The changes to the visa regime for Portugal, which include the creation of a special permit to look for work in the country, come into effect from this Friday (26).
The changes were published in the Diário da República – the Portuguese Official Gazette – this Thursday (25), but several points of the law still need to be regulated.
The published text does not give details on when the processes of requesting and issuing documents will begin. If the new work visas follow the model of study permits, the process will be handled by an outsourced company.
Facing labor shortages in various sectors, such as tourism and restaurants — where low wages and demanding hours are unattractive to the Portuguese themselves — Portugal treats the new visas as an important step towards its economic growth.
Because of this, the changes were processed expressly in Parliament and were approved in three shifts on the same day, just over a month ago.
The changes have as their central plan the facilitation of mobility between citizens of the member countries of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). For Brazilians, the main change is the creation of a visa to look for work in Portugal.
With the new permit, foreigners will have a period of 120 days, extendable for another 60 days, to be hired. If they cannot find a job after the stipulated period, they must leave the country and will only be able to make a new application after one year from the expiry of the previous visa.
The criminal records of applicants will also be checked, as they must also prove means of subsistence —the conditions have not yet been detailed— and, obligatorily, present a ticket that ensures their return to their country of origin.
As soon as it was announced, the new visa was a huge success with the Brazilian public on social media. The permit is an old demand of associations supporting immigrants, which demanded a clear path for regular migration to Portugal.
The country already allowed the regularization of foreigners who had entered Portuguese territory as tourists, but stayed irregularly to work. The process, however, was slow and bureaucratic, taking about two years to complete.
Traditionally, this is the main route for Brazilians to enter Portugal. The community, in fact, continues to break records. Data recently released by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) indicate that there were, until June, about 252,000 Brazilians legally living in Portuguese lands.
The actual amount, however, is much higher. Brazilians who have dual citizenship from Portugal or from another European Union country, nor those in an irregular migratory situation, are not included in the official statistics.
The Portuguese authorities also created a special visa for digital nomads and people who work remotely in companies in other countries.
Another novelty is also the simplified process for the residence permit of children and spouses of the beneficiaries of the new visas, which will allow the whole family to move together — and in a regularized manner — to Portugal.
In an interview with Sheet in July, the Portuguese minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, who is responsible for migration, highlighted the importance of foreigners to the country.
“We have a problem of demography and the need to revitalize the economy and, as a state, we have to respond to those who are looking for new opportunities in life here — because they have fled war, a dictatorship, misery or the effects of the climate crisis,” he said. .
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