Portugal's "Enter First" Era Is Over: Expression of Interest Abolished

Every legal date below is tied to the exact diploma in the Portuguese official gazette (Diário da República), linked in Sources. Where the situation has changed since the draft rules of 2024, we say so plainly rather than repeating what circulates online.

Executive answer

The Expression of Interest (manifestação de interesse) — the mechanism that let people enter Portugal as tourists, find work, and regularise from inside — is definitively dead. It was closed to new applicants on 3 June 2024 by Decreto-Lei n.º 37-A/2024, partially reopened on 7 November 2024 by Lei n.º 40/2024 (which extended the transitional regime to people who already held Portuguese Social Security contributions before 4 June 2024), and then definitively eliminated by Lei n.º 61/2025, de 22 de outubro, in force 23 October 2025. That reform of Law 23/2007 also set 31 December 2025 as the final deadline to submit pending transitional cases, replaced the general job-seeker visa with one restricted to highly-qualified 120-day profiles, and tightened family reunification (now requiring two years of prior legal residence). The only route in now: the correct visa, from a Portuguese consulate, before you travel. The CPLP consular channel remains fully operational.

The timeline that half the internet still gets wrong

The single most expensive mistake right now is following advice written for the 2018–2023 "enter first, regularise later" era, or even the mid-2024 "suspended" headlines. Here is the actual sequence, diploma by diploma:

• 3 June 2024 — Decreto-Lei n.º 37-A/2024. Closed the manifestação de interesse to new applicants. This is the diploma that abolished the "enter as a tourist and regularise" route, not a later reform.
• 7 November 2024 — Lei n.º 40/2024. A narrow, partial reopening: it extended the transitional regime to people who already had Portuguese Social Security contributions before 4 June 2024. It did not bring the general route back.
• 22 October 2025 — Lei n.º 61/2025 (in force 23 October 2025). Definitively eliminated the Expression of Interest, set 31 December 2025 as the last date to submit transitional cases, restricted the job-seeker visa to highly-qualified profiles, and tightened family reunification.

There is no "January 2026 reform" of Law 23/2007 — a phrase that spread across summary sites but does not correspond to any diploma. The reform that sealed the change is Lei 61/2025, published 22 October 2025. If a page tells you the rules changed in January 2026, it is citing something that does not exist.

What Lei 61/2025 actually changed

Lei n.º 61/2025, de 22 de outubro (in force 23 October 2025) is the operative statute. Its practical effects:

• Expression of Interest eliminated. The residence-authorisation procedure based on a manifestação de interesse is revoked. New residence applications are consular-first.
• Transitional backlog has a hard deadline. Pending transitional cases had to be submitted by 31 December 2025; files lodged in time continue to be processed by AIMA.
• Job-seeker visa narrowed. The general job-seeker visa is replaced by a route for highly-qualified profiles only — a 120-day visa for people with specialised technical skills to enter and take up highly-qualified work.
• Family reunification tightened. Reunification now requires roughly two years of prior legal residence before a sponsor can bring family, with narrower exceptions than before.

None of this touches Portugal's nationality rules. Those were changed separately (see the FAQ) and must not be conflated with the immigration reform.

What to do now, by profile

• Planning to work in Portugal from abroad → identify the correct national long-stay visa (Type D) and apply at the consulate; budget a couple of months for issuance plus AIMA card time. If you are weighing the passive-income and remote-work options, our D7 vs D8 comparison lays out which one fits.
• CPLP national → the dedicated consular CPLP route is your channel, and it remains fully operational. Start it from your home country rather than travelling first.
• Inside Portugal with an expired title → the blanket, by-decree extensions have ended (more below). Renew through AIMA and the Estrutura de Missão digital portals; the renewal receipt proves your status is regular for 180 days. Do not wait.
• Pending Expression of Interest from the old system → transitional deadlines applied to your case; confirm your file's status with AIMA rather than assuming it survives indefinitely.

Expired residence titles: what changed, and how renewals work now

Through 2025, Portugal repeatedly extended expired residence titles by decree, so that a card past its printed date still counted as valid while AIMA worked through its backlog. The last of those windows ran to 15 April 2026 for the oldest tranche of cards. That regime has ended. AIMA announced the end of the automatic, by-decree extensions on 15 October 2025, and they were not renewed — so, as of today, there is no blanket rule keeping an expired title valid.

The current path is a normal renewal, handled digitally:

• Start the renewal through AIMA and the Estrutura de Missão digital portals — you do not need to attend a desk to register it.
• When you register the renewal and pay the fee, the system issues a receipt (comprovativo).
• That receipt proves your status is regular for 180 days, which covers you while the renewal is processed.

The practical takeaway: if your title has expired or is about to, do not rely on a general extension that no longer exists. Register the renewal, keep the receipt, and you are covered for the 180-day window.