The application, stage by stage
An application for a Portugal residence permit for investment runs through six stages in a fixed order. Five parties act in them. This grid says which party is answerable for what, and names the thing that most often stalls each stage.
Who is answerable at each stage of a Portugal ARI application. Six columns, scrolling sideways
| Stage | Applicantyour column | Advisersettle in writing | Fund or bodyreceives the capital | Bankholds the account | AIMAdecides |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Tax number and account | Gets a Portuguese tax number and an account open before any capital moves. | Whether stage 1 sits inside the quoted fee, and whether it can be done in absentia. | The sources do not settle this. | Opens the account in the applicant name. | The sources do not settle this. |
| Stalls hereNothing downstream starts without the tax number. A week lost here moves every later date by a week. | |||||
| 2The qualifying investment | Picks one route, commits the sum it sets, and signs the five-year holding declaration.1 | Who picks the fund or body, and who carries it if the route conditions later fail. | Issues the units or takes the capital, and has to satisfy the conditions of that route.1,3 | The sources do not settle this. | The sources do not settle this. |
| Stalls hereA route committed to before its own conditions were read: the five-year maturity of a fund, or the 60 per cent that has to sit in companies headquartered in Portugal.1 | |||||
| 3Documents | Gets criminal record evidence, insurance recognised in Portugal, and the two 45-day certificates.1 | Who obtains translations and apostilles, and who pays when a certificate expires first. | The sources do not settle this. | The sources do not settle this. | Sets the list, and the form each document has to arrive in.1 |
| Stalls hereThe tax and Social Security certificates. Each is valid only if issued within 45 days, and both expire while slower papers are still at a consulate.1 | |||||
| 4Submission | Signs the application and its declarations, and pays one government fee per person.4 | Whether a power of attorney is used, and precisely what the attorney may sign. | The sources do not settle this. | The sources do not settle this. | Takes the file through its portal and asks for whatever is missing.1 |
| Stalls hereA document AIMA will not accept in the form it was given. The file goes back rather than forward, and the 45-day clock has already run.1 | |||||
| 5Biometrics and decision | Has to be in Portugal lawfully on the day, and every person listed attends.1 | Who answers a request for further documents after submission, and inside what time. | The sources do not settle this. | The sources do not settle this. | Takes the biometrics, decides, and issues a permit valid two years.1,2 |
| Stalls hereLawful entry and stay are tested on the day of biometrics, not on the day the file was submitted.1 | |||||
| 6Renewal | Evidences again the investment, the stay days, the insurance and a clean tax record.1 | Whether renewals sit inside the original fee or are priced again each cycle. | Still holds the capital, and the five-year term has not run out.1 | The sources do not settle this. | Renews through its portal, which has taken renewals online since 16 February 2026.1 |
| Stalls hereA permit that lapses before its renewal is filed, or an investment sold before the fifth year closes.1 | |||||
How the grid was filled
Two conventions hold. An empty cell means the sources at the foot of this page do not establish what that party does at that stage. It is not a claim that the party does nothing. The bank is the plainest case: once the account is open, nothing in the investment rules gives it a further part, so the rest of its column stays empty.
The adviser column is a different kind of thing. It holds terms to settle in writing, not statements about what advisers do. No legal source describes the work a provider performs, and this page does not assert it. Scope of service turns those five cells into a full checklist.
The division of labour
Two parties in the grid carry duties under the law itself: the applicant and AIMA. Everything else is contract. The fund manager or receiving body answers to the conditions attached to its route1, the bank to its own account terms, and an adviser to whatever the engagement letter says and to nothing beyond it.
That is the use of the grid. A reader who knows which duties sit on the applicant by law can read a proposal and see what it genuinely moves. Government fees are charged per person4, the 45-day certificates expire on their own schedule1, and lawful presence on the day of biometrics is a test on one named individual that no provider can meet in their place1.
The six stages
1 Tax number and bank account
A Portuguese tax number has to exist before anything else is possible. It identifies the applicant to the tax authority, and the certificate of no tax debt needed at stage 3 is issued against it1. An account follows, because capital has to leave one place and arrive at another.
Neither step is imposed by the investment rules, which is why AIMA and the fund are absent from this row of the grid. That also makes stage 1 the one most often taken out of order, and the one worth pinning to a date in any agreement.
2 Choosing and executing the qualifying investment
Five routes qualify, and since 7 October 2023 none may be directed at real estate, directly or indirectly3. They are EUR 500,000 into a Portuguese non-real-estate collective investment undertaking with a maturity of at least five years and at least 60 per cent placed in companies headquartered in Portugal; EUR 500,000 into scientific research, or EUR 400,000 in a low-density territory; EUR 250,000 into artistic production or the recovery of national cultural heritage through qualifying public or public-utility bodies, 20 per cent lower in a low-density territory; EUR 500,000 to incorporate a company creating five permanent jobs; or the creation of ten jobs, eight in a low-density territory, with no capital minimum1.
The route settles which third party joins the file. A fund brings a manager; the cultural route brings a public or public-utility body; the company routes bring an employer that has to keep employing. Whatever is chosen is held for at least five years, declared on honour1.
3 Assembling and legalising the documents
The document set is fixed by AIMA and by the immigration law, not by an adviser. The applicant has to be a third-country national with no conviction for a crime punishable in Portugal by more than one year, with no entry ban and no alert in the Schengen Information System, holding health insurance recognised in Portugal, and holding certificates of no debt to the tax authority and to Social Security, each issued within 45 days1,2.
Those 45 days are the tightest constraint anywhere in the sequence, because they run against papers that take longer: an apostille obtained abroad, a sworn translation, a consular legalisation. Sequencing matters more here than the speed of any single item. Documents lists each one, who obtains it and what limits its life.
4 Submission on AIMA's portal
The file is lodged on AIMA's portal and either arrives complete or comes back for correction1. Government fees are charged per person under the tariff set by Portaria 307/2023 and revised since. Figures published by legal advisers during 2026 put the application and first card at roughly EUR 6,300 to EUR 6,950 a person4. Confirm the current tariff with AIMA rather than with a quotation.
This is where a power of attorney does its work and where its limits show. An agreement should say which documents the attorney may sign, which have to come back to the applicant, and how a request from AIMA reaches the person who can answer it.
5 Biometrics in Portugal and the decision
Biometrics are taken in Portugal, in person, from every person named on the file, dependants included. Entry and stay have to be lawful at that moment, which is a test applied on the day rather than on the date of submission1. A permit that is granted runs two years and is renewable while the investment is held1,2.
AIMA has carried a backlog of pending files since 2023, and in October 2025 the government undertook to clear the pending investment files during 20261. That is a stated intention rather than a service standard, and no source turns it into a date for one file. Pace explains what actually governs the speed of each stage.
6 Renewal every two years
The permit runs for two years and is renewed for as long as the investment is held1. Minimum presence is seven days in the first year and fourteen in each subsequent period, and renewal is where those days are counted1. AIMA has accepted renewals online through its portal since 16 February 20261.
Renewal is the part most often missing from a first agreement, because it falls two years after the work that was priced. Renewals sets out what has to be evidenced again and what changes once five years of legal residence have accumulated.
Sources
- 1AIMA Autorização de Residência para Investimento, Art. 90.º-A aima.gov.pt/pt/viver/autorizacao-de-residencia-para-investimento-art-90-o-a
- 2Diário da República Lei n.º 23/2007, de 4 de julho (legal regime of entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners), consolidated diariodarepublica.pt/dr/legislacao-consolidada/lei/2007-34513475
- 3Diário da República Lei n.º 56/2023, de 6 de outubro (Mais Habitação), amending the ARI regime diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/lei/56-2023-222674218
- 4Diário da República Portaria n.º 307/2023, de 13 de outubro (fee table for visas and residence permits) diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/307-2023-222805817
Last reviewed 3 September 2026. Rules change; check each source before acting.