Portugal creates visa for job seekers from Portuguese-speaking countries

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – During his visit to Brazil, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke about introducing a new visa that will facilitate job seekers’ entry into the country the stay of nationals of members of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The bill was presented in mid-June by the government of Prime Minister António Costa. There is no date for its entry into force. It still needs to be approved by the Assembly of the Republic and signed off by the President.

The ruling PS (Socialist Party) has a majority in the legislature. Therefore, the proposal should be approved without difficulty. According to the official plan, deputies will begin deliberations on the text on July 21.

The new visa regime means a significant change for Brazilians who want to live in a European country. One must already have signed a contract to apply for a work visa. Those who leave the country without this visa and enter Portugal as a tourist have a complicated path to settling their situation and obtaining a residence permit.

Brazilians can take long-term courses in Portugal, such as graduate and master’s degrees, and apply for a study visa. If they find work, they use the authorities to change their residence permit to include permission to work for pay.

According to the project sent to the Parliament, the visa for seeking work would be valid for 120 days and could be extended for another 60 days. Thus, foreigners would have almost six months to find a job and apply for a residence permit. With the adoption of the new legislation, all this would no longer be necessary.

“After the expiration of the maximum period of validity of the work search visa, without having established an employment relationship and having initiated the subsequent procedure for legalization of documents, the visa holder must leave the country and cannot submit a new application for a visa for this purpose until one year after the expiration of the previous visa,” the draft law states (full text).

CPLP

The bill includes an article on residence permits for citizens of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, of which Brazil is a member.

In July 2021, the CPLP approved a mobility agreement to facilitate the free movement of people in the countries of the group through the issuance of visas and residence permits. Like Brasilia, Lisbon also ratified the pact. It will now create a law to regulate its application.

According to the text of the proposal, “citizens who are nationals of states where the CPLP agreement is in force and who are holders of a short-stay visa or a temporary residence visa, or who have lawfully entered the national territory, may apply for the CPLP residence permit in the national territory to the SEF [Aliens and Border Protection Agency].”

If approved, this permit is “valid for less than one year and may be renewed for the same period.”

The CPLP consists of 9 countries where Portuguese is the first language. In addition to Portugal and Brazil, they include: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.

OTHER CHANGES

In addition to the visa for job seekers and citizens from CPLP member countries, the Portuguese government has proposed other changes:

Digital Nomads: The text provides for issuing a visa to exercise a subordinate or self-employed professional activity for professionals who work remotely from Portugal. In this case, the “employment relationship or the provision of services must be proven.”

Families: the Portuguese government also proposes to facilitate family migration by granting visas and residence permits to those accompanying family members who already have a visa or residence permit;

Students enrolled in Portuguese universities will no longer have to apply for a visa at the SEF, as is currently the case.

BRAZILIAN IMMIGRATION

Brazil is the largest foreign community in Portugal. The latest SEF report (full text) with data from 2021 shows that 698,887 foreigners live legally in the country. Of these, 204,694 (29.3% of the total) are Brazilians. This represents an increase of 11.3% compared to 2020.

The number of Brazilians in Portugal is even higher since the official data do not count those who have the citizenship of an EU country or immigrants who are in an irregular situation.

In 2021, 39,406 new residence permits were issued to Brazilians. Almost half (44.7%) were for professional reasons. This was followed by family reunification (31.1%), study (10.8%), permanent residence (9.3%), and other (4.1%).

With information from Poder360