How to transfer money from Russia to Portugal
This is about your own money: savings, salary, the proceeds from selling a flat. Here we look at which route works in 2026 and which is closed by sanctions; how long a direct transfer in euros takes and what it costs; what paperwork on the origin of the money is asked for and who exactly asks for it; why transfers get bounced back and what to do if yours is; and what you can and can't do with cash. Everything is based on conversations in the chats, with a month and year for every figure.
First decide whose money it is and whose account it is going to
There is only one route that really works: your own money from your own account in Russia to your own account in Portugal, where the sender's name and the name of the Portuguese account holder match letter for letter. Everything else — your parents' money, a friend's money, money from the buyer of your flat sent straight to the seller of a home here — is already a transfer to a third party, and that is where things most often go wrong.
This dictates the order: paperwork first, then the transfer. Gather whatever explains where the money came from before you press ‘send’, not afterwards, when the money is stuck somewhere between banks. Ask about the terms at a branch of the sending bank and with your account manager at the Portuguese bank rather than in a chat: every bank has its own terms, and they change during the year.
And straight away, a word on what you won't find here. Ways to get round the checks — a different sender, a go-between acting as a front, splitting the sum into small chunks — do come up in conversations, but they are not going into this guide. Not out of caution: they are exactly why transfers get bounced and accounts get closed.
“All transfers from Russia and similar countries have to come with a full package of documents - best of all a deed of gift done through a notary. And the name of the person receiving the gift has to match the account holder.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes22.10.2025
“well basically yes, straight from Russia they won't accept anything from you, even if you're willing to send it with daylight-robbery fees. better to ask not in the bank's chat but in person at a branch. get your source of funds ready in advance (sale contract or whatever you've got).”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkrefugecard29.07.2026
What is shut completely: sanctioned banks
Russian banks on the EU sanctions list are closed not ‘to the bank’ but to you. Regulation (EU) 269/2014 is an asset freeze: anyone in the EU is prohibited from dealing with the people and organisations on the list or making funds available to them. So a Portuguese bank won't try to work out who is right: once it sees a sanctioned bank in the chain, it will stop the payment being credited. You can check for yourself whether a bank is on the list on the EU sanctions map.
Something else worth remembering: it isn't only the sender that counts as tainted, but also where the money came from. If your flat was bought with a mortgage from a sanctioned bank, or the buyer transferred the money from their own account at such a bank, this will surface in the very documents you bring in yourself (June 2026).
There is a second ban too, not about lists but about the nature of the transaction. In December 2025 one person tried to transfer a deposit for a flat from OTP straight to the Portuguese seller — the bank blocked the payment, citing the sanctions ban on paying citizens of unfriendly countries for property (August 2026). A property purchase is paid for from here, from your own account, not by a transfer from Russia.
“If you're planning to sell property in Russia and then legalise that money in the EU, the money must NOT originate from sanctioned Russian banks, i.e. your buyer must NOT take out a mortgage from, say, Sber, or transfer you their savings from their account at, say, VTB. That's how it is...”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkrefugecard14.06.2026
“Last time we just transferred money in March, OTP - Caixa. All went through in one day. No problems.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal07.08.2026
A direct euro transfer to your own account: how it went in 2026
The only route with detailed reports in the chats is a direct SWIFT transfer in euros from a foreign-owned Russian bank to a Portuguese account. People post these reports ‘for the stats’, and they show how the timings changed: 8 April 2026 — sent in the morning, credited two days later; 13 April 2026 — sent in the morning Moscow time, in the Lisbon account by the evening; 28 May 2026 — a transfer under power of attorney, three working days; 24 August 2026 — €50,000 arrived in three hours.
Money. In May 2026 the terms were described like this: up to €100,000 per transfer, a fee of 3% or a flat €1,500, sent by the OUR method — that is when the sender pays all the charges along the way and the recipient gets the full amount. With the SHA method the correspondent bank takes its share and less reaches the account. In August 2025 one person wrote that on a transfer to Caixa they had 3% ‘bitten off’ and nothing more.
The threshold where questions start is named the same way in every conversation: up to €10,000 usually goes through without fuss, above that the sending bank asks for documents, and at 35–40 thousand compliance kicks in (August 2026). Splitting the sum into small transfers to slip under that threshold is the worst thing you can do: that is exactly what banks call structuring, and it raises the very questions you were trying to avoid.
All of this is the experience of particular people on particular days, not a tariff you are guaranteed. In July 2026 the same bank bounced transfers three times in a row.
“For the stats: transfer from OTP to Caixa. Transfer under power of attorney, they took the power of attorney away to check it, came to 3 working days. All the terms are on the website basically. Transfer amount up to 100,000 euros at a time, fee 3% or 1,500 euros. They send by the OUR method, so nothing else gets bitten off along the way, the full amount arrives. Got there in a day. The balance at Caixa after the transfer went > 100,000 euros, so I went in beforehand and asked several times whether everything would definitely be ok, whether my residence permit was definitely attached everywhere.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal28.05.2026
“Sharing a fresh example of a money transfer #OTP -> Caixa. Small amount - 50k euros. Got there in THREE hours. I didn't bring anything to Caixa in advance or warn them. OTP said that for a transfer to your own account in the EU they don't need any proof (but I attached the sale contract and a statement anyway).”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal24.08.2026
Documents on where the money came from: what to bring and to whom
Two parties check you, for different reasons. The sending bank looks at where the money comes from and where it is going — that is its currency control and its compliance. The Portuguese bank looks at why a large sum has landed in the account, and may ask about it not on the day it is credited but several years later — when you apply for a mortgage, after a new sanctions package, or for no particular reason (July 2026).
Money from selling a flat. In April 2026 one person attached to the transfer the sale contract with an apostille in Russian and English, the handover certificate and an extract from the Russian property register (EGRN) showing the new owner. In August 2026 another described the same thing differently: originals to the Russian bank, and to the Portuguese one, scans of an English translation with the translator's stamp.
Parents' money. In February 2026 a person whose mother was transferring the proceeds from selling her flat took to the Russian bank the sale contract, the EGRN extract, their own birth certificate as proof of kinship and a gift declaration stating the exact amount; to the Portuguese bank — the same declaration, translated into Portuguese with the translation certified by a notary.
Savings and salary. Here they ask for statements covering six months to a year, a certificate of income, an employment contract or a contract with a client — the same as for a visa. There are few stories in the archive specifically about transferring savings: people ask about it more often than they report back.
The Portuguese bank may well not take the documents before the transfer — that happened in both February and July 2026: ‘compliance is only at the sending bank’. That's no reason not to prepare them: they will ask later.
“For the stats: today (13.04) a transfer from OTP Bank to Caixa via SWIFT went through fine, sent in the morning (around 10 Moscow time), money credited in the evening (around 16 Lisbon), amount under 100k euros. Money was sent between my own accounts, money from selling a flat, when sending I attached the following documents: - sale contract with apostille in Russian and English - flat handover certificate in Russian - property register (EGRN) extract with the new owner in Russian - Caixa hasn't asked for any documents so far This is the second transfer in 2 months, no problems overall.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal13.04.2026
“at OTP in Russia we gave them the original sale contract and the extract from Rosreestr or whatever it's called with the new owner. to Caixa we took in advance, off our own bat, scans of an ordinary English translation of the same documents with a translator's stamp from Russia.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal24.08.2026
Why transfers get bounced back
First, and most galling: automation. In July 2026 OTP's support team explained to one person when their system rejects a payment automatically: if the sender and recipient match exactly and the amount repeats a previous one to within a hundred euros — with no time limit; and if the same payment is repeated less than seven days after a rejection. In other words, the person was penalised for doing exactly the right thing: sending the same amount to themselves.
Second: your address. For the correspondent bank, you are whoever is recorded in the sending bank's customer file. A Russian address on file means ‘resident of Russia’, and from there the German correspondent decides by its own rules (July 2026). The advice repeated in the chats since 2022: change your address at the sending bank to your Portuguese one, and then the address and the recipient's account stop contradicting each other. You can usually change your address only at a branch and with original documents.
Third: the correspondent itself. No sending bank can promise that a transfer will arrive: it passes the payment on, and the decision is made by someone else's bank under its own rules. In June 2026 the difference was put bluntly: with a German correspondent transfers are often turned back, with an Italian one there are no problems. It's worth finding out the chain of correspondents from both banks in advance (December 2025).
What happens to the money while this is being sorted out. The worst case is that it goes back to the Russian account, and that takes weeks: in July 2026 one person waited about two weeks for it to come back, and the fee was returned as a separate transaction. Worse still, the money may sit with the correspondent, and then you have to prove your case through both banks at once.
What to do after a rejection: don't send the same thing the next day, ask the bank for the reason in writing, add the number and place of issue of your residence permit to the payment reference, try a different amount and wait a week. That is exactly how the story below ended — on the fourth attempt and via the husband's account.
“continued [link] incredibly, a reply came from OTP. really very very garbled and you can't make much of it, you can only guess. Earlier you contacted OTP Bank to clarify the reason a currency payment was not processed. The thing is that your previous payment of X did not go through due to the internal policy of the correspondent bank. Automatic rejection of a payment in our bank under the following criteria: 1) Exact match of the payment sender and recipient (incl. bank accounts) 2) Match of the payment amount +/- 100 EUR with no time limit. 3) Exact match of the payment sender and recipient (incl.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal07.07.2026
“Not quite. If your address at the Kazakh bank is Russia, then for the German correspondent bank you're Russian residents. So for them it doesn't match.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal09.07.2026
Routes via third countries: what has collapsed and when
The scheme of ‘roubles to Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, convert there, then SWIFT to Europe’ was falling apart before people's eyes in 2026, and not because of sanctions on the banks themselves but because of their correspondent banks.
Kyrgyzstan. Back in 2025 Germany's Landesbank restricted SWIFT transfers for the country's banks; Ayil Bank and MBank closed outgoing euro transfers for clients from Russia, even though there are no sanctions against them (May 2026). For residents of Kyrgyzstan, euro transfers are still possible via another correspondent.
Kazakhstan. In June–July 2026 the correspondent of Bank CenterCredit (BCC) stopped processing SWIFT transfers in euros if the sender has Russian residency; Freedom said outright that transfers are not available to citizens of Russia and Belarus (July 2026). A workaround that worked in July 2026: send dollars to a euro account at Caixa and lose about 0.4% on the automatic conversion.
Don't count only the fee. Every extra bank in the chain means a second SWIFT fee, a second round of compliance and one more question from the Portuguese bank: ‘and who is this intermediary?’ In July 2026 a person who had several times received 3–5 thousand from their own account in Kyrgyzstan got a request about the source of the money, followed by a letter saying the account was being closed and giving them two months to withdraw their funds.
“this year BCC's correspondent bank stopped processing SWIFT in EUR when the sender has RU residency :( literally a month ago. before that it worked and worked really well. seems USD still goes through for now, if you open a USD account at the receiving bank - then it'll probably work. there are a couple more options - withdraw cash from the BCC card at ATMs in the EU or send card-to-card transfers from it. both have their monthly limits and fees if you go over.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal16.07.2026
“because of the euro SWIFT block from Kazakh BCC I tried swifting dollars to a euro account at Caixa. Sent the transfer Friday morning, credited today. Loss against today's market dollar-euro rate on the automatic conversion about 0.4%. Given the rouble-dollar rate on BCC's FX platform is also close to market - this is probably the best option compared with withdrawing cash here or doing P2P. Oh, and the correspondents didn't bite anything off along the way.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal13.07.2026
How much you can keep in an account: the €100,000 ceiling
This isn't about transfers as such, but it bears on them directly. Under Article 5.º-B of Regulation 833/2014 a European bank is prohibited from accepting deposits from a Russian citizen if their total with that bank comes to more than €100,000, and the 19th package added a ban on issuing cards and providing payment services. The bans do not apply to people with a residence permit from an EU country, the European Economic Area or Switzerland.
In practice this means that without a residence permit a large transfer may simply not be credited. In June 2026 one person wrote that their SWIFT transfer from Kazakhstan was not credited because with it the account would have held more than a hundred thousand. If you do have a residence permit and the bank still cites sanctions, that is dealt with separately, step by step, in the guide on account closure.
And a counterpoint, so as not to scare you unnecessarily: banks behave differently. In August 2026 one person said that in all their years Millennium had asked about the source of funds exactly once — in 2022, when money arrived from selling property in Russia.
“Same for me, SWIFT from Kazakhstan from my own account didn't get credited because with it it'd have been over 100. The balance is much lower now, but the SWIFT is still floating around somewhere…”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal11.06.2026
“Portugal has really weird compliance. For example, Millennium never once asked about the source of funds in all these years, only once in 2022 when money came from Russia from selling property. Recently we tried to transfer money in online banking to our own account in a third country, but it didn't go through because of the limits. At the branch compliance kicked in, not about where this money came from, but why you're transferring it to a third country) and off they went studying that country's government website, what the money is going on, how safe it is, whether the client is definitely ‘in their right mind’ transferring that kind of money.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal13.08.2026
Cash: the border, the cash machine and the shop
Taking cash out of Russia. You cannot take out more than the equivalent of 10,000 US dollars at a time — this is a Russian rule, and anything over that is confiscated at the border (December 2025). You can't take euro cash back into Russia either: selling and supplying euros to Russia is banned by sanctions, with an exception for personal needs while travelling (May 2026).
Bringing it into the EU. From €10,000 you must declare it to customs on entry and exit — this is an EU rule (Regulation 2018/1672); it covers not only banknotes but also traveller's cheques and similar instruments. Portugal accepts these declarations through the Portal Aduaneiro. Keep a copy of the declaration: without it you will have nothing to show the bank later. People have described friends' money being blocked for two months precisely because it had not been declared on entering the EU (September 2025).
Paying cash into an account. Portugal's cap on cash payments — €3,000 (Article 63.º-E of the General Tax Law) — applies to payments between parties, not to paying money into your own account: these are different things, and people in the chats mix them up. But the bank has its own anti-money-laundering rules: regular cash deposits are noticed and raise questions, and under the Banco de Portugal rule cited in the conversation, paying cash into SOMEONE ELSE'S account from €10,000 requires the person paying it in to be identified, along with their relationship to the account holder, and several smaller deposits count as one payment.
Everyday matters. Cash machines reject notes and send them off to be checked (July 2026), and in some places the cash deposit option is switched off by midday — the advice is to make deposits in the morning (August 2026).
Looking ahead: from 10 July 2027 an EU-wide cap of €10,000 on cash payments and mandatory identity checks from €3,000 will come in (Regulation (EU) 2024/1624). Portugal's €3,000 will stay in place: the national cap is stricter.
“You can't take cash out of Russia above the equivalent of 10k US dollars. The money will most likely be confiscated.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal06.12.2025
“But note that under art.31º do Aviso 2/2018 do Banco de Portugal, paying cash into third parties' accounts for more than 10.000 euros requires the depositor to be identified, as well as their relationship with the account holder. And splitting a payment into several payments of smaller amounts is treated as one payment for the total amount.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes08.12.2024
If incoming money is frozen or your account is closed
It happens, and not only with large sums. The sign is often odd: the card works and you can pay with it, but incoming transfers don't go through and there are no letters (August 2026). The first thing to do is go to the branch and ask your manager what exactly compliance wants: most often it's an up-to-date residence permit or documents on the source of the money.
After that — in writing. Ask for a written answer, not a verbal ‘everything's fine’; if the bank drags its feet, there is the complaints book and a complaint to the Banco de Portugal. The procedure, deadlines and rights — including the right to a basic bank account — are covered in a separate guide on account closure, so we won't repeat them here.
And a rule worth putting in place before any transfer: a second account at a different bank. Not ‘just in case’, but because frozen incoming money catches people out on payday.
“In April last year from my own account in Kyrgyzstan. Several times 3-5 thousand. Transfer takes 2-3 min. No questions until May this year - they sent a request about several top-ups, incl. WU. They want the source (for me it's actually Russia, sale of a flat) - in June a message about closing the account and 2 months to withdraw the funds.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal15.07.2026
The money has arrived: what the tax office here will say
Moving your own money from your own account is not income and does not in itself create any tax. But if you are tax resident in Portugal, you must declare all your income wherever it was earned — even income that has stayed in Russia. For the Portuguese tax office, selling a flat in Russia is a capital gain, and it is calculated here under Portugal's own rules.
Gifts are a separate matter. Stamp duty (imposto do selo) on gifts is 10%, but spouses, parents and children are exempt. Whether a transfer from abroad falls under it is still argued over in the chats: some think the obligation to declare arises when the money is credited to the Portuguese account, others that a gift made in Russia between Russian accounts is not subject to Portuguese duty (August 2026). This is a case where it's worth asking an accountant before the transfer, not after: what's at stake is a tenth of the sum.
As for the money itself: a bank statement and a tax return are the best answer to the question about the source of funds that you will be asked one day.
“If you're tax resident in Portugal, you have to declare all your income regardless of where it was received. How much you end up paying depends on the income and whether you have NHR. But in the case of Russia, the double tax treaty is still in force on Portugal's side and you can offset the personal income tax paid in Russia against IRS.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes22.01.2026
“But if someone transfers you money from Russia to your account in PT, then the obligation to declare it (and pay IS, unless it's a close relative) does arise”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkbanksdeportugal10.08.2026
And what you still owe Russia
A Portuguese tax return does not cancel your Russian obligations. If under Russian rules you are still a currency or tax resident, check separately the notification of opening a foreign account, the report on cash flows through it (ODDS) and the 3-NDFL tax return. These are three different obligations, and one does not replace another; the rules, deadlines and exemptions change, and they need checking for the specific year. For details, see our guide on what happens if you don't declare income.
To be honest about what the conversations don't contain: stories of how Russian checks over an unfiled ODDS report turned out for people who left are practically absent from two years of archive. People discuss how to transfer the money, not how they reported it afterwards. So here there is only a list of obligations, not a promise of what you face for missing them.
What it costs, according to community conversations
| Transfer fee, sending bank | 3% of the amount or €1,500 (May 2026) | source |
| Maximum per transfer | up to €100,000 (April 2026) | source |
| Deducted on a transfer to Caixa | 3% and nothing more (August 2025) | source |
| Loss on dollar→euro conversion | about 0.4% (July 2026) | source |
| Amount from which documents are requested | from €10,000 (August 2026) | source |
| Cap on cash payments in shops | €3,000 (March 2026) | source |
What to bring
- International passport and residence permit card — you will need them at both banks
- Details of your Portuguese account: IBAN and BIC/SWIFT, and the account holder's name exactly as it is recorded at the bank
- Sale contract for the flat with an apostille and translation, the handover certificate, an extract from the property register (EGRN) showing the new owner
- Payment order or statement showing the buyer's money being credited — it shows not only the sale but also the path the money took
- Deed of gift (preferably notarised) and a document proving kinship, if the money is not sent by the recipient themselves
- Account statements for 6–12 months, a certificate of income, an employment contract or a contract with a client — if you are transferring savings or salary
- Translations of documents: into English with the translator's stamp for the sending bank, into Portuguese with certification for the local one
- A copy of the customs declaration, if cash was brought into the EU
Where people most often trip up
- The sender's name and the name of the Portuguese account holder must match. A transfer ‘from Mum’ or ‘to a friend’ is the main reason for questions and bounced transfers.
- Splitting the sum into small transfers looks worse than one large transfer with documents: the bank calls it structuring (August 2026).
- A Russian address in the sending bank's customer file makes you a ‘resident of Russia’ for the correspondent bank, and the payment may be rejected because the details don't match.
- The same payment repeated less than seven days after a rejection is declined automatically — and so is one whose amount matches a previous attempt (OTP, July 2026).
- The Portuguese bank may not take documents before the transfer — and then ask about them years later, when you apply for a mortgage or after a new sanctions package.
- Cash brought in without a customs declaration can't be explained later: friends' money was blocked for two months for exactly that reason (September 2025).
- Someone else's ‘mine arrived in three hours’ is their day and their bank. In that same July 2026, another person had three transfers in a row rejected.
- Schemes to get round compliance cost you the account: for using go-betweens and other people as senders, banks close the whole account rather than just bouncing the transfer.
How it went for people
Transfer bounced at the correspondent — it went through via her husband's account
A woman tried several times to transfer the proceeds from selling her flat from a Russian bank to her account at Caixa, and the payments kept coming back: the bank replied that it was down to the internal policy of the correspondent bank and advised adding her residence permit details. On the next attempt the money was sent not to her but to her husband: the same documents on the sale of the flat plus a marriage certificate, the husband's residence permit number and place of issue in the payment description, and a smaller amount, around €500. The transfer went through in less than a day. She never did change her address at the Russian bank to her Portuguese one: that can only be done at a branch and with originals. July 2026.
€99,600 in one transfer and a €1,500 fee
A mother opened an account at a Russian bank specially for the transfer, and the proceeds from selling the flat went in one go: €99,600 at once, with a €1,500 fee. The sending bank asked about the source of funds — the sum was large. The woman went to Caixa in advance, asked whether the transfer was possible and tried to hand over the documents beforehand, but they didn't take them. The money landed in the account within a day, after which she brought in the certified, translated birth certificate and sale contract — just in case. Her conclusion: it's best to go to your own branch and ask in advance which documents are needed for your particular source of money. February 2026.
Retold in our own words from messages in open chats. The link leads to the full original message.