Portugal · Work authorisation

Residence visa for highly qualified activity performed by a subordinate worker (D3, Art. 61.º-A)

Issued by The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), for the residence permit once you are in Portugal. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
4
Possible outcomes
2
Last checked
2026-08-09

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

If you are outside Portugal, the Portuguese consulate or embassy responsible for where you live issues the entry visa first — AIMA takes over once you have entered. AIMA became Portugal's immigration authority on 29 October 2023, succeeding the dissolved Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF); SEF is not a body you deal with any more. Since the law's implementing regulation was updated, your employer, or the research centre or higher-education institution hosting you, may also file the residence-permit request with AIMA on your behalf, provided you authorise it.

2026 figure

Salary floor

EUR 1.5× the average national annual gross salary, or 3× the IAS — whichever the consulate applies. A reduced floor of 1.2× the average salary or 2× the IAS applies to specific shortage groups that the Council of Ministers designates by resolution. a year

Vistos Portugal states the formula in these terms on its residence-visa document list; it does not publish the resulting euro figure on that page. The IAS for 2026 is €537.13 under Portaria n.º 480-A/2025/1 — three times that is €1,611.39 a month — but the law compares an ANNUAL salary against that multiple, and neither Vistos Portugal nor AIMA state on the pages checked how the two are reconciled, or what the current 'average national annual gross salary' figure is for this purpose. Ask the consulate handling your case for the exact euro floor before you rely on one.

A figure without the year it belongs to and the condition attached to it is how someone rules themselves out of a permit they qualify for. Both are above.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

The consulate's document list asks for two things: an employment contract or a promise of one, valid for at least six months, at the required salary; and evidence that you hold elevated professional qualifications suited to the activity or sector in that contract. Where the position falls under a regulated profession, that evidence has to satisfy Law No. 9/2009's professional-qualifications recognition regime — which is a different process from the DGES academic comparability described elsewhere on this page — rather than a general suitability check.

The procedure

4 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Secure an employment contract, or a promise of one, valid for at least six months.
  2. Gather evidence that you hold elevated professional qualifications suited to the activity or sector named in the contract.Where that activity falls under a regulated profession, the evidence has to meet Law No. 9/2009's recognition regime rather than a general qualifications check.

Register and start working

  1. Apply for the national visa at the Portuguese consulate or embassy responsible for where you live, if you are outside Portugal.
  2. Once in Portugal, request the residence permit from AIMA within the visa's four-month validity, which allows two entries into the country.Your employer, or the research centre or higher-education institution hosting you, may file this request on your behalf if you authorise it.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

National visa, standard fee
€110 — Vistos Portugal lists narrower exemptions (for example, highly qualified research activity) that this general activity route does not fall under
AIMA reception and review of the temporary residence permit application
€133.00, or €99.80 for in-person and digital service

Timeframes

Visa decision at the consulate or embassy
Legal maximum of 60 days from a complete application — the general rule for residence visas, not published separately for this route
Window to request the residence permit once in Portugal
4 months from the visa's issue date

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Portugal and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

9 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-08-09, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Portugal opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

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