New Validity Periods for Residence Permits
5 August 2020
Portugal’s State Budget for 2020 approved changes to the Immigration Law in order to facilitate the granting and renewal of residence permits. As such, all temporary residence permits are now initially issued for 2 years instead of 1 year, and subsequently renewable every three years. The only exception to this rule is the Golden Visa, which is also granted for 2 years, but renewable every 2 years.
It is likely that with these new validity periods, SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) will be able to speed up their procedures. This is especially relevant at the moment, considering that Portugal is dealing with an exponential growth of foreign citizens applying for legal residence.
Please note that these changes to the duration of the temporary residence permits validity do not affect the possibility of applying for permanent residence or citizenship. In these cases, the minimum time required to apply remains 5 years.
* - Maximum absence periods may be exceeded for duly proven professional or force majeure reasons.
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