Portugal’s Sweeping Immigration Overhaul: Law No. 61/2025 Abolishes Job-Seeking Visa and Leaves Applicants in Limbo

As of October 23rd, 2025, Portugal has abruptly canceled all work-seeking visa appointments worldwide following the enactment of Law No. 61/2025, a sweeping reform that has transformed the country’s immigration landscape. Published in the Official Gazette on October 22nd, the law abolishes the popular job-seeking visa and replaces it with a new “highly skilled work-seeking visa” reserved for high-qualified professionals. However, the new visa category cannot yet be applied for, as the necessary implementing regulations have not been issued.

The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that every appointment scheduled for work-seeking visas after October 23rd was automatically canceled, as the previous visa category is now legally extinct. The announcement has left hundreds of thousands of applicants who had scheduled appointments stranded in uncertainty, with no clear indication of when they will be able to apply for the new visa.

Law No. 61/2025 was approved by parliament on September 30th, signed by the president on October 16th, and took effect on October 23rd—just one day after publication. It modifies Article 57-A of the “Foreigners Law” (Law No. 23/2007), which previously allowed foreign nationals to enter Portugal to seek employment for up to 120 days in any professional field. The new legislation establishes a narrower visa designed for individuals with “specialized technical competencies,” as defined by a forthcoming joint ministerial order to be issued by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, Labor, and Immigration.

As of October 26th, the government has yet to issue any such regulation. Without it, the new visa cannot be processed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has clarified that applications will remain suspended until the relevant rules are published, and no timeline has been provided for when that may occur.

The overhaul introduces several major changes. The previous job-seeking visa allowed any applicant with sufficient financial means—about €2,460 for the visa’s duration—to enter Portugal and search for work. It was valid for 120 days, renewable for an additional 60 days, and permitted travel throughout the Schengen Area. Under the new law, eligibility is limited strictly to highly skilled professionals, and the visa remains valid for 120 days with an automatic appointment at AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) for residence authorization. However, the new visa is now territorially restricted to Portugal alone, no longer granting Schengen travel privileges.

Article 46(2) of the revised legislation states unequivocally that “temporary stay visas, residence visas, and skilled job search visas are valid only for Portuguese territory,” removing the open mobility across the Schengen zone that had made Portugal a particularly attractive entry point for job seekers across Europe. Applicants who fail to secure employment within the 120-day period must leave Portugal and wait one full year before reapplying. Furthermore, because the law defining “specialized technical competencies” is still pending, the framework remains incomplete.

Law 61/2025 also brings an end to the “Manifestação de Interesse” (Manifestation of Interest) process—a pathway that allowed non-EU nationals to enter Portugal as tourists, find employment, and after twelve months of social security contributions, apply for legal residency. The process, long criticized for enabling irregular migration and causing administrative backlogs, will end permanently on December 31st, 2025. Article 4 of the new law mandates that “residence permit applications must be submitted, mandatorily, by December 31, 2025, under penalty of forfeiture.” Reports indicate that approximately 130,000 cases remain pending as of late 2025.

The termination of this pathway follows Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s earlier pledge to “put an end to excessive abuse of hospitality by migrants,” first made in June 2024 when the program was temporarily suspended. Now, with the passage of Law 61/2025, that suspension has become permanent.

In contrast to the now-defunct job-seeking visa, Portugal’s “Via Verde” or “Green Route,” launched in April 2025, remains an available but highly restrictive option. This expedited visa route allows applications to be processed within twenty days for foreign workers who already have secured job offers. Employers seeking to sponsor workers through this channel must meet stringent conditions, including employing at least 150 workers, maintaining a minimum annual turnover of €25 million, holding no debts to tax or social security authorities, and providing adequate housing and training for their foreign employees. These conditions effectively limit participation to large corporations, excluding most small and medium-sized enterprises.

The green route targets specific industries suffering acute labor shortages, including agriculture, construction, tourism, services, and manufacturing. However, it offers no relief for the many lower-skilled workers who previously relied on the job-seeking visa or the manifestation of interest process to enter Portugal.

Legal and economic experts have warned that these abrupt changes could worsen existing labor shortages. Portuguese immigration law firm LVP Advogados cautioned that “sectors dependent on lower-skilled workers, such as hospitality and agriculture, may face labour shortages as the new job seeker visa focuses only on highly skilled professionals.” Madeira Corporate Services also noted that “although the law took effect on 22 October 2025, some measures depend on secondary regulations from AIMA and the Ministry of Interior,” underscoring the regulatory uncertainty now facing applicants.

Global mobility consultancy Centuro Global highlighted the government’s strict procedural stance, stating that since April 2025, “the Portuguese government has ruled that all applications must be fully completed—a ‘zero-defect’ approach. AIMA only accepts applications, both new and renewals, that are 100% complete at the time of submission.”

The policy change has sparked frustration among Portuguese employers already struggling to fill vacancies. Eurostat reports approximately 58,000 open positions across eight key sectors, including 70,000 needed in construction and 49,000 in tourism and hospitality. AHETA President Hélder Martins told Portugal Resident: “Hotels that have two or three restaurants may have to close one of them, and in other cases, hotels may close some rooms because they don’t have the staff to clean them. That is a shame!” Despite average wage increases of 20% over the past few years—bringing average hospitality pay to €881 per month in the Algarve and €1,198 nationally by December 2024—the sector remains unable to attract enough workers. “We run the risk of seeing the quality of services provided affected by the labour shortage, and that is a real problem,” warned AHP President Cristina Siza Vieira.

For applicants affected by the cancellations, all scheduled appointments at VFS Global, BLS International, and TLScontact have been automatically voided. Applicants do not need to cancel their appointments manually but are advised to monitor official government websites for updates on when applications for the new highly skilled visa will reopen. For those who have already submitted their applications before October 23rd, the government has yet to issue clear guidance. Applicants may contact the consulate where their application was filed for updates on its status.

The government has also provided no information on possible fee refunds. Under standard visa policy, Portuguese consular fees are non-refundable whether an application is approved or denied, making this a rare instance in which a visa category was canceled entirely by government action after fees had been paid.

While the work-seeking visa has been abolished, other visa categories remain open. These include the D8 Digital Nomad Visa, requiring a minimum monthly income of €3,548; the D7 Passive Income Visa for pensioners or investors with steady income and savings; the D2 Entrepreneur Visa for business founders with viable projects; the D3 Visa for highly qualified professionals with pre-arranged employment; and the Golden Visa for investment-based residency, which continues despite persistent rumors of its termination.

For those considering alternatives within the European Union, Germany’s Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card) has emerged as the most flexible option. The program allows applicants to search for work for up to twelve months, extendable to three years upon finding employment. It also authorizes part-time work of up to twenty hours per week and trial jobs lasting up to two weeks. Applicants can qualify through recognized professional credentials or a points-based system that rewards education, work experience, age, and language proficiency.

Spain has also introduced a new job-seeking visa for recent university graduates, requiring proof of financial means between €7,200 and €12,000. Similarly, the Netherlands offers its “Orientation Year” (Zoekjaar) visa, granting graduates of top global universities a twelve-month residence and the right to work freely in the country immediately upon approval.

Law 61/2025 also tightens family reunification rules. Under the revised Article 98, new residents must now wait at least two years before applying to bring family members, though minor children, dependents, and spouses with shared minor children are exempt. Applicants must also prove they have adequate housing, financial independence, and completion of an integration program covering the Portuguese language and the nation’s constitutional principles.

This legislative overhaul represents the most sweeping change to Portuguese immigration policy in decades, shifting from an open, post-arrival regularization system to a tightly controlled, pre-vetted entry regime. Yet the government has provided no timeline for issuing the regulations that will define who qualifies as “highly skilled.”

Key dates to watch include December 31st, 2025—the final deadline for submitting pending manifestation of interest applications—and two yet-to-be-determined milestones: the publication of the ministerial order defining “specialized technical competences” and the date when applications for the new visa will reopen.

For now, thousands of would-be migrants must decide whether to wait for Portugal’s new regulations, which remain in limbo, or to look toward alternative destinations such as Germany, Spain, or the Netherlands, where work-seeking visa systems already offer clarity, defined requirements, and predictable processing timelines.

By fLEXI tEAM