From Immigration Stress to a Relocation Company Built To Expand

When Victor Queiroz moved from Brazil to Portugal, he experienced firsthand what many people discover when relocating abroad: Immigrating to Europe can feel like a maze of advice, research, bureaucracy, and uncertainty.

You do what you can. Then you hope for the best.

‍Viv Europe was created to remove that guesswork and replace it with structure, clarity, and trust, offering a guided and reliable relocation experience. But building the company required capabilities the founding team didn’t have in-house at the time. 

Freelancers have helped shape the business since its launch in 2020. “Upwork has been a guardian angel during this process,” Victor said.

The challenge

When customers are navigating visas, housing, and everything that comes with a major life decision, trust isn’t optional.

In the early days, Victor and his cofounders learned as the business grew. But as Viv Europe expanded beyond Portugal into Spain and Italy, it became clear that scaling successfully would take a different approach. 

Immigration is too complex — and too personal — for trial and error. The company needed a model that could be replicated country by country, supported by specialized expertise to sustain momentum.

The solution

Hiring locally every time new skills are required isn’t always practical or realistic. Victor has worked with 20–30 independent professionals on Upwork — specialists who were brought in at key moments, from content creators and marketers to web developers. 

Viv Europe also engaged a freelance project manager to plan the company’s expansion roadmap.

“Connecting with many different professionals from all over the world plays a big role in choosing Upwork,” Victor said.

Simplicity matters just as much: Upwork provides a straightforward way to pay freelancers, including payment protection and support to resolve issues that may come up. That simplicity gives Victor the confidence to continue building with flexible, on-demand talent.

“I don't have to think twice,” he explained. “Upwork is just very, very suitable for our business.”

When growth gets fragile

Pressure surfaced in a very real way when Viv Europe’s Meta ad account was suddenly suspended — cutting off a key source of social media advertising and significantly impacting new customer acquisition. 

“The whole team tried everything and we couldn’t fix the issue,” he said. “I was ready to give up.”

He turned to Upwork and found a specialist who could own the problem.

Over three weeks, the freelancer escalated the issue, worked directly with Meta’s team, and restored full access to the account. 

“It’s scary to grant someone the powers to your Meta environment — your password and everything,” Victor admitted. “He was very transparent from the beginning and, over time, I was able to trust him more and more.”

The results

Viv Europe is working with an agency on Upwork to build its own app and thoughtfully introduce AI to support communication and document analysis, and internal process automation.

Technology can streamline parts of the process, but trust remains central. “We want to make sure that we’re as personal as possible,” Victor said. 

Upwork plays a steady role in how the company grows — providing access to specialized skills, reducing administrative friction, and putting the right expertise within reach. On average, it takes about two weeks for the company to go from posting a job to hiring the right talent.

“I always recommend Upwork,” Victor said. “The main reason is due to how easy it is to find someone to help in so many different areas. And how easy it is to engage a person and not have to worry about how you’ll pay them.”

For Viv Europe, that means continuing to expand deliberately — without losing focus on the life-changing transitions their clients trust them to navigate with confidence.