Portugal visas: which route fits you in 2026

How the Portuguese system works

Portugal separates the visa from the residence permit. The visa is issued abroad by the consulate (or its outsourced visa centre — VFS Global, BLS or TLScontact, depending on the country); it lets you enter. The residence permit (autorização de residência) is issued in Portugal by AIMA, the migration agency that replaced SEF in October 2023; it lets you stay.

Three families of long-stay visa exist under the Foreigners Act (Lei n.º 23/2007, last amended by Lei n.º 61/2025):

• Residence visa (visto de residência) — for stays of more than a year. Valid for two entries and four months, during which you must apply to AIMA for the residence permit. This is the visa most people mean when they say “D7” or “D2”: the letter is the consular code of the purpose.
• Temporary-stay visa (visto de estada temporária) — for stays under a year: seasonal work, medical treatment, a short teaching contract, amateur sport, remote work for a few months. Valid for the length of the stay, multiple entries.
• Qualified job-seeker visa — the old job-seeker visa was abolished on 23 October 2025; its replacement for people with specialised technical skills is in the law (article 57.º-A) but, on the date of this page, the consulates were still waiting for the implementing order.

• 110 € consular fee per national visa application (children under 6 and reunified descendants exempt)
• 60 days legal deadline for a decision on a residence visa; 30 days for temporary stay
• 920 € the 2026 minimum wage, the reference for every means-of-subsistence test
• 2 entries / 4 months validity of a residence visa; then AIMA

Choose your visa

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not need any of this: they register at the town hall after three months. Their family members from third countries follow the EU rules, not the reunification procedure.

The means-of-subsistence test, in figures

Every long-stay visa needs proof that you can live in Portugal without public support. The consulates apply the scale of Portaria n.º 1563/2007, indexed to the minimum wage — 920 € a month in 2026 (Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025):

A couple with two children therefore shows 1 932 € a month. Income counted: pensions, grants, an employment contract or promise, a company deed, a service contract. Retirees and rentiers must also show that the money is available in Portugal — in practice a Portuguese bank account, which is why the NIF and the bank account come first.

Documents every residence visa needs

The consulate’s general list is short and the same for all purposes:

1. the application form, signed;
2. two passport photographs;
3. a passport valid at least three months beyond the stay, plus a copy of the data page;
4. proof of legal status in the country where you apply, if you are not a national of it;
5. travel insurance covering medical costs and repatriation (waived when a bilateral health agreement applies, such as Brazil’s PB4 or the UK’s S1);
6. a criminal record certificate from your country of origin or from any country where you have lived for more than a year, apostilled or legalised (not required under 16);
7. proof of means of subsistence.

Then come the documents specific to the purpose — the ones each visa page details. Minors travelling without both parents add a notarised travel authorisation.

After the visa: AIMA, the permit and the years that count

With the visa in your passport you enter Portugal and, within its four months, attend the AIMA appointment (often booked by the consulate when it issues the visa). AIMA issues a temporary residence permit valid two years, renewable for three-year periods. Fees in 2026: 133 € for the analysis and 114,30 € for the card, each 25 % lower when the request is filed online.

After five years of legal residence you can apply for a permanent residence permit (art. 80.º of the Foreigners Act). Citizenship is a separate clock: since 19 May 2026, naturalisation requires seven years of legal residence for EU and CPLP nationals and ten years for everyone else — see Portuguese citizenship and what changes after five years.

What changed recently, and what people still get wrong

• No more “expression of interest”. The route by which a person entered on a tourist visa, worked and then regularised was closed on 4 June 2024 (Decreto-Lei n.º 37-A/2024). Pending files had to be lodged by 31 December 2025. Today you need a visa before you come.
• The job-seeker visa is gone (23 October 2025). The qualified version is not yet open. People still promising a “job-seeker visa in 2026” are selling something that does not exist.
• CPLP nationals now need a residence visa before AIMA grants the CPLP residence permit (Lei n.º 61/2025, art. 87.º-A).
• Family reunification now requires the sponsor to hold a residence permit for two years (15 months for a spouse who lived with them for 18 months before arrival), except for minors and for the spouse who is the co-parent of a minor.
• Golden visa investments no longer include property (since October 2023); funds, research, culture and job creation remain.
• Citizenship after five years is over for applications lodged from 19 May 2026; files pending on that date keep the old five-year rule.

Questions people ask before choosing