor transparency and performance. People are left waiting for approvals, renewals, and family reunification for months, with no clear feedback or updates—only a vague “under analysis” status. A basic level of digitalization could solve many of these issues, such as using AI to preliminarily review uploaded documents and cases, leaving only the final decision to a human. This inefficiency is a serious barrier to attracting talent to the country.

Portugal's horrendous abusive dog culture, nation-wide

Portuguese people will absolutely bite your head off if you say anything negative about how they treat their dogs, and their lack of training. Expect dog shit in cities, no one picks it up. Dogs are left off leach often, even where they’re not allowed to be. Dogs will jump on you, owners expect you to accept that. Dogs are mostly badly trained, if at all, and have no recall skills. Owners will just keep shouting the dog’s name while the dog ignores them and harasses you. Lookup the balcony-dogs phenomenon, dogs are often neglected and end up barking the whole time for attention causing a lot of noise. Portuguese answers: “They’re dogs, they bark”

Lisbon Airport automatic passport gates are never in operation

So Lisbon Airport proudly years ago installed automatic passport gates But literally every time I’ve flown there they’re either switched off or broken down. Meanwhile there’s crazy hours long passport lines for years too How can you be so incompetent?

Portugal only works by knowing someone who knows someone else

Portuguese here. My story isn’t much different from the rest. I left to finish my education, and worked abroad until last year when I decided to return, bring my girlfriend and start a business here. It has been a harrowing experience. Portugal suffers from a culture of favors and institutional corruption. Things don’t work, are slow, and money never ends up where it should. People who can afford it simply go private, and those who are lucky get favors, or what we call a “cunha”. It has been painful to return and see (both through my eyes and my foreign girlfriend) that you either know someone inside, or you won’t make it. Someone gets sick? Talk to a doctor you know about seeing you in-between patients or after hours. Need a document, visa or statement done? You’ll need to slug through contacts and networks until you find someone who knows someone who can push the file, or be lucky enough to live in a small town with friendly staff who can try to “arrange it” for you. Otherwise you wait, forever… Want to start a business here? That’s great, we have a ton of programs, both European and national you can benefit from, and are supposed to encourage entrepreneurship, but to actually get into one you better know someone inside who can review your application, otherwise it will get lost, forgotten or replied to after a few years. I myself have gone this way after failing to get a GP, failing to help my girlfriend get her visa, without which she can’t get a job here, failing to get replies from potential partners and grants for my business. The worst part is I know I’m feeding a terrible cycle, because for every check-up or exam I got, another patient was skipped. For every file I managed to get accepted, someone else’s got delayed. For every application I managed to get looked at, another went overlooked. I am trying to build something that encourages companies to invest here, and potentially solve part of this problem, but it’s impossible when our political, institutional and administrative classes are so out of touch with reality. They’re more concerned with making unrealistic decisions that look good on paper or pocketing public money. This website is a great idea, and with enough legitimate content and exposure, I hope it can actually make a difference.

Portuguese public healthcare is useless

Moved to this 30k people town about a year ago. Registered in the Centro de Saúde with SS number, NIF, etc. I can’t book an appointment with a GP because there’s a shortage of them, so I’m in the queue, position 16k. More than half the town in the queue. If I need to see a doctor, I can choose from the following options: go to the Centro de Saúde to get a “senha” at 7am. The actual senha is handed out at 8:30, but since most people don’t have a GP, there’s a big queue every single day. The GP starts calling people in at around 11, so that’s a 4h wait, waking up at 6:30 am when you’re sick. go to the Hospital. You’ll still wait for 2-4h and copay a minimum of €14, potentially more depending on what you need. If you need anything that’s not very generic, you’ll need to see a specialist, often requiring you to drive to Lisbon (2:30h each way). go to a private clinic. Which would be fine if I wasn’t also paying OVER €1000 PER MONTH in Segurança Social. There’s also no pediatricians here, you need to drive 30m each way if you need one. My son should’ve had his 2 year checkup, and they literally told me there are no pediatricians, that I should return in 5 or 6 months and ask again in case they already found one.

Portuguese infrastructure is in a terrible state

The cost of roads, housing, and public transport in Portugal is becoming unsustainable. How is it possible that in a country where the median salary is around €1,200, highway tolls are so expensive? For example, a round trip from Setúbal to Lisbon costs around €15 in tolls alone. Who sets these prices? It simply makes no sense for the average worker. And as if that weren’t enough, public transportation is in a disastrous state. There are constant delays, long queues, frequent metro cancellations, and ongoing strikes. For many people, commuting has become an exhausting and unpredictable experience. Portugal urgently needs systemic reform — including support for businesses so they can offer fair wages, and proper investment in public infrastructure and transportation. A country cannot thrive when basic daily needs are so difficult to meet.

Expats everywhere complaining

Expats (cause they don't like to be called immigrants as they’re white) destroyed the real estate market, infest all the shoreside places like they're on vacation all the time, then complain no one works. They feel entitled to special things just because they are not native, and think they can avoid regulations that everyone must follow, like in every other place inside the European Union.

Martim Moniz and Intendente neighborhoods in Lisbon have open-air hard drugs use

Especially the area around Martim Moniz and Intendente starts to feel more and more insecure. Overload of eastern immigrants shooting drugs in public places. Plus wtf is up with all the minimarkets? Why is there 5 on every street? There is clearly something going on behind the scenes allowing people to get easy work contracts through these stores to enter the country.

Tax evasion is Portugal's national sport

I have noticed so many examples of tax evasion, both by businesses and Portuguese citizens. People on sick leave for years receiving subsidies while working off the record so not paying any taxes. Businesses regularly asking you if you want a discount to pay in cash and not emit an invoice. Or saying that they don’t accept credit cards until you say you need an invoice for company reimbursements. Accountants helping small businesses to cheat the system. It’s all over the place, from individuals to politicians.

A pulp factory in Setúbal emits a disgusting odor

During the winter, almost every day a disgusting odor that gives you a headache and spreads throughout the streets of Setubal. The town hall and the police ignore the letters. This is a total disregard for the inhabitants of such a beautiful place and such a beautiful country. New cleaning systems should be installed in this factory, it is definitely not safe when many people have headaches because of the odor this factory emits. In the 21st century health should be a priority.

Portuguese police was useless, so I solved the problem myself

I live in Estoril. I don’t have a car, so I actively use Electric Kick Scooter — it’s my primary transport. In April it was stolen. I park it outside, near the house, fixing it with a lock. The man who stole it just came to our call neighborhood, cut the lock and left with my scooter. The beauty is that I have location tracking on my scooter — every few hours I get an update of its location. I can literally see my scooter on the map. I called police, they refused to speak English. No problem: I visited their office and explained everything — showed location of the scooter, described the man who stole it (neighbor saw him through window). They took my report and said they will do something. A few days later I tracked down my scooter to one specific house. I came to location myself, and literally could see and hear my scooter through the fence. I went back to police and showed the photo of my scooter on the private property. They said nothing, just: wait for our investigation. They didn’t ask me about address or any other details. I just came back to address and took the scooter back myself.

Portugal has the dumbest electricity system on earth

In most civilised countries your home has two things: The maximum (safe) physical capability of your electricity circuit. A bill for the quantity of electricity that you’ve used. Simple, right? Portugal has decided to add a third factor, called ‘potencia’ — an arbitary ‘soft’ limit. Your home might happily supply 20kVA safely. But if your potencia is set at 3.45kVA then your entire home will be plunged into darkness if you dare to dry your hair while using the dishwasher. Now you have to stumble around unplugging devices and turn the mains electricity board back on. But wait! You have home automation devices like smart light bulbs. If you turn the power back on before you remove the ‘too many devices’ then the power will flicker on/off and reset (or break) all your home automation devices. And this is all POINTLESS: there is NO BENEFIT to a ‘potencia’. You’ve saved 10 cents on your electricity bill — but lost $500 of productivity because you’ve spent two hours rebuilding your home automation system. Potencia has made your POORER. Portugal is a scarcity-based culture. Everyone is obsessed with trying to save money. No one ever tries to MAKE MONEY No one tries to build anything. They cut corners, pinch pennies and take pride in reducing their bills. Meanwhile, the rest of the modern world generates more energy and focuses on building wealth. And that’s why the poorest country in Western Europe is now being overtaken by Eastern Europe. Portugal is purpose-designed to make everyone poor.

Portugal is hostile for new small business owners

When you open up a self-employment business you don’t pay tax the first year! Win! However, then in your 3rd year you pay your first income taxes on your second year. Plus now (drumroll please...) they also charge you taxes for the 3rd year upfront based on your 2nd year income. So now in one year (year #3) you basically pay income taxes for 2 years. This is absolutely absurd for a small business that has only been around for a short time.

Portugal is fine if you're very wealthy or retired, but unlivable for anyone else

Listen, my husband and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Portugal. I’m Italian, he’s Russian, and Portugal was the only country in the EU willing to let us stay there without marrying immediately. However, I can’t in good conscience suggest people stabilize there, and we left as soon as we could. Portugal makes sense if: You’re very wealthy (not talking middle class here, REALLY wealthy) and practically above all money issues. Meaning, you can live your entire life hopping from private service to private lawyer and not break a sweat You’re a retiree. If you’re looking for a chill, calm, mostly safe place to retire, it can still be a pretty good option Can’t think of many other reason to choose it over many other EU countries. These are the main issues I found: Making Portuguese friends is very, very hard. I was 23 when I moved there, and most people that age in Portugal are still in school thinking about how fast they can leave the country. It was practically impossible to talk about anything serious, and when it was, the conversion quickly shifted to how privileged I was, how rich I was, and how I’m destroying their country. Both in real life (including at doctor offices, board game events, any place you can think of even when the topic wasn’t brought up at all) and online Nothing ever changes. If you hate something now, you can be confident it’s gonna stay that way for the foreseeable future The biggest one for me… the absolutely insane lack of accountability in public buildings. It took us 2 YEARS to get my husband’s permit. It should have taken a couple of months. In the meantime, he literally couldn’t leave the country for any reason as he’d been illegally entering the Schengen area. Portugal created a legal framework where an immigrant can only stay in Portugal, and not the rest of the EU (which is against EU regulations, btw). We weren’t married then, and he applied for a remote worker kind of permit. They never called. We had to ring them 1000+ times (not an hyperbole, I MEAN IT) and beg them to do what their official policies said they should do. They made us travel for HOURS on end to different places in the country, including a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, treated us like shit, and booked 45 people for 3 real available slots multiple times meaning almost everyone needed to rebook. It was excruciating and fake all the way through, given he got a permit he didn’t even apply for because it was the only way to get a legal permit to stay in the country. Utter insanity. And that’s true for hospitals, doctors, any business. It makes it so, so hard to build and do anything. Just to give you one last example: the official ministry of immigration of Portugal, a first-world EU country, managed the immigration appointments by announcing new slots are open on the Facebook page. No, I’m not joking. Whoever calls first gets it, like a game show, and we had to pay a freelancer to call back until someone replied because we couldn’t spend hours waiting for someone to pick up. Mind you, if they don’t pick up, there’s no waiting queue - you literally have to call until someone actively picks up the phone. They don’t know what a queue is. The scam of “awesome quality of life”. Imo, many people drastically overestimate how great the quality of life in Portugal is. First of all, if you’re a local with a local salary, your life there will suck. Portugal is poorer than nearly all of Eastern Europe and the salaries for highly qualified professional are a laughing stock of the entire world. There are waiters in the EU and US making more money than doctors in Portugal. It is absolutely ridiculous, hence why all young people leave and the only ones left are the ones that physically couldn’t leave. Second of all, even if you do have a great income, great home, etc. there are still soooo many other EU cities where the hospitals work, emergency services are real, business owners can answer an email, and the gov takes responsibility. I don’t see anything particularly special in Portugal that you wouldn’t get in other countries (other than NHR, but that’s gone now).

Portuguese courts are extremely slow: cases take years, sometimes over a decade

Had a criminal case (public crime) in which I was a victim of an assault. It took 1.5 years to get to actual proceedings, and then the court completely ignored evidence without any explanation (“we don’t take any more evidence”). The final sentence is internally inconsistent, made up upon a false story of an aggressor and a lying witness from aggressor’s side, and practically calls me an aggressor with no single proof. Feels totally biased. Appeal stage is hard with these laws. Practically it requires a victim to be an active participant in a court, even with really great evidence.

"You pay the bill too fast, you should always wait 24 to 48 hours before paying a bill in Portugal"

So we requested to E-Redes, Portugal’s electricity network operator, for our house to be upgraded from 10 kVa “potencia” to 41 kVa because Portuguese houses are chronically underpowered. Process took months but it worked. Nice! You have to pay ~400 EUR for this, and like many services in Portugal, you cannot pay with a foreign bank account, you HAVE to pay it with a Portuguese bank account with a system they call Multibanco, which is actually just IBAN in the background but made to force Portuguese to use Portuguese bank accounts (very illegal and monopolistic behavior but that’s for a different post!) Anyway, we try pay and the “Reference number is invalid”. So we call the network operator, and after being on hold for 15 minutes a woman picks up. She says, I kid you not: "You pay the bill too fast, you should always wait 24 to 48 hours before paying a bill in Portugal" And we should not pay Multibanco bills immediately because it can take 2-3 days for the reference number to processed by the banks. Which is hilarious because Portuguese are insistent on you paying bills fast or they start sending you notices for paying late. You can’t win here.

Every time you buy something you're asked your NIF or Passport ID?

Why do the McDonalds or public ticket vending machines ask for your tax number? In the end as a tourist either I need enter some kind of fake number (what happens when I will be ‚caught’ doing this?) or you cannot continue buying basic staff. What’s even purpose of this?

Opening a Portuguese bank account requires the work contract... and the work contract requires a Portuguese bank account

When I moved here, already with an work visa and went to open a bank account so I could send the IBAN to the company HR and then they send me the work contract. But…. I was told I needed a work contract to open an account, a stuck situation that I could only get rid of by opening a foreigner account but that needed also my full IRS from other country. And I was told most banks aren’t even opening this kind of account anymore.

Opening a company is harder than making sales

Tried to go to a local office to open a new company, but the people in charge were out. The same was true for all other available offices within a 30 km radius. Tried calling a few offices whose public phone numbers are not working. When I finally found an office with someone available, they forced me to schedule an hour 1 week later (they were not busy). All of this was because I tried to open online first, but nothing was working or seamless. Yikes :-)

Applied for a Golden Visa, bought a house, still waiting for my visa after 3 years and now they closed my bank account

So the Golden Visa was basically a triple whammy of a scam. I started the process with a law firm called Legal Square who assured me it would be granted in a few months. It’s been **3 years** and: 1. A real estate company called Era Realty sold me a house which was illegally constructed, straight up fraud against the terms of the agreement, and of course Legal Square who did the due diligence and represented me completely forgot to check this basic level of work, and said everything was okay with the property purchase. Has wasted 2+ years trying to get all the documentation to resolve this. Never trust Era, they literally lie through their teeth. 2. The golden visa application has literally not even received a single response, I’ve had to follow up a dozen times, and each time they give some bullshit new deadline which gets changed again a couple months later. They have made me gather all my documents and submit twice now, and it has not moved an inch. Seems like the government made it up. 3. My bank account was closed because I supposedly don’t have the right visa, making paying bills on the house I was required to purchase for the visa a huge pain. Have also been scammed by electricians and painters who basically did no work and charged a ton for it. I’ve now re-submitted a D2 visa, which means the lemon real estate investment was completely pointless, and probably straight up fraud from either the lawyer or the government. Pretty unbelievable levels of grifts going on across the board.