Moving to Portugal from Ireland

Irish citizens can live in Portugal by right, under the free movement arrangements between the EU, EEA and Switzerland. A couple who both hold Irish passports do not need to qualify through a work, income or investment route, though registration and other local rules still apply. Check the official requirements before you move.

If one of you holds a different passport, that partner's position can differ. For people without a right of residence, our residency index rates Portugal 80/100 (comparatively open). Portugal offers genuinely accessible long-term residency through the D7 passive-income/sufficient-means visa, the D8 digital nomad visa, and the investment-based Golden Visa, each leading to permanent residency or citizenship after five years.

For short visits, Irish passport holders can visit visa-free, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit or a right of residence.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Irish passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Lisbon

   89% match

   Est. cost

   €2,913/mo

   Avg temp

   17°C

   Safety index

   70/100

2. 2

   2. Porto

   88% match

   Est. cost

   €2,831/mo

   Avg temp

   15°C

   Safety index

   70/100

3. 3

   3. Braga

   87% match

   Est. cost

   €2,801/mo

   Avg temp

   15°C

   Safety index

   70/100

4. 4

   4. Funchal

   85% match

   Est. cost

   €2,732/mo

   Avg temp

   18°C

   Safety index

   70/100

5. 5

   5. Faro

   83% match

   Est. cost

   €2,686/mo

   Avg temp

   19°C

   Safety index

   70/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,686 a month in Faro to €2,913 in Lisbon. For comparison, we estimate €4,127 a month in Dublin. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Portugal is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax); Ireland is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Ireland after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Best cities for a couple on €3,000 a month
• Best places to retire abroad on a budget
• Best places to retire in Europe
• Best places to retire in the world
• Best small and mid-sized cities to live in abroad
• Best cities to move abroad as a couple

• Moving to Portugal from the US
• Moving to Portugal from the UK
• Moving to Portugal from Canada
• Moving to Portugal from Australia
• Moving to Portugal from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Irish passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.