The Highly Qualified Activity Visa in Portugal, or the Portugal HQA visa, is intended to highly qualified individuals who will carry out activities for a certified company. The HQA visa for Portugal can be an effective way to obtain residency for individuals who activate in innovative sectors.
Like all types of residence permits, the Portuguese HQA visa is issued to those foreign nationals who meet certain criteria for eligibility. This type of visa falls under the broader category of the Portugal D3 visa which is issued to highly qualified individuals.
If you need more information about the HQA visa than that summarized in our article, please feel free to contact our Portugal immigration specialists, as our team will be able to answer your personalized questions.
Table of Contents
Who is the HQA visa for Portugal suited for?
The highly qualified activity visa is suited for the following foreign nationals who wish to relocate to Portugal:
- third-country citizens who do not have permanent residency in an EU country;
- highly qualified foreigners recruited by a Portuguese company with an employment agreement of at least 12 months;
- have a minimum salary of at least 2.5 times the equivalent of the social support index;
- the foreign national has a Bachelor’s degree or 5 years of experience in the specialized technical field he/she will be working in;
- the applicant is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, or French;
- the company must be certified according to IAPMEI.
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Who can apply | Qualified third-country nationals recruited by a Portuguese company. |
Nationality restrictions | This visa is not available to citizens of EU member states |
Minimum employment period | One year |
| Qualification requirements | Batchelor’s degree, other degrees as applicable |
| Proven experience | Five years experience |
| Minimum income | At least 2.5 times the equivalent of the minimum income in the country. |
| Proof of minimum income | As per the employment agreement |
| Language knowledge requirements | The applicant must be fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, or French. |
| Conditions for the hiring company | The company must be certified as per the Portuguese authorities. |
| Visa-specific documents | Employment agreement, proof of sufficient qualifications and/or experience, proof of company compliance, etc. |
| General documents | Passport, proof of accommodation, access to criminal record, photographs, valid visa to enter Portugal. |
| Visa fees | Can start at approx. EUR 122 for residence permit applications. Our team can give you more details. |
| Renewal (Yes/No) | Yes |
| Can bring family members (Yes/No) | Yes |
| Can lead to permanent residency | Yes, subject to the applicable conditions. |
The company that recruits the applicant under the HQA visa in Portugal must be involved in the technology and innovation sectors. The company can recruit up to 50% of its staff under this program.
What documents are needed for the Portuguese HQA visa?
The application includes both general documents as well as residence-permit-specific ones. Some of the general documents are a valid passport, a valid visa (if needed according to nationality), two recent passport-sized photographs, proof of accommodation, and the applicant’s criminal record.
The company that hires a foreign national under the HQA visa Portugal will need to submit a term of responsibility, used to prove the legal entity’s certification and compliance with the IAPMEI criteria. This is a mandatory document and it is provided together with the general documents above.
Please keep in mind that the needed documents are only briefly listed in this article. If you want to move to Portugal under a highly qualified activity visa, our team can give you more details about the documents that can apply to your specific case.
We invite you to watch a video about this type of visa:
What are the fees applicable to the D3 visa in Portugal?
The following taxes apply to residence permit applications in Portugal starting with October 2023:
- EUR 121,95 for the receipts and analysis of a residence permit application;
- The fee above can be reduced to 91,46 for digital applications;
- A fee of € 48,78 applies for any changes submitted to a temporary residence permit;
- A fee of € 56,62 applies for the change of data in the case of a permanent residence permit.
The authorities implement two different fees for residence permit applications, the lower one being for digital ones. These general fees can change and this will also affect the ones applicable to the D3 visa for Portugal. We recommend discussing these with our immigration lawyer in Portugal.
If you are a highly qualified foreign national who wishes to relocate to the country under the Portugal D3 visa issued for a different type of specialized activity, our team will answer your questions. In case you are interested in another type of visa, for example, obtaining a golden visa in Portugal, we can assist you.
Additional information about the HQA visa in Portugal
The company that hires a foreign national under a Portuguese HQA visa must ensure that the applicant is qualified and that he/she meets the criteria. The company officials will make sure that:
- the employee is not an EU permanent resident, but a resident of a third country;
- he/she does not have a criminal record; this is checked via the criminal record certificate issued by the applicant’s country of origin (the country where the individual had his or her residence for more than one year); the criminal record is translated and authenticated; our Portugal immigration specialists can give you more details about the conditions for foreign-issued documents;
- the applicant must be at least 18 years of age.
The granting of a D3 visa for Portugal implies the fact that the individual has not been convicted of any crime that would be punishable in Portugal by a custodian sentence of more than one year.
A company that fails to comply with the aforementioned conditions or one that fails to perform the needed verification to ensure the complete eligibility of its employees under the HQA visa will be banned for 5 years from the highly qualified workers program in Portugal. The same applies to employment made under false information.
Remain in Portugal as a highly qualified employee
Non-EU foreign nationals who obtain a tech visa for Portugal will initially have a residence permit that is valid for 2 years. This is renewable for the same title for successive 3-year periods.
This means that, at the end of the second Portuguese HQA visa, the holder will be able to apply for permanent residency. Our team reminds you of the following conditions for permanent residence if your goal is to move to Portugal under the tech visa:
- lawfully live in the country for at least 5 years with a temporary residence permit;
- provide satisfactory proof of sufficient Portuguese language knowledge; our agents specializing in immigration to Portugal will give you details about how you can prove your language knowledge;
- proof of adequate accommodation (a statement of residency is provided by the applicant and he/she indicates the capacity in which he/she resides in the country: owner, tenant, subtenant, etc.);
- proof of sufficient income: as previously mentioned, salaried employees under the Portuguese D3 visa must have a minimum income;
- proof of having met the social security and tax contributions requirements during the 5-year temporary residence period;
- identification documents: the passport or other valid travel document, along with two identical travel-sized photographs.
If you want to obtain permanent residency in Portugal, which can be followed by an application for citizenship in Portugal, you will need to submit the documents by appointment, in person, together with a fully filled-in application form.
Foreign nationals who qualify for the tech visa for Portugal can rely on our assistance during the initial application phase, as well as after they are in the country.
Contact our Portugal immigration specialists for more information about the highly qualified activity visa. We can also assist you if you wish to apply for a visa or residence permit other than the Portugal HQA visa.