Well, at least we didn't die 🙂

Exposition

Hi! My name is Umyar. I wanted to tell you a story about how my wife and I got fired at the most inconvenient moment in life. And about how we then managed to crawl out of a shitty situation. An emigrant's reflection, if you will.

Enjoy the read, friends!

I arrived in Portugal a little over a year ago now. I really like it here and I'd love to stay for a long time. At least 5–10 years. Portuguese people are happy, calm, very sweet and kind. Sure, sometimes you run into aggressive ones (hello, anonymous folks from the internet!), but I've never met a mean one in real life. Only those very same anonymous internet people, so who knows, maybe it's not even Portuguese people writing those angry comments...

By the way, in Russia the situation is far more brutal… There's so much anger around. People are forced to survive and tear at each other's throats… That's one of the reasons I left.

To describe the Portuguese, it's enough to tell one story that proves their kindness. When I was moving, I got help delivering a "humanitarian shipment" from Ikea (a heavy mattress, kitchen chairs, dishes and other essentials). It was a hardworking man and his son in a van. They do renovations. They helped me bring all our stuff to our rented apartment in Porto. And afterward they didn't even take a single cent from me for gas. Let alone the time they spent… Friends, if you're reading this, thank you again for your help…

No need, really — just reach out if you need help. There are 10 million of us here.

And there are quite a lot of situations like this, and people who take part in them. I'm still getting used to the fact that people can be different… Not mean… 🥺

Horror stories

In the summer of 2025 (we'd only just arrived...) my wife and I both lost our jobs. My wife — on the day of the Iberian blackout (remember that one?). They called her and said she was being let go. And then that blackout-apocalypse… A hard day for us...

But everything always works out in the end, right? That's what I thought too...
But: 2 days later they fired me too. It was epic.

And we had only just rented a great two-bedroom, where we were planning to set up two proper workspaces… But on the third day after signing the contract, both of us SUDDENLY stopped needing such a big apartment. So it turned out we had voluntarily signed up to pay decent money for a spacious home that was essentially standing empty...

For a year we slept on the floor on that very mattress I wrote about above. Instead of nightstands we had our travel suitcases. 2 mugs, 2 plates, one pot… We had to start cutting back hard…

We also had to start keeping an eye on our expenses. It was necessary in any case. Because otherwise there was no way to figure out whether Europe was right for us or not. And especially at a time like that…

We spent far less on living than on rent... We saved on everything. I tried not to buy too much fruit, because I was worried the money might run out fast. We'd never lived in the EU before and didn't know how to spend properly. It was hard. At some point I developed depression. I remember standing in the store checking that there were no broken eggs in the carton. It would take me about 3–5 minutes. Because the anxiety made me re-check those eggs about 7–10 times…

I started taking Zoloft just to be able to keep looking for a new job and not die. We didn't have a residence permit and it was impossible to get hired anywhere here in Porto. I couldn't get through interviews. I kept making stupid mistakes. My brain's performance dropped hard. I bombed dozens of interviews. My wife, at that point, was learning English so she too could work as a programmer here in Portugal. The hopelessness was made worse by the fact that, before submitting our documents to AIMA, we needed to find at least some kind of work contract. A vicious circle of pain and suffering.

Overstaying the permitted period in EU countries (violating the 90/180-day rule) carries fines from €500 to €10,000, as well as deportation and a ban on entering the Schengen zone for a period of 1 to 5 years.

🥶 🥶 🥶

Honestly, it really would be just wonderful to get shipped back to Russia with no right of return for up to 5 years, all for my heightened sense of justice, wouldn't it? There was ALREADY nothing left of me after everything that had happened. And if on top of that I'd had to be deported back to the very place I'd run from with all my might, I simply can't imagine what would have happened.

There was no "giving up" option…

The reward for suffering

At some point, if you keep trying and don't give up, something is bound to work out! That's what happened to me. I managed to get through 4! rounds of interviews at IVC Evidensia. The folks reached out to me themselves on LinkedIn. They'd only recently opened in Porto and were putting together 3 new teams. And I managed to land a spot on one of them.

They gave me a job offer, but I couldn't accept it, because I wasn't happy with the salary level and I still didn't have a Residence Card (residence permit). And as you'll recall — without a work contract I wouldn't have gotten one… What a trap.

What next? I did manage to find a b2b contract (thanks, Dima! ❤️) that brought in the minimum income I needed, which was enough to apply to AIMA. It was extremely risky (I still haven't been paid for the remaining 2 months of work), but there was no choice...

We submitted the documents and started waiting… After a while (October) the cards arrived! We were no longer just tourists who'd overstayed their stay in the country and kept burning through their financial safety cushion.

I can go to work! A week later IVC Evidensia messaged me: "So, are you ready?" I replied: "Yes..."

Life isn't as shitty as it seemed. Now let me tell you about poupy.pt!

"Looks like we're on the right track," I reassured myself back then. The depression still hadn't let up and the first month or two at work were hard. But over time I managed, and now I have the strength to tell you about my adventure too, friends.

So, let's go back to the days of the Iberian blackout. Like I said — we started counting our expenses to at least somehow fight our anxiety and feel a "sense of control." It was Excel. We recorded every cent in there. At the end of August, Yulia said she was sick of doing it. So it was my turn. But I didn't last 3 months, just 3 days… Hahahaha 🤣 My brain, depressed as it still was back then, was nonetheless still an engineer's brain. And I started thinking about how to make this process more convenient and simple. From then on I began developing a project that, besides solving my problem, helped me learn new programming technologies. Which in the end also helped me land the job at IVC Evidensia. Neat, isn't it?

About a month after starting work on the project, I already had a product that could automatically process receipts from Continente. It's our favorite grocery store. Because it's close to home and it has everything! We live in Senhora da Hora.

I was consumed by building this software. It helped me climb out of depression, find a job, make life easier, see a future… And it did something more… It became my way to learn new things. It helped me understand that things aren't so bad. And even now, when taxes eat up a pretty noticeable chunk of my income and my wife isn't working — we can still keep on living here in Portugal, and in Porto in particular. In our cool, half-empty two-bedroom...

By the way! We bought a bed and a desk! And we also took a weekend trip to Rome. Despite the positives, I still don't feel completely happy today, because my income isn't enough for the life we dreamed of when we moved to the EU. But I'm used to working hard and I keep not giving up.

Almost there, I promise.

At some point I decided to try turning my product into a real SaaS and earn my missing ~€500 a month from it, so I could stop asking my landlord for a €100 discount on 6 months of rent… So I could buy a proper office chair (NO LONGER NEEDED! 🤣). So I could finally buy a new pot. So I could relax and have the strength to move forward and achieve more.

Today my immature b2c isn't needed by anyone. Maybe only by emigrants similar to my wife and me. Or any other people facing the kind of difficulties I talked about in the first part.

But I can't sell software to people like that. To those who are having such a hard time. I'm happy to help for free, friends! Use it and enjoy! Write to me if you have any questions. For those who earn less than me, access will most likely be free forever.

In lieu of an epilogue.

Never fucking give up!