For Americans, Portugal is a hot commodity. Americans of a certain demographic are gobbling up property. According to the Portugal News, an English language newspaper out of the Algarve, North American clients represent 70% of real estate sales in Portugal over the past few years.
Not surprisingly it’s also becoming popular as a destination for high-tech workers known as digital nomads. In October 2022 the country began issuing special visas to specifically attract this brand of new economy worker.
Portugal was one of nearly 50 tourism-dependent regions around the world to create digital nomad visas to offset economic losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The visas allow foreigners to legally work (online) for an employer or company outside of the country. Of course, the digital nomad phenomenon has always existed, but the new entry permits avoid tax issues with the host country.
Since launching its digital nomad visa, Portugal’s ministry of affairs stated that most of the applicants have come from the United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
During the pandemic, even Hawaii was a magnet for digital nomads, albeit from the mainland, rather than the international crowd that Portugal seeks to attract.
Working on a laptop overseas has always appealed to me, and over the past Christmas I briefly played the role of digital nomad for this column in French Polynesia, which was wonderful, but quite expensive. After hearing about virtual opportunities in Portugal, a country that charmed me as a tourist in years past, I was curious about what it would be like to work there.
I got some answers from my colleague, Kurt Stewart, a San Francisco native and fellow writer, currently living in central Portugal near the Dao wine region. A freelance journalist who has lived elsewhere in Europe, he has made Portugal his home base.
Over the summer, I had a chance to interview him.
Why work out of Portugal?
“First off,” he said, “the cost of living is much lower than the mainland U.S., much less Hawaii. Secondly, decent bandwidth is available throughout the country, even in remote regions. For example, in the tiny village of Crescido, where I live, we have fiber to our 200-year-old home.” In addition to ubiquitous bandwidth, he noted that in the larger cities, co-working spaces are readily available.
Stewart said he had previously worked in Porto, Portugal’s second-largest city, but favored the countryside where the cost of living is even lower, and the pace of life is slower. “All we need is an internet connection and a little land to grow vegetables and we can be self-sufficient to a large degree,” he said.
In addition to infrastructure, Stewart said there’s a lot to like about Portugal. “People are generous and hospitable, and it makes a great base to travel elsewhere in Europe.”
However, he confided that his life as a digital nomad is not always a Mediterranean panacea. He says he earns a “decent” salary but supplements his income with a B&B property, which he just purchased with his wife, a former Montessori primary teacher.
He’s learning Portuguese and said he gets his intellectual stimulation from folks he meets from all over the world, including Americans, some of whom are in search of their Portuguese roots.
Qualifying for a visa
How to qualify for a Portuguese digital nomad visa?
You’ll need to prove a monthly income equal to four times Portugal’s minimum wage — around $3,350 a month. You’ll also need proof attesting to self-employment and tax residency outside of Portugal. (The Visit Portugal website has the details).
On a personal note, I was able to complete this column at a B&B several kilometers from Kurt’s property. I didn’t need a visa to do this but I got a taste for the lifestyle. This included sampling local fare such as wine from a nearby vineyard along with grilled sardines and steamed clams at an outdoor cafe.
In short, the appeal of working here, laptop in backpack, was self-evident during my summer sojourn. If you can work remotely and want to discover this delightful country, and if you have Iberian roots, explore your heritage: Portugal is there for you.
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Rob Kay, a Honolulu-based writer, covers technology and sustainability for Tech View and is the creator of fijiguide.com. He can be reached at Robertfredkay@gmail.com.
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