Portugal

Salary in IT

$ 61 452 – $ 97 868

Median

$ 77 384

Visa speed

visa ~4 months, then residence for 2 years

Degree required

no

Language at work

B1-B2, international teams

Changing employer

Once full residence is granted it is more flexible than at the visa stage

Visa types: Tech Visa · D3 (highly qualified) · EU Blue Card

Employers: BrainRocket, Bridge351, Catawiki, Farfetch, OutSystems

Portugal splits the path in two, and each half has a different authority. The first half belongs to the foreign ministry: the national visa is issued by a consular post, and a residence visa is valid for FOUR MONTHS AND TWO ENTRIES — within that time one must reach AIMA and obtain the residence permit itself. The second half belongs to AIMA: every ground has its own page with its own list of documents, its own period of validity and its own legal basis. The temporary stay visa works differently — it is granted for less than a year, is valid for the whole stay and for multiple entries, and no residence permit follows it at all. The decision periods are set by law, not by statistics, and the foreign ministry prints them on a page of their own: a residence visa is decided within 60 days, a temporary stay visa within 30, and a job-seeker visa within 60 under article 128(1) of the Administrative Procedure Code. At AIMA only the intra-corporate transfer pages print periods of their own: 90 days to grant and 30 to renew, halved to 45 and 15 for certified companies. The residence permit charge is DOUBLE, and the halves must not be added — the sum appears on no page of the tariff. First comes reception and analysis of the application (EUR 133.00 for an ordinary temporary permit), then the issue of the card itself (EUR 114.30). Point XIV of the tariff takes 25% off applications filed through the digital channel and 10% off applications filed with staff assistance. The investment permit costs an order of magnitude more: EUR 842.80 for reception and EUR 8,418.90 for issue, the same again for every relative reunited, with renewal at half price. The national visa costs EUR 110 — the same for all its types. Nationals of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe are EXEMPT from the issuing and renewal charge and pay only for reception of the application, the forms and the card itself. The heading of that section of the tariff says "all CPLP countries except Timor-Leste", but exactly six are listed. Separate from the fees stands the CPLP mobility agreement signed in Luanda on 17 July 2021: under it a national of a member state need not prove means of subsistence if there is a declaration of responsibility from the host or from a resident living in Portugal, and someone admitted to a university need not prove them at all. The means-of-subsistence threshold is calculated from the guaranteed minimum monthly wage, and here TWO STATE SOURCES DISAGREE: the foreign ministry page gives the 2026 rate — EUR 920 under Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025 — while the AIMA page still stands on the 2025 rate of EUR 870 under Decreto-Lei n.º 112/2024. The family breakdown is the same on both: 100% for the first adult, 50% for the second and each further adult, 30% for a child under 18 and for an adult dependant. The salary threshold for highly qualified work is printed on only one AIMA page — the one on article 90: EUR 2,157.00 a month (one and a half times the national average gross annual salary) or three times the IAS social support index, and for occupations in major groups 1 and 2 of the CITP classification declared to be particularly in need of third-country workers, EUR 1,725.60 (1.2 times the salary) or EUR 1,018.52 (twice the IAS). The page itself warns that the reference figures belong to different years: the average salary to 2023, the IAS to 2024. On the EU Blue Card and on the article 61-A visa the same multipliers are printed IN WORDS, without amounts. The digital nomad's threshold is verbal too: average monthly income over the last three months must be at least FOUR minimum wages. The product itself appears on no page, so the income field is left empty here: the multiplier stands on the visa page and the minimum wage on another. Two routes are CLOSED. The "expression of interest" — a work-based residence permit without a residence visa under article 88(2) (employees) and article 89(2) (independent activity) — was repealed with effect from 4 June 2024 by Decreto-Lei n.º 37-A/2024 of 3 June. AIMA has not removed either page: they open with a notice of repeal above the former list of documents. A third route is not closed but NOT YET OPEN: the qualified job-seeker visa is not issued by Portuguese consular posts — they are waiting for the implementing regulation of article 57-A of the foreigners act. Yet the residence permit under article 88(7) for a holder of such a visa is described in full by AIMA, together with the visa's 120-day validity. The investment residence permit (ARI) has kept FIVE grounds, and real estate is no longer among them: creating at least ten jobs; EUR 500,000 into research; EUR 250,000 into artistic production or cultural heritage; EUR 500,000 into units of non-real-estate collective investment undertakings under Portuguese law; EUR 500,000 into incorporating a company with five permanent jobs or increasing the capital of an existing one. The presence required is small — at least seven days in the first year and fourteen in each following year — and the regime is not available at all to nationals of Portugal, the EU, the EEA, Andorra and Switzerland. Youth mobility runs on ten memoranda, and their terms DIFFER. Annual quotas are announced for six: one hundred visas for Argentina, five hundred for Australia, six hundred for Canada, fifty for New Zealand, two hundred for the Republic of Korea and two hundred for Uruguay; no quota is named for Chile, the United States, Japan or Peru. The upper age limit ranges from thirty (Argentina, Chile, Japan, New Zealand) to thirty-five (Canada, Uruguay). Three require a degree or two years of university — Argentina, Australia and Peru — and Australia additionally requires functional Portuguese. The work ceiling is six months for most; for New Zealand it is three months with the same employer. Japan states outright that the year cannot be extended. Settlement comes by two different routes, and both require basic Portuguese. The permanent residence permit under article 80 is granted after five years of holding a temporary permit and in the absence, over those five years, of convictions together exceeding one year of imprisonment; it is issued for five years and has no expiry, though the card is replaced every five years. EU long-term resident status under article 125 is granted after five years of uninterrupted lawful residence, is permanent by nature, and the EU resident card is issued for at least five years. Years spent on a trafficking-victim permit and on the exceptional grounds of article 122 count towards that period just as work years do. Citizens of the EU, the EEA, Andorra and Switzerland have a route of their own, and it does NOT belong to AIMA. The registration certificate for a stay of more than three months and up to five years is issued by the MUNICIPALITY of residence, whereas the permanent certificate and the family members' cards are issued by AIMA — from 1 July 2026 through the Renewals Portal, which replaced the former contact form. The tariff for this branch is separate (Portaria n.º 13/2024) and broken down by age and channel: EUR 15 over 25 through the digital channel, EUR 18 in person, EUR 12.50 under 25 through the digital channel, EUR 7.50 for a child under six, and free for a child under one applying in person. On citizenship this guide says exactly what stands on the live pages of the ministry of justice, and no more. The justica.gov.pt portal gives five years of lawful residence in Portugal as the ground, and its page on filing an application states that the amendments to the Nationality Act made by Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 came into force on 19 May, with some of them depending on further regulation — the Portuguese Nationality Regulation is to be amended within 90 days. The nationality section of the portal is marked "being updated", and the page itself was updated on 18 May 2026, the day before the act came into force. An earlier entry in this guide claimed that the 2026 reform raised the term to ten years; no live page of the authority says so, so the claim has been removed, and the text of the organic act itself in the Diário da República database is locked behind client-side rendering and does not open at direct addresses.

Permanent residence after

5 years

Citizenship after

10 years

Language

Portuguese at A2

Dual citizenship

allowed

Absence limits: Standard requirements for continuity of residence

The 2026 reform: 10 years for citizens of most countries (Russia included) and 7 years for the EU and the CPLP. It used to be 5 years. The count runs from the date the first residence permit was issued. Portuguese at A2 and a civics test are required.

Residence permit

$ 281

Residence permit: The sum of two steps at in-person service: €133.00 for receiving and examining the application for a temporary residence permit for work, the EU Blue Card and family reunification, plus €114.30 for the grant itself (art. 75(1)). The digital channel is cheaper: 99.80 + 85.80 = €185.60. The tariff is the consolidated version of Portaria n.º 307/2023 to law 23/2007, in force since 01.03.2026.

Document certification

apostille

The country is party to the 1961 Hague Convention: a degree or certificate is authenticated with a single apostille in the country that issued it.

Limit

5

Quarantine

no

Antibody titre test

needed

Preparation

~4 months

Cost per animal

$ 341 – $ 910

EU rules: microchip, vaccination, antibody titre test, no quarantine. Tapeworm treatment is not required.

Crime: One of the safest countries in the world. The main problem is pickpocketing in tourist areas rather than violence.

The main threat is summer wildfires (one of the worst situations in Europe). Seismic risk is moderate but historically significant.

Type

Mediterranean maritime

Sunny days

~300 a year

A mild climate thanks to the Atlantic. Warm dry summers without exhausting heat. Winters are mild but rainy. THE MAIN DRAWBACK: homes are poorly insulated and often have no central heating, so flats are damp and chilly in winter.

Life expectancy

82.4 years

Migration

inflow

Healthcare: The SNS is the public system: good quality but with queues. Private insurance is inexpensive.

Air: Good air quality, blown through from the Atlantic.

Flows: A strong inflow of expats and digital nomads since 2020. At the same time young Portuguese are leaving for other EU countries because of low salaries.

Bread, 500 g

$ 1,55

Milk, 1 l

$ 1,10

Eggs, 12

$ 3,46

Chicken breast, 1 kg

$ 7,64

Cheese, 1 kg

$ 11,8

Rice, 1 kg

$ 1,57

Potatoes, 1 kg

$ 1,72

Apples, 1 kg

$ 2,35

Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l

$ 2,51

Total

$ 33,7

The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.

Rent, 1 bedroom

$ 879 a month

Rent, 3 bedrooms

$ 1 603 a month

Utility bills

$ 128 a month

Home internet

$ 40,7 a month

Monthly transport pass

$ 40,7 a month

Single transport ticket

$ 2,43

Petrol, litre

$ 2,06

Cold medicine

$ 6,13 for a week

Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.

Life expectancy

82,4 years2024

Homicides

0,7 per 100k2023

Theft

722,4 per 100k2024

Burglary

146,5 per 100k2024

Robbery

88,4 per 100k2024

Vehicle and vehicle-part theft

78,5 per 100k2024

Road deaths

7,2 per 100k2021

Unemployment

6,2 %2025

Unemployment, ages 15–24

20,2 %2025

Inequality (Gini)

33,92023

Health spending per person

$ 2 971 a year

Air pollution, PM2.5

8,8 µg/m³2023

Access to clean water

99,3 %2024

Internet, fixed line

254,8 Mbit/s2026

Internet, mobile

143,3 Mbit/s2026

Governance

Political stability

above average · 0,5

Control of corruption

above average · 0,8

Rule of law

high · 1,1

Government effectiveness

above average · 1

World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

3,4 out of 10

River floods

3,8 out of 10

Coastal floods

4,6 out of 10

Tropical cyclones

0 out of 10

Droughts

3,3 out of 10

Tsunamis

4,3 out of 10

Policy towards newcomers

Migrant integration, overall score

85 out of 100 · 2019

Family reunification

87 out of 100 · 2019

Permanent residence

71 out of 100 · 2019

Access to citizenship

86 out of 100 · 2019

Access to the labour market

94 out of 100 · 2019

Measures how favourable the law is towards newcomers, not one person's chances of getting a visa.

Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.

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