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Immigration to Portugal continues to rise because of the lifestyle and the ease of getting legal residency. Those two articles details the two-step process to get the initial visa. It is geared toward those of you coming from the United States, yet the requirements are the same for people applying from any non-EU country. You’ll apply at your nearest Portuguese Embassy and you’ll use your country’s official identity documents for the background check. 

The governmental agency that oversees immigration matters, SEF, the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (referred to as Border Services for Foreigners and/or Immigration and Border Services), will undergo important changes in 2022.  SEF will become APMA, the Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum.  There are no further details about this change and how it will affect the application process. 

The government stated that this will be clarified in March.  I anticipate that as APMA, the agency will continue the recent trend of streamlining the process to make it faster and clearer while imposing tougher requirements to ensure that applicants are financially self-sufficient and committed to Portugal rather than moving through Portugal to another EU country. 

The two-step visa and residency processes can be confusing, contradictory and change with little to no notice. This guideline captures the experiences of thousands of applicants who proceeded you, combined with research, legal review and authoritative input from Consulate and Immigration officials, to provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to the process for a D7/D/Type 1 Visa, sometimes referred to as a ‘long stay’ or ‘resident’ visa. I’ll walk you through not only the requirements and the process, but also comment on how to navigate the system