In the office towers of Parque das Nações in Lisbon, or around Boavista in Porto, it is not unusual to hear French spoken into a telephone headset. Working in Portugal as a foreigner, and especially as a French speaker, is possible, and in some sectors even simpler than people think. In others, without Portuguese, the door stays shut.
Here is where the jobs are, where to look for them, what you can expect to earn, and the paperwork to gather before your first payslip.
Which sectors hire foreigners in Portugal?
The first, by far, is multilingual customer relations. Lisbon and Porto host many service centres of international groups: customer support, after-sales, accounting, human resources, order management for the whole of Europe. A language-based role there often means answering customers in their own language from a Portuguese office: a French-speaking role, for example, usually means handling clients in France, Belgium or Switzerland. The internal working language, meanwhile, is frequently English.
Next comes tech. Lisbon and Porto have seen a very active scene of start-ups and development offices emerge, where English dominates. Developers, testers, project managers, data profiles: if your job is done in English, your nationality matters little and your portfolio a great deal.
Tourism and hospitality offer another outlet, especially in the Algarve, Lisbon, Porto and Madeira, where there are many French visitors. Reception, guided tours, holiday lets, agencies: speaking French is a real asset, but most of these jobs also require Portuguese and English, and many are seasonal.
Then there is teaching French, if you are a French speaker. Language schools, private lessons, in-company training: the demand exists, often part-time or freelance. The country's French lycées recruit according to their own rules, which you should check directly with each school. Teaching in a Portuguese state school is another matter: you need a recognised qualification and very good Portuguese.
Can you work in Portugal without speaking Portuguese?
Yes, but the choice narrows quickly. EURES, the European network of employment services, puts it bluntly: finding a job in Portugal without speaking the language is not easy. The exceptions it lists overlap with those above: customer service, shared service centres, IT, some multinationals, a few jobs in agriculture or hospitality with no contact with customers.
English is widely spoken by the younger generations, which makes office life easier. But as soon as you step outside these niches (retail, health, administration, crafts, most small and medium-sized businesses), Portuguese becomes the norm again. Even in a service centre, a decent level opens up supervisory posts and makes everyday life much more pleasant.
The smart move, then, is to start learning before you leave. European Portuguese is easier to read than to understand by ear: the swallowed vowels baffle newcomers for the first few weeks. Our tips to learn Portuguese will help you choose a method that lasts.
Where can you find a job in Portugal?
The IEFP, the Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, is the Portuguese public employment service (the counterpart of France Travail in France). Its iefponline portal publishes IEFP job offers from across the country. Citizens of the EU, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Switzerland can register with their identity card or passport. Online, registration requires you to sign in with Segurança Social Direta, so with your NISS, or with the Chave Móvel Digital, the Portuguese digital identity. Otherwise, you go to the desk of an employment office, from 9 am to 5 pm, with or without an appointment.
The EURES portal lets you search for vacancies across Europe, including those of Portuguese employers, and upload a Europass CV visible to recruiters in several countries. According to the IEFP, Portugal has 39 EURES advisers, who can be reached by phone or video call. A European programme, the Targeted Mobility Scheme, can also help fund travel for an interview, a move or language lessons, subject to conditions, including a contract of at least six months.
Job sites account for most of the market. EURES mentions Net-Empregos and Indeed for general vacancies, and landing.jobs for tech. Major newspapers such as Público and Expresso still publish adverts.
Networks matter enormously. LinkedIn is increasingly used for qualified profiles, and speculative applications remain common practice. For French speakers, the CCILF, the Luso-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, publishes vacancies for bilingual candidates in its "Emploi" section, accepts CVs for jobs, internships or VIE placements (the French international volunteer programme), and produces a guide to companies that are hiring.
A word on method: according to EURES, recruitment takes one to two months on average in Portugal. The CV fits on one or two pages, in reverse chronological order, and the cover letter stays short.
What salary can you expect when working in Portugal?
This is the touchy subject, so let us be frank. Since 1 January 2026, the minimum wage in Portugal has been €920 gross a month, set by Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025. Like almost all salaries in the country, it is paid fourteen times a year: twelve months, plus a holiday bonus (subsídio de férias) and a Christmas bonus (subsídio de Natal). Employees generally pay 11% of their gross salary in social security contributions, before income tax.
The average salary remains modest. According to INE, the national statistics institute, average gross monthly earnings per worker were about €1,694 in 2025, all bonuses included. Pay for multilingual and tech jobs varies a lot from one company to another, but as a rule stays far below French, Belgian or Swiss levels. Always compare offers in gross annual terms, with the fourteen payments included, to avoid nasty surprises.
Is that salary enough? It all depends on the city. A Lisbon rent can swallow a large share of a local pay packet, while Braga or Viseu leave you room to breathe. Our article on the cost of living in Portugal gives median rents city by city.
What paperwork do you need before working in Portugal?
For EU citizens, as for the Swiss, there is no work permit: free movement applies, and according to the official gov.pt guide, a foreigner working in Portugal has the same rights and duties as a Portuguese worker. But your employer will need a few numbers, and you are better off having them before you sign.
- The NIF, the tax number, essential to be paid and declared. Applying for it is free at the Finanças, the tax office. With Hello Expat, Moovy prepares your application, and you submit it yourself or through a tax representative.
- The NISS, the social security number. Your employer can apply for it on your behalf, but you can also do it online: our guide to the NISS in Portugal explains the process.
- A bank account, preferably Portuguese, to receive your salary and pay your bills without friction.
- The EU citizen registration certificate, to request from the town hall of your municipality if you stay more than three months. The steps are in our article on the EU residence certificate in Portugal.
The case of British citizens. Since Brexit, a British citizen who arrives is a third-country national. For a salaried job, they need a residence visa applied for at the Portuguese consulate before leaving, with a contract, a promise of a contract or an individual expression of interest from the employer, and proof of their qualification if the profession is regulated. The skilled job-seeker visa exists in law, but the official visa website states that it is not yet available at consulates. British citizens who were already living in Portugal before the United Kingdom left the EU fall under the Withdrawal Agreement, a separate regime.
Employment contract, probation period: what does the Código do Trabalho say?
Portuguese employment law is set out in the Código do Trabalho, the Labour Code. The contract can be written or verbal, gov.pt points out, and it specifies in particular the place of work, the role, the start date, the pay, the working hours and the workplace accident insurance. The rule requiring a written contract for foreign workers does not apply to nationals of the European Economic Area. Always ask for something in writing anyway: it is your best protection.
The main types of contract:
- open-ended (sem termo), the equivalent of a permanent contract;
- fixed-term with a set end date (a termo certo), for a maximum of two years, renewable no more than three times, with the total length of the renewals not exceeding that of the initial contract;
- fixed-term with no set end date (a termo incerto), tied to a specific assignment or a replacement, capped at four years;
- and also part-time work, temporary agency work and the short-term contract.
The probation period (período experimental) depends on the contract. For an open-ended contract, it is 90 days in the general case, 180 days for highly technical posts and posts of high responsibility or trust, as well as for first-time jobseekers and the long-term unemployed, and 240 days for senior managers. For a fixed-term contract, it is 30 days if the contract lasts at least six months, and 15 days below that. A collective agreement or a written agreement can shorten it.
During this period, either side can end the contract without giving a reason and without compensation. The only nuance: after 60 days of probation, the employer must give 7 days' notice, and 30 days' notice after 120 days. As for working time, normal working time is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, with at least 22 working days of paid leave a year. If in doubt, the ACT, the labour inspectorate, answers on 300 069 300 on weekdays from 9 am to 12.30 pm.
How do you get your diploma recognised for working in Portugal?
There are two procedures not to confuse.
Academic recognition concerns your higher education degree. Since 2019, Decreto-Lei n.º 66/2018 has provided for three routes, of equal legal value. Automatic recognition, requested from the DGES (the Directorate-General for Higher Education), applies to degrees whose level and nature correspond to a Portuguese licenciatura (bachelor's), mestrado (master's) or doctorate. It costs €32.20, and the maximum processing time is 30 days after a complete application. Level recognition and specific recognition, which are more detailed, are requested from a public university or polytechnic institute, with a maximum processing time of 90 days. Everything goes through the DGES online form.
Professional recognition concerns the right to practise. For most jobs, it is the employer who judges your diploma. But for a regulated profession (health, law, engineering, architecture and teaching, among others), you need to have your qualification recognised by the competent authority before you practise, often the relevant professional body. Start this procedure early: in many cases, it is this, more than the job search, that sets your departure date.
Working in Portugal takes preparation, like a move: a little of the language, a few numbers, a CV in English (and in French if you are a French speaker), and the patience for a recruitment process that takes its time. The rest happens on the spot, often over a coffee, and that is very much the charm of the country.