One of the most common questions in recent months for ongoing clients has undoubtedly been regarding residency requirements. Due to the number of clients who now have their appointments (AIMA scheduled appointments in November for most clients whose applications were submitted between 2022 and 2025), more clients are now preparing for the next step – having their temporary residence permits in hand and being able to stay in Portugal for the required time without any restrictions.
Validity and Renewal Requirements
Each temporary residence permit is valid for 2 years and, to renew it, each holder must meet three requirements – one being the updating of the personal documents submitted at the time of application, the second being the maintenance of the selected investment, and the third, important for this article, is that each member of the application, and therefore holder of a permit, must remain in Portugal for at least 7 days per year for the first permit, and 14 days every two years for subsequent permits.
How are the Days of Stay Counted?
An immediate question arises – are the 7 days counted from the start of a calendar year, or from the date the authorization is issued until the same day of the following year? The answer is the date the authorization is issued – this means that, during the 365 days following the issuance of the authorization, the holder must remain in Portugal for one week to fulfill the requirement.
With the first question answered, the most common question becomes "how do we prove that we were in Portugal during that week?".
How to Prove Residency in Portugal
There are several required documents, all of which are easy to store or obtain:
- Plane Tickets: For clients traveling from outside Portugal to Portugal, the first document we recommend you keep is your plane ticket or boarding pass – this demonstrates to Immigration that the client traveled to Portugal, using the ticket as proof;
- Hotel/Airbnb reservations: For clients staying in any type of accommodation, obtaining proof of reservation is quite easy and useful for the process. Asking at reception or obtaining it through the online platform used is simple and further contributes to the renewal process. Some hotels are also providing statements with the full names of family members and the dates they stayed, making them easy to obtain and important for the process, serving as proof of accommodation during the time spent in Portugal;
- Daily expense receipts: If a client stays in Portugal for a week, the chances of going out to a restaurant and enjoying the fantastic Portuguese cuisine are high. In this case, our recommendation is always to keep the receipts. In Portugal, whether in a restaurant, a gas station, a supermarket, a shopping mall, or even a football stadium, it is standard procedure for the person registering the payment to ask if it is necessary to include the CPF (Brazilian tax identification number) on the receipt – in this case, it is always advisable to ask for the CPF to be included. The NIF is the Portuguese Tax Identification Number, and all applicants must have a valid one to apply for the Golden Visa. This further strengthens the process – not only do we have proof that the client came to Portugal, but we also have proof of accommodation and, with this last piece of information, we have physical proof that the client spent time in Portugal.
After gathering all the information and documents, we recommend handing them over to the lawyer in Portugal before departure – this ensures that the lawyers have the documents with them and minimizes the risk of loss or misplacement during travel. It also ensures that the lawyer can proceed with the renewal as quickly as possible.
Construction of the Immigration Exam
With all the aforementioned documents, a narrative is essentially constructed for the Immigration Service – the client arrived in Portugal on a specific day, stayed in a specific location, went out to eat, shop, or engage in other activities during their time in Portugal, and left the country on a specific day.
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This article does not replace consulting the relevant legislation, nor does it hold Prime Legal responsible.
