Xpat.Land — a guide to life in Portugal, written by people who live here

Every move starts with the same list: documents, a bank account, rent, school for a child, a doctor, taxes. And with the feeling that all of this has to be figured out from scratch — with your own time, money and nerves. Tens of thousands of expats have gone through this: from the United States, Europe and countries of the former USSR. We have too.

Xpat.Land is a place where this experience stops being private. Here you can find an answer to a concrete question — how to open a business, find work, get an education, where to go with your family on the weekend — and understand where you are: why this country has these traditions, how it works and what it lives by.

This is a platform in two of the most popular non-Portuguese languages of European and Western emigration: English and Russian.

Who we are. The project was founded by Ilya Zhegulev — an editor and journalist with thirty years of experience, who moved to Portugal two years ago and before that lived in Georgia, Ukraine and Russia. Our like-minded colleagues are not only journalists, but also lawyers and entrepreneurs. We all live here and every day we figure out ourselves how to live in Portugal comfortably and interestingly.

What we do. We know how to explain complex things simply, check facts and turn other people's and our own experience into stories. On our portal there are business cases, practical guides, stories about the places where we live, and tips on where to go in your free time. No matter what language we speak, our tasks are shared, as is the desire to find ourselves in a new place and reinvent our lives.

Why. We want to gather all this in one place so that it becomes your guide to life in a new country. However long we have come here for, we want to make this country better for us together.

How to take part. Xpat.Land is a community of caring people who have something to tell. If you have a plot or a story, write to us.