Job-seeker visa: abolished in October 2025 — what applies now

For three years Portugal let people come for four months to look for work and regularise once hired. That visa no longer exists: consulates stopped accepting applications on 23 October 2025. Its successor, reserved for people with specialised technical skills, is in the law but was not open on the date of this page.

Updated 18 September 2026Facts checked against official sources (listed at the end)

Newspaper folded into a paper plane, a job-search image

What happened

Lei n.º 61/2025 rewrote article 57.º-A of the Foreigners Act. The visa “for job search” became the visa for qualified job search (visto para procura de trabalho qualificado). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that from 23 October 2025 consulates and the outsourced visa centres (VFS Global, BLS, TLScontact) could no longer accept job-seeker applications, and that existing appointments were cancelled.

On the date this page was updated, the ministry’s documentation page for the new visa read, in capitals, “ainda não disponível nos postos consulares portugueses — a aguardar a necessária regulamentação do artigo 57.º-A”: not yet available, awaiting the implementing order that must define the “specialised technical skills” (a joint order of the ministers for foreign affairs, migration, education and labour).

What the new visa will be, according to the law

Article 57.º-A as amended:

granted to holders of specialised technical skills, to enter and stay for the purpose of seeking work, meeting the general visa conditions of art. 52.º (return ticket included);
authorises its holder to exercise a highly qualified professional activity until the visa expires or a residence permit is granted;
carries an appointment date at AIMA within the visa’s 120 days; once work has started in that period, the holder may apply for a residence permit (art. 88.º n.º 7);
if the visa expires without a job and a regularisation, the holder must leave Portugal and may not apply again for this visa for one year.

Fee and deadline are those of national visas: 110 €, decision within 60 days.

Any agency selling a "Portugal job-seeker visa" in 2026, or a "guaranteed job offer" attached to one, is selling a procedure that consulates refuse. Ask to see the ministry's page before paying anyone.

The routes that work today

Your situation	Route
You have found an employer willing to sign a contract or promise of contract	D1 work visa
The job pays at least 1,5 × the average salary or 3 × IAS and you are qualified	D3 highly qualified visa
You are a citizen of a CPLP country	CPLP visa, with an employer’s or a guarantor’s declaration
You want to study first and work alongside	D4 study visa, with the right to work during the course
You can work remotely for a foreign employer or clients	D8 digital nomad visa
You will start a business or freelance	D2 visa or Startup visa

Job search from abroad is possible without a visa: Portuguese employers recruit through IEFP’s public job service, sector platforms and recruiters, and interview online. The office’s job-search support pairs candidates in shortage sectors — health, construction, hospitality, IT, agriculture — with employers who already know how to file a D1.

Questions

I hold a job-seeker visa issued before October 2025. Is it still valid?

Yes, for its stated validity. If you started work within it, apply for the residence permit at the AIMA appointment noted in the visa. If it expired without a job, the old rules required you to leave and wait a year.

When will the qualified job-seeker visa open?

When the implementing order is published. We update this page when the ministry changes its notice; until then, no consulate accepts the application.

Can I come as a tourist and look for a job?

You can attend interviews as a visitor, but you cannot work or regularise from a tourist stay: the expression-of-interest route closed in June 2024. A signed contract lets you apply for the D1 from your country.

Sources and official references

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