Guides

How it is done in practice: step by step, with the documents and the places where people usually get stuck.

Updated

Published earlier and since rewritten: fresh prices, new stories and what has changed in the rules.

Moving: step by step

This topic changes faster than the rest, so it is split into parts and reviewed every week.

First steps

Money, accounts and the everyday rules you find out about at the till: this is where life here begins, and it is where things change fastest.

Taxes

Rates, thresholds and special regimes change every year, so these guides are reviewed regularly too.

Work

What it pays and where to look, how to come to work from abroad, which papers you need, how people leave a job and what to do if an employer breaks the law.

Health

From the número de utente to vaccinations, maternity care, teeth and therapy: where to go, how long to wait and what it costs.

Housing

Renting, letting, buying or building your own: what to check in the paperwork, what it costs and what gets connected in a new home.

Pensions and benefits

Age, years of contributions and amounts: what counts here, what to do with years worked in another country, and how pensions and unemployment, sickness and child benefits are granted.

Heat, fires and dangerous creatures

What IPMA and civil protection announce, what is banned on such days, what to do when there is a fire nearby, where to report an Asian hornet nest and what to do about tiger mosquitoes in the garden.

Law and safety

What to do when you have been cheated, robbed or taken to court: the steps in order, prices and other people's experience.

Cars

What to get, how to buy, how to bring your own and how to get a licence: a year of running costs, tax, the inspection and other people's experience.

School and children

From enrolment to exams and university: how schooling works, what happens with the language and what a year costs.

Everything else