Why Americans Are Actually Moving to Portugal, Italy, and Greece — and What Nobody Tells You Before You Go

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you ... you're just helping re-supply our family's travel fund.

The pandemic broke something loose in how Americans thought about where they were allowed to live. Remote work went from fringe benefit to widespread reality. And a whole generation of people who had never seriously considered living abroad started doing the math.

The math looked compelling. A two-bedroom in Lisbon for what a studio cost in Austin. Universal healthcare without the insurance bureaucracy. A pace of life that didn’t feel like a perpetual sprint.

What followed was one of the largest waves of American expatriation in modern history. Portugal, Italy, and Greece all actively competed for these arrivals with visa programs, tax incentives, and marketing that leaned heavily into the dream.

Here’s what the brochure left out.

Why Europe Suddenly Started Courting American Expats

This wasn’t accidental. Several Southern and Western European countries recognized that attracting high-income remote workers and retirees could inject spending power into their economies without straining labor markets.

Portugal’s Non-Habitual Residency (NHR) program, Italy’s flat-tax regime for new residents, and Greece’s digital nomad visa were all deliberate policy tools designed to pull in affluent foreigners.

• These countries offered 10-year tax incentives, often exempting foreign-sourced income from local taxation
• Residency-by-investment programs (like Portugal’s Golden Visa) gave wealthy Americans a path to EU residency through property purchase or investment
• The marketing worked: American expat communities in Lisbon, the Algarve, Puglia, and Athens grew dramatically between 2020 and 2025

But the programs changed as political backlash mounted. Portugal ended its Golden Visa program for real estate in 2023 and modified the NHR program in 2024. The window most early movers jumped through has narrowed.

Portugal: The Reality Behind the Golden Hype

Portugal was the darling of the American expat movement for good reasons. English is widely spoken, the climate is excellent, the food is affordable, and Lisbon has a genuine cosmopolitan energy that rivals much larger cities.

But the Americans who moved there en masse changed it.

• Lisbon rent has increased more than 65% in the last five years by some local measurements, with foreign demand widely blamed
• Portuguese locals have held organized protests specifically targeting expat-driven gentrification
• Neighborhoods like Mouraria and Príncipe Real, once affordable for locals, now price out the people who built them

The bureaucracy is also genuinely difficult. Opening a Portuguese bank account as a foreigner requires patience that most Americans haven’t cultivated. Getting a NIF (the tax identification number required for almost everything) used to take a trip to a tax office; it now often requires an intermediary service because the system is overwhelmed.

Healthcare access for non-EU residents varies by registration status, and the national health service (SNS) has real capacity constraints — wait times for specialists can be long.

None of this means Portugal isn’t wonderful. It is. But the Portugal that American influencers moved to in 2020 is not the Portugal that exists in 2026.

Italy’s Flat-Tax Scheme and Who It Actually Works For

Italy offers resident foreigners the option to pay a flat €100,000 tax on all foreign income annually — regardless of how much that income actually is. If you earn €500,000 abroad, you pay €100,000 in Italian taxes. If you earn €1 million, same deal.

For high earners, this is extraordinary. For someone earning €60,000, paying €100,000 in flat tax on it makes no financial sense.

Italy also has the “7% flat tax” program in specific southern regions designed to attract retirees with foreign pension income to depopulating villages. Some towns will literally give you an abandoned house if you commit to renovating it.

• The flat-rate programs are genuinely valuable — for the right income profile
• Italian bureaucracy for residency documentation is notoriously complex and slow
• Healthcare through the Italian national system (SSN) is accessible but variable in quality by region
• Language is a more significant barrier than in Portugal — English proficiency is lower in most of Italy outside major tourist centers

The cultural and lifestyle payoff in Italy is real. The administrative process of actually getting there legally is not for the impatient.

Greece’s Digital Nomad Visa — The Details Nobody Posts About

Greece launched a digital nomad visa allowing remote workers to live in Greece for up to 12 months (extendable) while working for employers or clients outside Greece. The tax incentive: a 50% income tax exemption for the first seven years.

Sounds extraordinary. The fine print:

• You must earn a minimum of €3,500 per month to qualify
• You cannot work for Greek clients or employers under this visa
• The application process requires certified translations of multiple documents
• Greek bureaucracy — particularly in immigration offices — is notoriously slow and sometimes paper-based in ways that surprise modern applicants
• Healthcare access depends heavily on where in Greece you settle: Athens has solid private options, but the islands and rural areas have limited medical infrastructure

Greece rewards people who move there slowly — who learn some of the language, build relationships, understand the informal systems. People who move expecting Mediterranean Instagram life with American service standards leave frustrated.

What American Healthcare Assumptions Will Cost You Abroad

This is the thing that bites Americans hardest. U.S. health insurance does not cover you abroad in any meaningful way. Medicare does not work outside the United States, full stop.

Your options as an expat:

• Register for the national health system: In Portugal and Greece, once you have residency status, you can register for public healthcare. Quality is real, cost is minimal, but wait times exist.
• Purchase international health insurance: Companies like Cigna Global, Allianz Care, and AXA offer plans designed for expats. Expect €200–500/month for comprehensive coverage depending on age and deductible choices.
• Use private healthcare pay-as-you-go: In southern Europe, private specialist visits often cost €80–150 out of pocket — fraction of U.S. prices, but without coverage this adds up for complex conditions.

Americans with pre-existing conditions need to research carefully. International insurers can exclude pre-existing conditions or charge significant premiums for them.

The Culture Shock Americans Don’t Anticipate

The things that surprise Americans who move to southern Europe are rarely the big obvious differences. It’s the texture of daily life:

• Shops genuinely close in the afternoon. Not just some shops — many businesses, especially family-run ones, close for lunch and don’t reopen until late afternoon.
• Customer service operates on a different emotional register. Efficiency and urgency are not cultural values the way they are in the U.S.
• Social integration takes years, not months. Expat bubbles form fast, and living inside one means you’ve moved geographies but not cultures.
• Banking, internet installation, utility setup — processes Americans expect to take hours take weeks.
• Bureaucratic appointments, when they can be scheduled at all, may require you to physically appear at an office with paper documents on a Tuesday at 10am.

How Living Costs Have Changed Since Americans Started Arriving

The cost advantage that made Portugal and Greece so attractive has compressed significantly, particularly in major cities and popular expat areas.

• Lisbon and Porto rents have risen faster than most Western European capitals in recent years
• The Algarve, popular with British and German retirees for decades, saw American demand push property prices dramatically higher post-2020
• Athens neighborhoods popular with expats (Koukaki, Monastiraki areas) have seen similar, if somewhat less dramatic, rent increases

The arbitrage still exists relative to New York, San Francisco, or Boston. It’s narrowed relative to midsize American cities.

What the People Who Moved Back Actually Say

Return migration is real and growing. Expats who went back to the U.S. after trying European life consistently cite:

• Family pull: Aging parents, children’s education, family events — the practical weight of being far from family compounds over time
• Career limitations: Remote work arrangements that seemed permanent sometimes ended; EU work authorization doesn’t transfer to U.S.-employer jobs
• Healthcare complexity: People with chronic conditions or those who had medical emergencies found navigating foreign systems stressful
• Language isolation: Living in an English-speaking expat bubble eventually feels hollow; integrating without language fluency is genuinely hard
• The reality vs. the dream: Many people moved for a feeling they’d built up through travel. Long-term residence is not a vacation. The same mild bureaucratic frustration that’s charming for a week becomes exhausting for a year.

None of this is a reason not to go. Moving abroad is one of the more transformative things a person can do. But the decision deserves honesty about what you’re moving toward and what you’re leaving behind — not just the version that photographs well.