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Series · 4 parts

Registering a Company in Portugal

Portugal offers company formation online from €220. This is what actually happened when a Swedish founder in the Algarve tried it: the rejections, the SOLVIT complaint, and the path that finally worked.

  1. 1Starting a Business in Portugal in 24 HoursPortugal's Empresa Online 2.0 lets you form a company online from €220, registered within days. On paper, one of the fastest company formation systems in Europe. A Swedish founder in the Algarve decides to test it.
  2. 2Company Registration: One Step Forward, Many Steps SidewaysName approved after six days. CMD activated in twenty minutes. Empresa na Hora unavailable in Lagos. Empresa Online 2.0 running out of data to display for me. A day of Portuguese company registration that didn't go as the brochure suggested.
  3. 3Company Registration: Heard of SOLVIT?Empresa Online 2.0 silently rejects non-Portuguese EU citizens despite accepting CMD login. The EU single market fix is SOLVIT, a free complaint network almost nobody knows exists. Here's how I used it.
  4. 4Company Registration: The Path That Actually WorkedAfter a name rejection, a broken government platform, and a four-month IRN backlog, I hired a solicitadora for 200 euros. She filed it in an afternoon. Six weeks later, the NIPC arrived.