D1 work visa: coming to Portugal with a job contract

Who needs a D1

Any citizen of a country outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who will work as an employee in Portugal for more than a year. Under a year, the temporary-stay visa applies (seasonal work has its own page). Highly paid specialists have a faster variant, the D3; researchers and university lecturers use the D4 family of visas.

The employer does not need a permit or a quota. Since 2024 the old contingent system and the labour-market test are gone; what remains is a contract, a worker who qualifies, and a consulate that checks both.

• Contract or promise of contract from a Portuguese employer — the core document
• 920 € minimum monthly wage in 2026; the salary in the contract cannot be below it
• 110 € consular fee, decision within 60 days
• Art. 88.º AIMA grants the permit on a signed contract plus social security registration

What the consulate asks for

Specific to the D1, from the ministry’s list:

• the employment contract (contrato de trabalho) or a promise of employment contract (promessa de contrato de trabalho) — or an individualised expression of interest from the employer;
• proof that you are qualified to exercise the profession when it is regulated in Portugal (nurses, doctors, teachers, electricians, drivers of certain vehicles, and so on — recognition through the competent Ordem or DGERT’s recognition procedure).

Means of subsistence are proven by the contract itself; a termo de responsabilidade signed by the employer, with a notarised signature, can replace them. Then the general documents: form, photos, passport, travel insurance, criminal record certificate from your country and any country where you lived more than a year (apostilled or legalised), proof of legal status where you apply.

What is not on the list but expected: a NIF, a NISS request (the employer usually handles it after arrival), accommodation in Portugal and, for many consulates, the employer’s commercial registration certificate and proof it is up to date with tax and social security.

The employer’s side of the file

A good D1 application reads like an employer’s file as much as a worker’s. The consulate and AIMA look at the company’s registration (certidão permanente), its tax and social-security compliance, the coherence between the job, the salary and the company’s activity, and whether the contract respects Portuguese labour law: written form, duration, working time, salary at or above 920 € gross a month (2026) or the collective agreement’s minimum, holiday and meal allowances where applicable.

The employer must register the worker with Segurança Social before or on the first day of work. For regulated professions the recognition of qualifications must exist before the contract can be performed — which is why a nurse or a teacher starts with the recognition of diplomas rather than with the visa.

After the visa

Routes that no longer exist

• Expression of interest (manifestação de interesse): repealed by Decreto-Lei n.º 37-A/2024 on 4 June 2024. Working on a tourist entry and regularising later is no longer possible; pending files had to be lodged by 31 December 2025.
• Job-seeker visa: abolished on 23 October 2025 by Lei n.º 61/2025. A qualified-job-seeker visa exists in the law but had no implementing order on the date of this page — see the job-seeker page.

Questions about the D1