Regardless of how much planning and research you devote to moving to a new country, the first few months can be quite overwhelming.

When we dragged our suitcases up the cobbled street to our new home in Tavira, our intention was to have a couple of weeks off before tackling bureaucracy, and things like mobile phones and Internet connections.

We cracked after three days. It’s unsettling not to have your house in order, and having to check email in an Internet café quickly becomes a chore.

The two things you really need when you first get to Portugal are a fiscal number (Número de Identificação Fiscal) and a bank account.

In Portugal, you need a fiscal number to do anything remotely official, and this includes arranging phone, broadband or TV packages. It is mostly obvious why you would need a local bank account, but an added factor is Multibanco - a sophisticated system that works via all cash machines. Multibanco is used for many things here, including crediting cellphones, paying utility and tax bills, ordering train tickets, and even arranging fishing licences!

We thought we had been awfully clever by opening our bank accounts before our arrival, by visiting the London branch of our Portuguese bank. Although this allowed us to enter the country already in possession of Portuguese bankcards, it threw us a curve ball when we visited our local Financas office to ask for our fiscal numbers. In order to open our accounts, our bank had “made up” fiscal numbers for us. The process to cancel these took over six weeks. For all of this time we were unable to do anything official and spent a small fortune doing our work using pay-as-you-go Internet dongles. This was our first taste of Portuguese red tape… and there was plenty more to come!

Assuming you haven’t been issued with a “moody” fiscal number, the process to get one is actually quite simple. Visit your local Financas with your passport, proof of address in Portugal and around seven euros. You should walk out with a piece of paper containing your new fiscal number. Unless, that is, you bark at the government employees in English. Learn enough Portuguese to ask for what you need - even if that means writing yourself a script!

Next, go to the bank with passport, fiscal number, proof of address, a small deposit, and proof of employment, income or savings. All being well, you should get a bank account, and, shortly after, a shiny new Multibanco card. Note that I said “you should,” the exact requirements are likely to vary from bank to bank, and even town to town!

Once you have these things out of the way, I would suggest drinking plenty of wine. This will help you to train yourself to relax to Portugal’s slow pace of life, and fortify you in readiness for your next tangles with bureaucracy. These are likely to include sorting out taxes and residency - both of which have the potential to be far more complicated than bank accounts and fiscal numbers!

The relaxing effect of the cheap and delicious local wine will also, hopefully, deliver another benefit, which is to lower your inhibitions enough for you to dare to make your first tentative steps towards speaking the language. Make efforts to meet your neighbours, local restaurateurs and shopkeepers. You should find that most people are welcoming and patient with your stuttering efforts at Portuguese. Getting to know these people is your first step towards integrating in your new country—so relax and enjoy it!