For firms and practices serving expats in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Costa Rica. Exactly what we check before you appear, and the things we will not do at any price.
Read this first: a verified listing is identity verification only.
It means we have confirmed that your business exists and that the details you gave us match official public records. It is never an endorsement of the quality of your work. We have not used your services, we have not spoken to your clients, and we are not in a position to judge whether you are good at your job.
Every listing on this site says so, in those words, on the card itself. If you are looking for a directory that will call you "top rated" or "trusted", this is not that directory and never will be.
The directory covers the services an expat actually has to buy in their first two years abroad. Applications are open in all eight categories:
| Category | Who this is for | What the register check looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Legal | Abogados, advogados, conveyancing and immigration lawyers | The bar register — the Colegio de Abogados, Ordem dos Advogados or equivalent — checked by name and roll number |
| Accounting & tax | Asesores fiscales, contabilistas, gestores, cross-border tax advisers | The commercial register for the firm, plus the relevant professional body register where the profession is regulated |
| Real estate | Buyer's agents, estate agencies, property finders | The commercial register, plus any mandatory regional agent registration where one exists |
| Construction & trades | Builders, reform and renovation firms, architects, technical architects, project managers, and the trades a new arrival needs first | The construction-sector register for the country — Spain’s REA, Portugal’s IMPIC alvará — plus the professional college for any architect or engineer named, and the commercial register for the company |
| Healthcare | Clinics, dentists, GP practices serving foreign patients | The practitioner's professional college — the Colegio de Médicos, Colegio de Dentistas, Ordem dos Médicos or equivalent — plus the clinic's own registration |
| Relocation | Relocation consultants, removals, visa and residency support | The commercial register; this category is generally unregulated, so the check is company existence and identity only, and we say so |
| Insurance | Brokers and agents placing health, home or liability cover | The national insurance-mediation register held by the financial regulator, plus the commercial register |
| Banking | Mortgage brokers and currency specialists serving foreign buyers | The financial regulator's register of authorised intermediaries, plus the commercial register |
Where a profession is not regulated, we do not pretend otherwise. A relocation consultant cannot be checked against a licensing body because none exists — so their card says the company was confirmed and nothing more. We would rather show you a smaller claim than a borrowed one.
Which register we use depends on your profession as well as your country — a lawyer is checked against the bar roll, a company against the commercial register, a clinician against their professional college. This is the country-level checklist. Each item is checked against a public register, and we record the source URL and the date we checked it. If something cannot be confirmed, it stays unconfirmed — we never upgrade a result by inference or because an applicant assures us it is fine.
| Country | What we check it against |
|---|---|
| 🇪🇸 Spain | Company registration via the Registro Mercantil, or for lawyers the relevant Colegio de Abogados register. Plus: NIF, an active website whose identity matches the claim, and a business address. |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | NIPC via the registo comercial, or for lawyers the Ordem dos Advogados roll. Plus: an active website whose identity matches the claim, and a business address. |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | RFC registration, or for notaries the relevant Colegio de Notarios. Plus: an active website whose identity matches the claim, and a business address. |
| 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | Cédula jurídica via the Registro Nacional, or for lawyers the Colegio de Abogados y Abogadas. Plus: an active website whose identity matches the claim, and a business address. |
Each check produces one of three outcomes, and we publish the date it was carried out:
This is the category readers ask for most and the one where a bad hire costs the most, so it is worth being precise about what a verified badge here actually means.
| Country | What we check |
|---|---|
| Spain | The Registro de Empresas Acreditadas (REA), the construction-subcontracting register created by Ley 32/2006. It is run per autonomous community — Andalucía’s is here, and every region runs its own. For an architect or aparejador we also check the relevant Colegio. |
| Portugal | The IMPIC alvará — the permit without which a construction company cannot legally be hired. We record the class, which caps the contract value they are authorised for: class 1 is up to €200,000, class 2 up to €400,000, and so on. Below €40,000 a certificado applies instead. IMPIC alvarás and certificates. |
| Mexico | The cédula profesional of the named architect or engineer, which is publicly searchable through the SEP, plus their Director Responsable de Obra registration with the relevant state or municipality. Note that the national DRO padrón requires Llave MX authentication and is not publicly queryable, so the state or municipal registration is what we evidence. |
| Costa Rica | Registration with the CFIA (Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos), which every construction professional and firm must hold, and under which construction plans are registered. CFIA registration platform. |
What a verified builder listing does not mean. It means the company exists, holds the permit or registration it claims, and in Portugal is authorised for contracts up to a stated value. It says nothing about the quality of their work, whether they finish on time, or whether they will still be answering the phone in month four. We have not visited a site, spoken to a previous client, or inspected anything. Get references and see finished work yourself — that part cannot be outsourced to a directory.
Churches, congregations, language exchanges, sports clubs and community associations are listed free of charge, permanently. We do not sell these listings and will decline payment for one. They carry no paid-placement disclosure because there is no payment to disclose.
The reason is not charity, it is integrity: a directory where everything visible has been paid for is a directory whose recommendations mean nothing. If you run a group, read how to get added — the bar is that you exist, you meet, and you are open to newcomers.
We do not sit in the middle. Your listing shows your contact route, and a reader who wants to speak to you contacts you directly. We do not collect the enquiry, we do not forward it, we do not see it, and we take no commission on any work that results. There is nothing for us to intercept and no per-lead fee.
Listings are paid placements. Suppliers pay a fee to appear on this site, and every listing card carries this disclosure:
Listed supplier — paid placement, identity verified on <date>
That disclosure is on the card itself, next to the business name, not buried in a footer or a terms page. This is a legal requirement under FTC rules on endorsements and disclosure, and equivalent consumer-protection norms in the EU, and not something we would remove for a fee.
Paying does not affect what we verify, the outcome we record, or the order listings appear in. If your identity check fails, the fee is not a route around it.
A verified listing is €150 per year for the first five suppliers in each country, and €300 per year after that. The founding rate is held for as long as you stay listed and continue to pass re-verification. Full rates and what is included →
A listing card shows your business name, country and category, one line describing what you do, the line stating exactly what was verified and when, the paid-placement disclosure, and your own contact route. There is no rating, no score, no badge implying quality, and no "featured" tier that money can buy.
There is no form. Email us — it reaches a person, and your details do not pass through any third-party service on the way.
Use the subject line Supplier listing — <country>, for example Supplier listing — Spain.
Tell us your business name, your registration number, your website, the category you work in, and the contact route you want published. We will run the checks and tell you the outcome either way — including when the answer is no.
This applies whether or not you are a paying supplier. If anything on this site is wrong, or refers to you and you want it changed or removed, email the address above and we will action it. Removal requests are honoured without question.
