Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Portugal →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Portugal · No visa required
Emigrating to Portugal
No visa needed, but one number decides everything: the NIF, your tax number. It's best arranged from the Netherlands. Here's the order of the rest.
€ 199 one-off · 31 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- No visa needed
- Obligation
- Register after three months (CRUE)
- Lead time
- Three to nine months (indicative)
Last updated: 15 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from orientation to being settled
Just as with Spain you wait for nobody's permission, so you set the pace. The order is fixed though. The NIF is the key to almost every counter. And here you register with the municipality, the câmara municipal, where the appointment is the real work.
- Orientation
Register after three months, with work or sufficient means
In this phase you work out how you'll meet the requirements and where you'll live. As an EU citizen you may live and work in Portugal without a visa. Stay longer than three months and you're obliged to register, and that registration has requirements: work, or sufficient means with healthcare cover. Choosing your region matters more here than people think. Between Lisbon and the interior, housing costs differ by more than a factor two, and the north has real, wet winters. And count on the language. Portuguese is harder for Dutch people than Spanish, and English gets you by in the Algarve but not at the municipal counter.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The NIF is the biggest head start there is
In this phase you apply for your NIF, your Portuguese tax number, and close things down in the Netherlands. Without a NIF, no bank account, no rental contract, no energy contract. As an EU citizen you can apply for it before departure. That's the opening move of this whole journey: with the number in your pocket you can carry straight on after landing. Then the fixed closing chores: deregistering with the municipality, health insurance, benefits, and the conversation with a tax specialist. Certainly if someone told you Portugal is a tax haven, because the favourable tax regime of old is closed to newcomers.Read more
- The move
By road, but far, and with an exemption to win
In this phase you arrange how your belongings, your pet and your car get there. Portugal lies on the same road as Spain, only a thousand kilometres further: a part-load, your own lorry, or driving yourself in two long days. Pets simply come along with an EU pet passport. With your car there's something to win here that changes the whole calculation. Portugal levies a hefty registration tax (ISV) on imported cars. When you move your main residence, an exemption applies, with strict conditions and deadlines. That easily saves thousands of euros, or costs them if you miss the deadline.Read more
- Registration in Portugal
Same law as in Spain, different counter
In this phase you register in Portugal. After three months' stay you get your CRUE, the registration certificate for EU citizens. You do that not at an immigration service but at the câmara municipal, the town hall of your place of residence. First comes the home, because the registration wants to see an address. After that follow the numbers that carry the rest of your life there: the NISS for work and social security, the número de utente for healthcare. Every document is the key to the next. Come complete, because the appointment is the real work here.Read more
- Arrival
School, centro de saúde and your car on Portuguese plates
In this phase you settle into ordinary life: school, GP, car and tax. Public education is free. Don't count on priority from your address when you enrol: it only comes sixth. You find a GP via the centro de saúde, the health centre of your neighbourhood. The car goes on Portuguese plates, with the exemption you prepared in phase 3. This is the step with the most expensive delay of the whole journey. Where you pay tax is what you discussed with a tax specialist in phase 2. Here that becomes reality.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Portugal journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.4 of your plan
Decide about the car, and know the ISV exemption
- Lead time
- decision moment; the conversion itself comes after arrival
- Costs
- if you bring it — inspection and fees; the import tax is exempt on relocation, provided you apply in time
In this step you decide whether the car comes along. One exemption makes the difference.
Portugal levies a hefty import tax on cars: the ISV. For an ordinary mid-range car that's quickly thousands of euros. But whoever moves their main residence to Portugal can get a full exemption.
The conditions to know now:
- The car has been your property for at least six months.
- You lived outside Portugal for at least six months.
- It's one vehicle per person.
- It's possible once every ten years.
The deadlines are hard:
- You apply for the exemption within twelve months of your move.
- The customs declaration of the vehicle (the DAV) belongs within twenty working days of entry.
- After the grant the car may not be sold, rented out or lent for twelve months.
With the exemption, bringing it is suddenly the cheap option. Without it the sum tips completely. So weigh it before departure:
- Check on your registration document since when the car has been yours.
- Only then decide whether the car goes onto the lorry or gets sold in the Netherlands.
The execution (inspection, plates, application) is ready for you in phase 5.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Portugal.
This is step 3.4 of 33. The other 32 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 33 steps for PortugalWhat you get for € 199
All 33 steps to Portugal, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Portugal
€ 199
one-off · 33 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Portugal: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Portugal change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Portugal? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Portugal starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Portugal
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Arranging the NIF before you leave: the opening move of your Portuguese processWithout a NIF — the Portuguese tax number — no bank account, no rental contract, no contracts. As an EU citizen you can apply for it from the Netherlands, without the tax representative that commercial services charge you for. The three routes, what they cost, and when the number has to move from "non-resident" to "resident".
- Taking your car to Portugal: the ISV exemption that saves thousandsPortugal levies a hefty import tax (ISV) on cars — but whoever moves there can get a full exemption. The conditions are precise, the deadlines hard, and whoever knows them takes their car along almost for free.
- Working in Portugal: no permit, but a NISS — and as a self-employed person the first year without contributionsAs a Dutch national you work in Portugal without a work permit and with the same rights as a Portuguese. What you do need is the NISS, and what you need to know is the pay: the minimum wage is € 920 a month in 2026. Whoever starts self-employed only pays contributions from the twelfth month — 21.4% of part of the turnover. And for a regulated profession, recognition is added.
- Tax in Portugal: the paradise is closed (and what does apply)The famous NHR regime has been closed to newcomers since 2024. Its successor (IFICI) is for a narrow group of professions — most Dutch emigrants simply fall under the normal Portuguese rates: nine brackets from 12.5% to 48%, with the return filed from 1 April to 30 June. And the treaty with the Netherlands has a € 10,000 threshold that touches your pension.
- Your dog or cat to Portugal: chip, rabies jab, 21 days — and after 120 days the SIACWithin the EU your dog or cat simply comes along: a chip, a valid rabies vaccination and the EU pet passport, with 21 days' wait after a first jab. What Dutch checklists miss is the Portuguese obligation afterwards: if the animal stays 120 days or longer, it must go into the SIAC, the national database — and a dog classed as dangerous needs a licence from the junta de freguesia.
- Your household goods to Portugal: no customs, but two thousand kilometres and one clock for the carWithin the EU your household goods cross the border without a declaration — Customs says so itself. What makes the move to Portugal different is the distance, the choice between a part load, your own lorry or two stages, and the car: that one does travel with deadlines, and the exemption from the import tax hangs on twelve months and on six months of ownership.
All 15 articles about Portugal
- Bank account in Portugal: with your NIF at any bank, and the basic account of at most € 5 a year
- The CRUE: the registration at the câmara that's mandatory after three months
- Renting in Portugal: two months' deposit, a five-year contract and a notice period you control
- Your first weeks in Portugal: the six clocks that run, and the order that makes them feasible
- NISS and número de utente: the two numbers that carry your Portuguese life
- Buying a house in Portugal: first pay the tax yourself, then everything in one go at Casa Pronta
- Your driving licence in Portugal: register free within sixty days, exchange for € 30 if you want
- School in Portugal: the conversion table exists, the priority doesn't
- Healthcare in Portugal: the SNS, the three ways in and the taxas moderadoras that are almost gone
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Portugal: 33 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.