About
Built around competence, with me at the helm.
Portia In Portugal exists because the paperwork for moving here isn't hard, it's unordered, and because the help on offer was either free Facebook groups or four-figure packages with nothing in between.
The short version
I did this with my own family first.
I'm an American estate planning attorney, licensed in California and Maryland, and a single mother who moved to Coimbra and enrolled her son in a Portuguese school.
Before I helped a single client, I walked my sister, my nephew, my aunts, my parents and a good number of friends through residency here. That's a different level of care than a service contract, and it's where every checklist on this site came from: not from a template, from a kitchen table with a passport on it.
I write the educational material: the Binder, the course, the live sessions. Every rule in them carries the statute or the government page it comes from and the date it was checked, because immigration practice moves faster than immigration law, and I'd rather you could check me than trust me.
Who does what
I'm at the helm. I'm not the whole ship.
The company is deliberately not built on me alone. It's built on a relocation team, a licensed brokerage, and the attorneys and advisers we work with when a file needs one.
Portia
The Binder, the course, the Visa Clarity Session, the Landing Room. Sourced, dated, honest about what's uncertain. It teaches you the system so you can run your own process.
The relocation team
Planning calls, itineraries, appointments booked, files gathered and organised, the phone answered. They aren't lawyers and don't give legal or property opinions.
Páginas e Episódios, Lda.
AMI 21288, in Coimbra. Viewings, assessment and negotiation happen under its licence, with me as a contracted agent. Leases and contracts are reviewed by the brokerage's lawyers.
Attorneys we work with
Some steps require counsel. Those are separate engagements with the attorney concerned, in the US or Portugal, and we help you find the right one.
Rooted here
Coimbra, not just resident.
I founded the Coimbra Pickleball Club and Sip & Soul, the supper club. When I introduce you to someone in this city, it's someone I actually know.
My restaurant and city guides are on Google and they stay free, because a good guide shouldn't be behind a paywall. And I write a long letter from Coimbra every Sunday: what the move actually costs, what I got wrong, what I'd do differently.
I'd rather you could check me than trust me.
~ Portia
The Sunday letter
A long letter from Coimbra, every Sunday.
What the move actually costs, what I got wrong, the restaurant worth the train ride, and the paperwork that changed this month. Free, honest, and written by me.
~ Portia