![[object Object]](/api/image/-OE-WOxqokkLI58ToROH/20241121_163713.webp)
Background
I live in Montenegro with my family of three. At the time of writing this article, we had already lived in Montenegro for six years. You could say we are not newcomers to emigration. However, as soon as we got a little settled, learned the language, and adapted to everything new, I received a new job offer. One of the offices of the new company was located in Portugal, which meant the question arose: how to move to Portugal.
Beginning
In July 2024, we began our long relocation process. Coincidentally, during this period, Portugal closed all ways to apply for a residence permit within the country, except for one — for highly qualified specialists. But even this option was temporarily closed, and there was no information on when they would start accepting documents for residence permits under this category from within the country. We are Ukrainians, and essentially, we have nowhere to return. We haven't had a "home" in the general sense for a long time. Therefore, one of the options was to go through the "protection" program. However, this program did not resolve the issue of obtaining a residence permit. We still wanted to legally obtain a residence permit in Portugal and live there on a long-term basis, up to obtaining permanent residency or even citizenship in Portugal. Of course, we could have applied from within under the "highly qualified specialists" category, but as I mentioned earlier, at that time, no applications for residence permits were being accepted. Therefore, it was decided to go the standard route of obtaining a work visa from outside.
Visa to Portugal D2, D3, D7
As is well known, there are several types of visas. The most suitable for us were D2, D3, and D7.
- The D2 visa is a work visa for individual entrepreneurs (IE), service agreements.
- The D3 visa is a work visa based on an employment contract.
- The D7 visa is for NOMADS — remote workers, travelers.
Since we live in Montenegro and all family members have Montenegrin residence permits, we could apply for a visa through the Portuguese embassy in Montenegro. However, this simply does not exist. The nearest embassy is in Serbia, and fortunately, it serves several countries, including Montenegro. On the embassy's website, we learned that the nearest appointment for D3 slots was on September 15, 2024. Slots are simply the opportunity to receive a list of required documents and submit these documents online for preliminary verification.
Obtaining a visa provides grounds for obtaining a residence permit within the country. Once the visa is obtained, one can immediately schedule an appointment to submit documents for a residence permit within the country.
Preliminary Document Preparation
Some documents can be prepared in advance, as they are generally required everywhere. There is no need to wait for the list of documents from the embassy, especially since they take a long time to prepare.
Child's Birth Certificate
We had the certificate, but an apostille was required. Usually, maternity hospitals offered a lamination service for the certificate, and many agreed, as did we. However, in such cases, an apostille cannot be placed on such a document. Fortunately, it is possible to order a duplicate and get an apostille for it. A translation into Portuguese by an official translator is also needed. I contacted a translation bureau in Ukraine. They immediately agreed to do everything necessary, namely: a duplicate of the certificate, apostille, notarized copy, notarized translation of the certificate and apostille, and attention, an apostille on the translation. Yes, for translations, Portugal requires an apostilled translation. Fortunately, it does not need to be translated. Otherwise, it would have been a translation of the apostille for the translation of the apostille. Additionally, the child's birth certificate and marriage certificate in Portugal are ordinary certificates that are valid for 3 months, hence the validity period of the certificates is also 3 months. Even if you have these certificates in hand with an apostille, they will still not be accepted, as the issuance date is likely far beyond 3 months ago. It is said that one can obtain a certain certificate stating that your documents are not just certificates but long-term certificates. 4450 UAH or 100 €.
Marriage Certificate
The same story as with the birth certificate. Since the document was with us in Montenegro, to avoid sending it to Ukraine for apostille, we also ordered a duplicate with an apostille, a notarized copy, a notarized translation, and an apostille for the translation. 4450 UAH or 100 €.
Foreign Passports
For any visa or residence permit, a valid passport is required, with a validity period of more than six months or even a year. Our passports were new, so we did not need to do anything here.
Criminal Record Certificates for Adults
We also ordered the certificates in Ukraine, through a translation bureau. Following the same scheme: certificate, apostille, notarized translations, apostille on translations. Some might say that one could go to the Ukrainian consulate and obtain the certificate there, but they will not provide an apostille or translations. 3750 UAH or 85 € per person.
Higher Education Diploma
Often, to obtain a visa as a highly qualified specialist, a higher education diploma is required. Here, an apostille, translation, apostille on the translation, and notarized copy are also required. The apostille on the diploma was already in place. To avoid sending the diploma to Ukraine, the translation bureau only requested a photo of the diploma. They then notarized it "remotely," made translations, and obtained an apostille on the translations. The diploma supplement is not needed by anyone. 2650 UAH or 60 € for the diploma.
Delivery and Timelines
All documents were prepared quickly, except for the criminal record certificates. Considering the delivery time from Ukraine to Montenegro (2 weeks via DHL), it took a total of 3 months. Yes, the criminal record certificates took 2.5 months to prepare. 50 € DHL Ukraine - Montenegro, 2 weeks.
Appointment for the Slot
The day for the D3 visa appointment was set for September 15. However, without any warning, I accidentally found out on the website that the appointment had been moved to September 30. On the other hand, this was beneficial for us because the preliminary documents had not yet arrived. I want to add that for visas D2 and D3, there were only 20 slots allocated for 4 countries. The chances of getting an appointment were low; I would even say unrealistic. The website had a short instruction on how to make an appointment. Essentially, you just need to send an email to the specified address exactly on the specified day and at the specified time, briefly describing the situation, who you are, how many of you there are, and why you need the visa. And be sure to attach the residence permit, in our case, from Montenegro. Since we are applying for a visa at the Portuguese embassy located in Serbia.
So, on September 30, exactly at 9:00 AM, my wife Katya sent the email, second by second. I was on a business trip in Dubai at that time. In the afternoon, we received a response that in our case, it would be better to apply for a D2 visa, as it better suits entrepreneurial activities. It was more beneficial for my employer to register me as an individual entrepreneur (IE) and have a service agreement between us, as it incurs fewer taxes. We knew that we would most likely be denied, but in some countries, they issued a D3 visa for work through a service agreement. We were then advised to try again for an appointment on October 8, but this time for a D2 visa.
We repeated the procedure on October 8, and this time I sent the email exactly at 9:00 AM. Again, in the afternoon of the same day, we received a response with instructions on what to do next. The email contained a list of documents that needed to be prepared and the format in which to provide them for preliminary verification. The list was quite vague; some items were clear, but there were questions about others. We sought help from "helpers." They clarified the nuances and provided several useful tips.
List of Documents for D2 Visa
All documents must be presented in PDF format. It is preferable that they are of small size. You need to create a folder on your Google Drive, where each family member should have their own subfolder and arrange the documents accordingly. Then, you need to open access to the directory with the documents and send a link with shared access in the email to the consulate. They will check the documents, may request something else or correct something; if everything is fine, they will schedule a date for the physical submission of documents at the embassy. Following the advice of the "helpers," it is better to adhere to the format of document names and their order. All documents marked "not mandatory" mean that they are not in the main requirements, but it is better to have them, as they are also looked at and expected by default. For all documents, the order in the file should be: first the translation, then the copy of the original, and finally the apostille on the translation.
Main Applicant
Motivation Letter
Not mandatory.
00a - Motivation letter
In this letter, you tell about yourself, describe the overall situation, and write about the documents you are ready to provide, both mandatory and non-mandatory to strengthen your position. Outline your financial situation, how much money you have, and that it will be enough for the initial period.
Declaration and Sponsorship Letter
Not mandatory.
00b - Declaraçã0, 00c - Carta de patrocínio
These two documents should be provided by the employer. In the declaration, the employer states that you are needed for work and explains why. In the sponsorship letter, they guarantee that they will assist in processing documents, help find accommodation for the initial period, etc.
Official Form
Mandatory.
01 - Official form
The form can be downloaded here. Filling out the form is an art in itself. But even if you make a mistake, it’s not a big deal. The error will be found during the document acceptance, and they will help correct it, even providing a correction fluid; there is no need to rewrite everything from scratch. Fill it out in English.
- Your surname as in the foreign passport.
- Maiden name or skip.
- First name as in the foreign passport.
- Date of birth.
- City of birth as in the passport.
- Country of birth as in the passport
- Nationality.
- Gender.
- Marital status.
- Field for the child's application. Here you need to write the name, surname, phone, email, and nationality of one of the parents. For adults, this field is skipped.
- Something like a tax number; we skipped this field.
- Generally, foreign passport.
- Foreign passport number.
- Date of issue of the passport.
- Date of expiration of the passport.
- Which country issued it. Even if you received the passport at the embassy of another country, it is better to write the original country.
- Skip.
- Skip.
- Your current address and email. For children, the parents' email. Your phone. For children, the parents' phone.
- We applied at the embassy in Belgrade based on the Montenegrin residence permit. Therefore, in this field, we chose Yes, Montenegro, residence permit number. Date of validity.
- For the main applicant, this is the profession. For example, computer expert. For school-age children, this is student; for those not working — no occupation.
- Workplace address. For the main applicant, the address of the company in Portugal. For children, the address of the school they currently attend. For others, skip.
- For the main applicant, Other: Visa D2. For others — Family regrouping.
- Skip for the main applicant. For others — husband’s company applying contract or father’s company applying contract.
- Portugal.
- Portugal.
- Two entries. Indicate only the first date, the date of entry. This date should match the other documents, such as the start date of insurance, flight tickets, etc. It’s not a big deal if you don’t receive a response by this date; it’s a formality. This date will automatically change to the date the visa is affixed to the passport.
- Skip.
- Skip.
- Usually, for this visa, confirmation of housing rental is not required. But if you are applying as a family, then it is mandatory. Because it is unknown when you will actually be able to enter Portugal, it is difficult to rent housing, even remotely. But it is enough to show a booking confirmation from Booking.com. We did just that. In this section, we indicated the name of the apartments from Booking, the address of the apartments, the phone number from Booking, and the email; if there is no email, we write our own.
- Skip.
- The left column is for the main applicant, the right for other family members. For the main applicant, we choose: by the applicant himself, cash, credit card, pre-paid accommodation, other: medical insurance number of travel insurance. For other family members, we choose: by a sponsor, cash, accommodation provided, other: medical insurance number of travel insurance.
At the very bottom, we put the date, country, and city of submission and signature. It’s better to do this on the day of submission. On children's applications, both parents' signatures are required.
Copy of Passport
02 - Passport
Mandatory.
Color copy of all pages with any entries. There is no need to make a paper copy. The consul will make it at the embassy.
Photo
03 - Photo
Mandatory.
Color photo, as for documents 3.5 X 4.5. 2 pcs.
Criminal Record Certificate
04 - Crime record certificate {country_name}
Mandatory.
If you have lived in another country for more than a year, you need a criminal record certificate from that country as well. Therefore, we provided 2 certificates: from Ukraine and from Montenegro. For the Montenegrin certificate, notarized translations and an apostille are also required. We made the translation into English because we could not find a licensed Portuguese translator. In general, many documents can be translated into English, but for criminal record certificates, it is better to have a Portuguese translation. More details about the certificates I wrote above.
Travel Insurance
05 - Insurance
Mandatory.
Travel insurance can be done online. We did it with a Ukrainian company. The main thing is that it is duplicated in English, clearly stating €30,000 in coverage, repatriation of remains, and coverage of expenses for transportation to the hospital (ambulance). One copy is enough for everyone. The validity period should be at least 120 days from the date of entry.
Montenegrin Residence Permit or the country where you are applying
06 - Residence permission
Mandatory.
Since we are applying in Serbia, we need to show a residence permit from either Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, or Bosnia. Because one embassy serves all these countries. Ideally, from the expected date of entry, you should have at least 6 months remaining until the expiration of the residence permit. But definitely not less than 3 months. This is quite problematic because the Montenegrin residence permit is only issued for one year. Usually, this period is rarely checked. But still, this is a risk. Therefore, we indicated the entry date quite early, and obviously, we would not make it in time. But this way, we officially extend the validity period of the residence permit for the visa. Both the consuls and the embassy are aware of this trick and have no objections. As I mentioned earlier, regarding filling out the form, item 27, the entry date is a formality, and it automatically shifts to the date of visa issuance. For online submission, only a scan of the document from both sides is sufficient. For the physical submission of documents, you need to make color copies of all residence permits you have in good quality. Usually, they make copies themselves. But when you have many, it’s better to prepare them in advance; they will thank you. We had 18 of them.
Application for Personal Data Processing for the Police
Mandatory.
You can download it here. The application is in Portuguese. In order, write: first name, surname, father's first name, father's surname, mother's first name, mother's surname, your date of birth, nationality, foreign passport number, D2 entrepreneur. For other family members, in the last field — accompanying family members. At the very bottom, write the name of the city of submission, for example, Belgrade. Date, month, year. Signature. It’s better to date and sign it right before the physical submission.
Rental Agreement or Booking Confirmation
08 - Proof of accommodation
Mandatory.
Usually, for the D2 visa, confirmation of accommodation is not required. But if you are applying as a family, the main applicant for the visa, and family members immediately for reunification, then you will be asked for a rental agreement. Renting an apartment remotely in an unfamiliar city is not an easy task, especially signing a contract for a year or two. This option is immediately ruled out. But fortunately, you can show a booking from services like Booking or Airbnb. The rental period should be at least 120 days. On Booking, the maximum is 90. But you can make 2 bookings. The advantage of a booking is that it can be canceled. You can always find something with free cancellation.
Contract with a Portuguese Company
09a - {company_name} Portugal service agreement
Mandatory.
This is the most important document, the basis of your application. Usually, the contract is provided by the employer. Scans of a hand-signed contract without notarization are not acceptable, verified. Ideally, it should be signed and notarized by a Portuguese notary. But for that, everyone needs to come to Portugal. As an alternative, the DocuSign service is acceptable. This is an official service that allows you to sign documents remotely. It has legal force and is recognized in Portugal. It is better if the contract does not have a start date for when you will start working in Portugal. Otherwise, due to delays with documents, the contract may expire, and you will be denied a visa. It is better when the contract explicitly states that the dates are flexible, and the start date of the contract is considered the date of your actual arrival in Portugal. I recommend starting to prepare this document in advance. When we prepared all the documents, we waited another month for the employer to finalize the contract to send the package of documents for verification.
Confirmation that the Company is Officially Registered
09b - Certidão permanente, 09c - Certificado PME
Mandatory.
This document is provided by the employer. Initially, it was not on the list; it was requested after the preliminary online document verification. And at the physical submission, they were awaited as mandatory.
Contract with Another Client
09d - {company_name} service agreement
Not mandatory.
To have an individual entrepreneur (IE) in Portugal, you must have at least two clients, that is, two service agreements. My employer has offices worldwide, so before entering Portugal, I work under a contract with a Cypriot company. And I have a service agreement with them. This is essentially my second client. The first is the Portuguese company. Initially, we thought this was a mandatory point. But at the physical document acceptance, we were told that this contract was not of interest to them.
Higher Education Diploma
09f - Master degree diploma
To strengthen the case, I still decided to show the diploma. For the D3 visa or for submission from Portugal, the diploma is mandatory. The specialty in the diploma should be close to your work. For example, an economist by diploma is not very suitable for a programmer. The diploma supplement is not needed by anyone. Other details about the diploma I described above regarding translations and apostille. Although it is not mandatory at the physical submission, the notarized copy with translations was accepted without questions.
IT Course Certificates
09g - IT courses certificates
Not mandatory.
I also attached them to strengthen the case, even though they are not mandatory. I have an engineering education. Essentially, it encompasses programming. But to avoid unnecessary questions about why my diploma does not explicitly state developer, I attached course certificates I completed in programming just in case. This would be mandatory if I were applying from Portugal or through the D3 visa. Certificates should be in English or Portuguese. They were accepted at the physical submission. I attached not all, just 3-4 certificates to avoid spam.
Bank Statement Proving Regular Income as an Individual Entrepreneur (IE)
10 - Proof of monthly income
Not mandatory.
In item 09d, I mentioned that it is necessary to prove that you are a working individual entrepreneur (IE). It is also necessary to prove not only with a contract but that you have already received at least 2-3 salaries. For this, I made a statement from the banking app showing my income and that I regularly receive a salary. At the physical submission, this statement was accepted as proof of available funds (see item 12). Regarding the need to prove income as an individual entrepreneur (IE), nothing was asked at the physical submission. Therefore, I consider this unnecessary.
Tax Payment Certificate:
11 - Proof of payment taxes
Not mandatory.
This is not on the list of requirements. It was recommended by the "helpers." I did not make this certificate. They did not ask about it during the online submission or the physical submission.
Proof of Funds in the Account
12 - Availability of resources confirmation
Mandatory.
You must provide a bank statement in English or Portuguese for the last 3 months, showing account activity and the total balance. The statement must be signed and stamped. The validity of the statement should not exceed one month. Most likely, you will need to do it twice. The first for online submission, the second for physical submission. You must have a certain amount in your account: at least €820 for the main applicant, €410 for the second adult, and €246 for a child per month. You need to cover 12 months. For a family of three, it came to €17,712. To ensure the statement had a stamp, we decided to get it from a Montenegrin bank. I did not have enough funds in my Montenegrin bank account, but together with my wife's account, we had enough. It is allowed to present statements from all family members, and the total balance will be considered. As usual in Montenegro, the Montenegrin bank did not provide the statement in English. Only in Montenegrin. Therefore, we had to translate the statement into English, costing €80. And again at the physical submission because the previous statement expired.
NIF - Portuguese Tax Number
13 - NIF
Not mandatory.
This tax number was obtained for me remotely by my employer for €100. I did not see this in the list of requirements. But at the physical submission, the consul approved that I already had this document.
Liability Statement
14 - Terms of responsibility
Not needed.
In some Portuguese consulates in Europe, this document is required. It is essentially a statement in which the main applicant undertakes to take full financial responsibility for their family members. My employer recommended that I obtain this certificate. But in fact, at the Portuguese embassy in Serbia, it is not needed. The consul said that if such a document is to be made, it should be done by the company for our family.
Flight Booking
15 - Tickets
Not mandatory.
The "helpers" and the employer said that for the physical submission, tickets to Portugal for the date of official entry need to be presented. They are not needed for the preliminary submission. The good news is that you can show just a booking for the ticket. Some travel agencies provide this service. For 800 UAH (€18), they make a real booking for a ticket that expires in 3 or 7 days, depending on the company. This is quite sufficient. At the physical submission, the consul was not discreetly surprised that we had a ticket booking; apparently, it was not mandatory. But they still took the tickets. You decide for yourself whether to do it or not.
Spouse
Official Form
01 - Official form
Mandatory.
Details can be found in the same section for the main applicant. There are differences.
Copy of Passport:
02 - Passport
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Photo
03 - Photo
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Criminal Record Certificate
04 - Crime record certificate {country_name}
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Travel Insurance
05 - Insurance
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above. One copy is enough for everyone.
Montenegrin Residence Permit or the country where you are applying
06 - Residence permission
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Application for Personal Data Processing for the Police
07 - Request of criminal record
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above. There are slight differences.
Rental Agreement or Booking Confirmation
08 - Proof of accommodation
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above. One copy is enough for everyone.
Marriage Certificate
13 - Marriage
Mandatory.
I detailed it in the section about preliminary documents.
Children
Official Form
Mandatory.
01 - Official form
Details can be found in the same section for the main applicant. There are differences.
Copy of Passport
02 - Passport
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Photo
03 - Photo
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Travel Insurance
05 - Insurance
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above. One copy is enough for everyone.
Montenegrin Residence Permit or the country where you are applying
Mandatory.
06 - Residence permission
The same as for the main applicant. See above.
Rental Agreement or Booking Confirmation
08 - Proof of accommodation
Mandatory.
The same as for the main applicant. See above. One copy is enough for everyone.
Child's Birth Certificate
13 - Birth certificate
Mandatory.
I detailed it in the section about preliminary documents.
Sending Documents Online
Preparing the Google Drive with documents took more than a month, mainly due to delays from the employer. The service agreement took a long time to prepare. After all the documents were ready, I sent a response email to the consul. The email contained a link to Google Drive, where the scans of all documents were prepared. I recommend buying a printer with a scanner. The next day, I received a response, and they requested some additional documents. These were 9b and 9c from the main applicant's list. They also requested one document from the tax office about the employer, but the employer did not have such a document; the company is too young to issue a report for 3 years. In general, they were understanding and did not insist. All correspondence was conducted in one thread. The "helpers" warned us that a response could take 2 weeks or more. In that case, it is worth writing them a letter to remind them of ourselves. But we received a response in 2 days. We were invited to the embassy for a personal submission of documents in a week. They wrote the exact date, time, and price — how much the visa to Portugal costs. €90 for each adult and free for children.
Submitting Documents at the Embassy
To submit the documents, our whole family had to travel to Serbia, to Belgrade, for a few days. On the day of submission, we almost arrived late due to traffic jams in the city. I rang the intercom, and they immediately opened the door for us. A kind woman met us in the yard and explained in English that we needed to enter through the back entrance of the building. Inside, there were two friendly girls who accepted our documents. Apparently, one of them was the consul. Everything was very friendly. We communicated in English. They tried to help us with everything. There was a window with a table so that the applicant could sit and submit documents. The girls often went out from behind the glass to help us and explain what they wanted from us. Everything went well. We were praised for having all the documents; apparently, this is not common. Payment had to be made only in cash, without change, in Serbian dinars. Therefore, we prepared the money in advance. We were told that the response would come via email within 30 days. It is hard to believe this because there are many cases where people wait for a response for six months.
Waiting…
It is now December 13, 2024. Not even 30 days have passed yet. We are eagerly awaiting a response. Given that the holidays are ahead, I think we will receive a response at best in mid-January. I will definitely write a continuation of the story about the visa and life in Portugal in the next posts.
