Digital Nomad Visa in Portugal — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
Personal experience 58

Digital Nomad visa: As of January 2023, the Portugal government issued only about 200 visas under the code name: “THE DIGITAL NOMAD”. Most of the applications had been submitted by Brazilian, British and American citizens. I am a business lady who was among the first successful cases of the applications by Russian ones.

By the Digital Nomad Anna Yermakova

In a video on YouTube, I told how I prepared to submit the documents, how much money I had spent and how I managed to get a visa on the first try. Below is my story. You can also see it in the the highlights on my Instagram.

The visa had only become publicly available on October 30, 2022. So my appointment at the consulate in Moscow was on November 8 for a D7 visa, I made an appointment back in July. Few people know, but you can change your decision about the type of visa you are applying for right at the time of application. Which I surely did.

When the consulate asked me what type of visa I was applying for, I said that I filled in the form for D7 visa, but it seems like a new visa suits me better. I had been asked: “Do you work remotely?”

In fact, during the last 5 years till now, I have regular clients in the Russian Federation and the USA (I have attached the contracts and statements from the accounts for this year).

The guy in the window said: “Well, we did not done it in this new format yet”. But he went to the consul to ask about it and came back with the good news. This became possible now for a new D7 subtype: for the remote professional. “Is it true that this visa is valid for more than a year?”, I asked. “It looks like”, they answered: “This is a kind of D7”.

There are two types of Digital Nomad visa:

Short-term visa for a period of less than a year – such a visa does not lead to residency – it is worth requesting if you do not plan to obtain a residence permit and live in Portugal for a long time (with this visa you can spend up to 1 year in Portugal)
Digital Nomad long-term resident visa for more than one year – it is worth applying if you want to become a resident of Portugal, live here most of your life in the next few years and in the future acquire Portuguese citizenship.

Being a pioneer and discoverer is so in Portuguese 🙂

At the time of filing the documents, there was no complete information on the conditions, but I decided to take a chance. Firstly, this is symbolic for me – from the very beginning I did not feel a 100% hit on other visas – D3 – for those who work for a Portuguese company, D2 – entrepreneurial (but it is highly desirable to have Portuguese clients for it), D7 – for those with significant passive income. And I’m a digital nomad first of all, but that’s not all. And a week before my interview, Portugal suddenly introduces a new subtype of visa – as if right under me.

Another reason why many people like this visa more is that if you work for yourself, it does not have a strict requirement for long-term work contracts. It is enough to show the legality of income – valid contracts with clients and income only for the last 3 months.

I am engaged in branding, business packaging, websites. My projects last from a month to six months maximum. Yes, I have a constant flow of word of mouth clients, but to the consulate this does not look like proof that I will have money to live in the country in the long term. According to D7, it was required to show contracts for 1-2 years in advance. It was a magic bullet for me to introduce a monthly marketing mentoring service to show income as permanent one.

But the requirements for the amounts for a digital nomad visa are higher than for D7 – you need to show 4 minimum Portuguese salaries per month, and not one. In 2023, the minimum wage in Portugal is 760 euros, that is, the income should be 3040 euros per month (most likely after taxes).

Another big plus is that a digital nomad visa applicant is not required to have an account in a Portuguese bank. And for the happy holders of the passport of the Russian Federation, this is the most difficult thing in the migration process. If the tax number can be done online, then since 2022 it has become possible to open an account only in person with a whole pile of papers – and then without luck, nowhere.

But when I submitted the documents, they gave me the usual list on D7.

anna8 — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
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DOCUMENTATION

What I had:

1. Cool cover letter in English. This is the only thing I liked to do from the list of documents. I almost shed a tear when I re-read – what, it turns out, Portugal is beautiful, and my motivation is powerful. It didn’t even fit on one page – already in the copy center they replaced it with a 9-point font.

In my motivation letter, I explained in detail that I have been a digital nomad for a long time, how many countries I visited, how I decided that I wanted to anchor in Portugal – and why this country is perfect for me. I have a separate video about why I chose Portugal.

She also explained about the sources of active and passive income – so that later it would be easier to sort through a pile of documents. If you need help with a motivation letter, you can contact me. I write marketing texts for my clients on websites, but I can help with this task as well. I must say right away that for a copywriter I am a very expensive specialist. But a motivation letter is important.

From the basic requirements:

2. Police clearance certificate with apostille translated into Portuguese.

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1. Documentary
2. Apostilled certified notarized translation

3. Insurance

4. Tickets

5. Lease agreement for a year from the expected date of approval. It seems like it’s enough for a nomad visa for 3-4 months, but I was preparing for D7, so I took it off for a year. I made a contract on the Flatio service, and then canceled it, but the commission of 500 euros remained hanging in the service account. Perhaps I will use it when I look for permanent housing again. Through my link – 5% with promo code: brandtogo5

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anna11 — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
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Next, you need to show the legality of the income and a sufficient amount.

I am an individual entrepreneur – I have a registered individual entrepreneurship both in Russia and in Portugal. But I did not show my Portuguese individual entrepreneurship, so that the consul would not mix up and send my documents on a D2 visa – there I would have been refused due to the lack of Portuguese clients.

What I attached as individual entrepreneurship:

⁃ translation of an extract from the individual entrepreneurship register + tax returns for 2 years (according to D7, it is required for a year, but I have a margin)

⁃ For the previous 3 months, I showed receipts from foreign and Russian accounts – I attached bank statements and PayPal

⁃ Contracts with clients from the Russian Federation and the USA, drawn up immediately in English or bilingual – scans or with a digital signature. Although it is advised to carry the originals.

7. Bank statement:

I was unable to open a Portuguese bank account, so the statement was from a European Neobank account. Moreover, the account itself was already blocked to me at the time of filing – so I will not recommend the bank. I had 9500€ there.

I hardly keep money on the Russian account – I have attached statements from brokerage accounts (10k in total). Tinkoff directly made an extract with the total amount in Russian, Sberbank has some kind of report in English, Alfa is just a list of assets with the amount below.

All this was translated through a free online service, even his watermark remained in the corner: https://www.onlinedoctranslator.com/

On top of that I threw an agreement for renting an apartment in St. Petersburg + an extract from the bank that I received money for a couple of months + translation of an extract from the USRN that the apartment belongs to me. To show that I also have passive income.

EXPENSES

Apostilles, translations, notarization of translations – we got more than 30 documents on 100 pages. And this is also Portugal is considered one of the easiest countries to obtain a residence permit. I’m broke, but glad it’s over. Printing documents, copies, photos – came out at 2300 rubles.

Other expenses:

It cost 100 euros to open a NIF tax number – I did it through local accountants, very slowly, now there are already convenient online services (but this was necessary to open an account in a Portuguese bank for D7)
Rent – 900 euros for the studio for the first month and 500 for the service.
200 euros cost the translation and certification of 4 documents: on the registration of an individual entrepreneur, two declarations, an extract from the USRN for the apartment.
Consular fee – 90 euros. I was surprised by their internal rate – 86 euros, I had to run to withdraw money, 7700 came out somewhere. Pay in cash at the time of submission of documents.

anna14 — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
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Certificate of non-conviction (through public services) – ₽1750 + translation with certification of another 1500. The certificate must be ordered in advance – it takes more than a month. With an apostille can be obtained only in Moscow. I agreed in advance with the translation agency. I flew to Moscow, took the certificate (there are almost no queues), sent a photo for translation. Then I went with the original.

Insurance: 6600 rubles.

In general: it turned out to be 150,000 thousand. How much personal time I spent studying the issue I did not accounted. If your time cost a lot: delegate at least all docs preparation. I have a referral link for -7%: the discount on the services of lawyers and consultants of the “Migrun” platform. They are our compatriots themselves moved to Portugal and started a startup for other migrants. Their free guides and chat helped me a lot when I had been preparing my case for D7.

anna15 — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
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– Certificate of good conduct
– Tax number (NIF)
– Open a bank account
– Annual housing contract

If you want to discuss your case with me, you can come to me for a consultation at the price of a marketing session. I’m actually a brand strategist, not a travel agent, I don’t have separate relocation services.

Everything can be done by yourself, my example is proof of this. The only question is at what cost. There are a lot of nuances, chats and articles by me personally during the year I dug through a lot. But it’s cool to be a marketer – you know how to analyze, collect everything into a system, deal with any challenge and sort it out.

Visa approval:

Visa processing – up to 60 days. But this is Portugal 🙂 Obtaining a resident visa in Portugal is like a demo version of slowing down.

Two months later, the status of the application on the portal was not updated to completed, but the status appeared – considered.

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I wrote an email and got silence in response. So I wrote the second one. The consulate answered two weeks later. They wrote that the visa was approved. I have to come to the Moscow consulate for a sticker strictly at 9:30 AM – 10:00 AM, no later. But they didn’t show after 10 AM. And I still have to live in such a slow country 🙂 (She did not deal with US bureaucracy yet ))))) (editor’s note)))

Hello,

The consular department confirms the availability of answers to your visa request. Content of answers: visas are approved.

We ask you to personally introduce yourself to the Consular Section (Moscow, Botanichesky pereulok, building 1) from 09:33 to 10:00 (no later than) on any business day to affix a visa to your passport. We ask you to introduce yourself for visa application as soon as possible from the date of informing about the final result of the consideration!

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At the entrance, a desperate boy was hanging around. He had not been answered by mail for a month about the readiness of the visa. He came personally to ask what and how, but he was turned around. To wait…

I, apparently, compare the experience with the American consulate: everything passed there for the last time in half an hour. True, the visa was a tourist one, and in a couple of days you pick up your passport at the post office. I also have an article on VC about this.

By 10:30, finally, the consul took the passports of all those who came to the sticker, and applications for the cancellation of the current tourist Schengen. They said to return to the consulate from 12:30 to 13:00. But the security guard has a more realistic info: he says he also has a pessimistic plan: from 15 to the closure of the institution. Why so long, I ask, living at my super speeds. “Well, you need to paste the sticker, put the date, sign it.” For me this is a matter of half an hour max.

And now all 15-20 people who came to the sticker returned by the designated time. And the consul left on business. Sociable security guard: “The European Union, sometimes they are going to solve issues.” At 1 pm, when, according to my optimistic forecasts, I was supposed to fly out of Moscow, we were only invited to collect our passports.

I was worried about two questions: what type of visa would I eventually be given (as a financially independent or digital nomad) and whether the date of the visit to the migration service (SEF) in Lisbon would be immediately known.

As a result, they approved under the legal Article 61: this is a new type of visa for digital nomads.

But I left frustrated: they didn’t give me an appointment with the migration service. I myself made an appointment by phone / mail on the spot. And that’s terrible! It’s almost impossible to get there. A visa without this entry gives just the right to cross the border. You then have to exchange it for a residence permit at the SEF. And you need to break through. After crossing the border.

But there were no slots available to book an appointment for the nearest 6 months. Perhaps, at the address where I rented housing for filing, there is too much migrant flow and there are no appointments available now.

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On October 17 alone, more than 29,000,000 attempts were made to reach the SEF contact center.

To avoid congestion, alternatives are being explored to implement a new solution based on a service model using digital channels.

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An entry in the SEF is requested in the program at the time of issuance. And if the SEF that has no windows at the address indicated in the contract, then go and sign it up yourself. I heard in the queue that someone didn’t get a number either. In short, it was not possible to relax and let it go.

This uncertainty rages. I would like, knowing in advance the date when to come to the service with documents for a residence permit, plan my life for months ahead, and not sit on the phone to snatch an appointment. I hope that Portugal, unable to cope with the flow of migrants, will come up with something. In the meantime, I’m going to use the services of those who dial for you and write down. Shit like this happens as well.

Date of opening of the visa is from the moment of getting it. Or it may be the date of the tickets that were originally attached, if the deadline has not passed.

From the moment the visa had been issued, I had 4 months to cross the border. But you can return to your country and repeat it once more. And you have to stay in Portugal until they issue an appointment ticket to visit SEF. Anyway the tourist Schengen visa is annulated whey you apply for the different one. You cannot have both.

That’s all for the moment.

If you have any questions please comment this video on YouTube, I notice your request quicker there. And good luck to all of us!

anna22 — Digital nomad visa instead of D7: how to get a residence permit in Portugal in 2023.
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It’s good that we only live once! I couldn’t take it a second time!

UPDATE: On April 24, 2023: the new article was published on T-J about my case with new details including opening a bank account, visiting SEF, insurance and more:

https://journal-tinkoff-ru.translate.goog/portugal-digital-nomad/?ref=vc.ru&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

And on the YouTube channel I posted a video on how I opened an account in Portugal bank: “Neobank”, information about the nomad visa in Spain and the method of legalization through article 90.2. A slightly more detailed article by Tinkoff Journal was also published with my case for obtaining a digital nomad visa in Portugal.

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Anna Yermakova

digital nomad

youtube.com/@brand-to-go

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