A lot of people that move to Portugal have legitimate reasons to want to keep an address in another country, like the US or UK. Some expats have businesses there, and need to hold a registered business address. Others need a more residential address so that they can receive things like bank statements or new bank cards and other important documents, especially those that are only moving to Portugal for a few months at a time.
The residential address is definitely the bigger challenge of the two. There are companies like Mail Boxes Etc. that specialise in virtual addresses for businesses but, unfortunately, you can’t use them for things like renewing your driving licence or passport, as well as receiving personal mail from many banks, credit cards, or insurance companies.
The best option is probably to ask a friend or family member and even offer to pay them what you would pay a virtual mailbox company. Of course, this is not an option for everyone, which is where specialised mailboxes come in.
US Virtual Addresses
Traveling Mailbox
One of the most popular options for those that want a US address is Traveling Mailbox, which offers mailboxes in several states throughout the US, including California, Florida, New York, and North Carolina.
Anytime Mailbox
Anytime Mailbox offers virtual addresses in several countries worldwide, including the US, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Many of these addresses are residential addresses, but you should look at the address before signing up. Many of the UK addresses, for example, used words like ‘suite’ in the address, which would make it unsuitable for receiving a lot of mail like driving licences and passport renewals.
Earth Class Mail
Earth Class Mail offers a number of virtual addresses throughout the US, including premium locations like San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. Like most other virtual mailboxes, you can choose to have your mail scanned or forwarded to you, wherever you are in the world.
For those running a business, Earth Class Mail offers a number of helpful features like check depositing. It also integrates with Xero and Quickbooks.
UK Virtual Addresses
The following companies can provide UK residential addresses (which normally can be used for business purposes as well).
Expost
Expost offer residential addresses in several locations in the UK, including Scotland and Wales, as well as in the Republic of Ireland. They offer both a mail scanning and mail forwarding service.
UK Post Box
UK Post Box offers addresses in London that can be used for receiving either personal or business mail.They offer a number of services that are helpful to anyone trying to maintain an address in the UK: they’ll scan your mail and upload it to your account, forward it to you, and they also allow you to upload a letter to them which they can post from within the UK on your behalf.
Lets Letter Box
Lets Letter Box offers addresses in Northern Ireland that can be used for business or personal mail. Their customers include people registering in Northern Ireland for business purposes, as well as those who’ve needed a residential address for personal reasons like going through a divorce or moving around a lot.
Ireland Virtual Addresses
As well as offering virtual addresses in the UK, Expost also offers a Dublin street address in Ireland that can be used for anything from bank statements to receiving eBay and Amazon packages.
What about Mailboxes in Portugal
Some people have the opposite problem: rather than needing a mailbox in the UK, they need one in Portugal.
Unfortunately, there aren’t as many services available in Portugal as there are in the UK, but some options include:
Another option would be to speak to a coworking space like Cowork Central and Workup (both in Lisbon), both of which offer mailboxes for members.
