You left Portugal, or you have not arrived yet, and something needs a Portuguese address: the bank insists on sending the card by post, Finanças mails the IRS notice, AIMA writes about your process, the old landlord returns your deposit by cheque. There are exactly five real ways to solve this, and most people only know two of them. Here they all are, with the honest limits of each.
The five options, side by side
| Option | Cost | Works from abroad? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family or friends | Free (in money) | Partly: someone must open and photograph everything | Occasional letters, patient relatives |
| CTT posta restante | Small per-item fee | No: collection in person, short holding period | A single delivery while you are in Portugal |
| Apartado (PO box) | ~€80-120/year | No: collected at the CTT counter | People in Portugal who don't want mail at home |
| Lawyer / accountant address | Usually part of a paid engagement | Yes, for the matters they handle | Specific legal or tax processes |
| Virtual mailbox | ~€10/month | Yes, fully: letters scanned to your email | Ongoing mail from banks, Finanças, insurers |
1. Family or friends: free until it isn't
The default answer, and it works until it doesn't. The structural problems: someone else reads your bank statements and IRS letters; registered letters need the person to be home to sign; anything urgent depends on their holiday schedule; and the relationship tax of "can you check my mail again?" compounds monthly. Fine for one letter a year. Fragile for anything that matters.
2. Posta restante: the option nobody remembers
CTT's posta restante lets a sender address mail to you at a specific post office ("Nome, Posta Restante, [estação]"), where it is held for collection with your ID. It is genuinely useful for one-off deliveries while you are physically in Portugal, and almost useless otherwise: holding periods are short, everything requires you at the counter, and no institution will use it as your address on file.
3. Apartado: a box you must visit
A rented PO box at a CTT station. Professional, private, and entirely dependent on you showing up: mail is collected in person at the counter. If you live in Faro and the box is in Faro, great. If you live in Frankfurt, the apartado just moves your problem to a different building.
4. A lawyer's or accountant's address: right for processes, wrong for life
For a specific legal case or tax representation, the professional handling it often receives correspondence for that matter, and for non-residents a fiscal representative may be required anyway. But it covers only their matter, ends with the engagement, and no lawyer wants your electricity bills.
5. A virtual mailbox: the only fully remote option
A service gives you a real Portuguese street address. Letters arriving there are received on your behalf, opened under a written mandate you sign (Portuguese law requires your express authorisation), scanned, and emailed to you, typically within one business day. Registered letters are signed for by the service as your agent. You read the Finanças notice in Berlin twenty minutes after the postman delivered it in Lisbon.
What to check before choosing one: whether scanning is included or charged per page (this is where cheap plans get expensive), whether they make you sign a proper mandate and verify identity (a legal requirement, and a red flag if skipped), what happens to originals, and whether the address can be used for your purpose. Note that correspondence-only services cannot serve as a company's registered office or tax domicile.
We compared the providers operating in Portugal, prices and fees side by side, here: Best Virtual Mailbox Services in Portugal.
A Portuguese address, your mail in your inbox
Portugal Mailbox gives you a real address in Portugal and emails you a scan of every letter within 1 business day. €9.99/month, scans included, 30-day money-back guarantee.
Get your address →Frequently asked questions
Which option should I use for Finanças and Segurança Social?
These institutions write regularly and sometimes with deadlines attached, so you need an address that works permanently and remotely: in practice, a relative you trust completely or a virtual mailbox. Also activate ViaCTT and the institutions' own digital notifications where available; paper still gets sent in many cases, but every channel you digitise is one less letter lost.
I have not moved to Portugal yet. Can I set up an address before arriving?
Yes: a virtual mailbox can be activated entirely online before you arrive, which lets you open processes that require a Portuguese address early. See the dedicated guide on setting up your mail before moving to Portugal.
And if I need to send registered letters to Portugal too?
That is the mirror problem, and this site solves it: cartaregistada.pt sends registered letters with proof of receipt through CTT from any country, no printer or post office needed.