Have to leave Portugal but don't want to violate the period of absence requirement

Hi all. I will soon be getting my first D7 residence permit. I am aware that one cannot leave Portugal for more than 6 consecutive months within the temporary residence permit duration. Unfortunately, I do have to go to another country soon for a period of 6 months but my plan is to periodically visit Portugal for a couple of days or so and then fly back to that country. Will this work? Will the consecutiveness of the period of my absence be interrupted if I visit Portugal for 1-2 days and then go back to that country?

i am sure it will not work as you proposed. That’s why PT offers GV for those who do not want to live in the country. :woozy_face:

1 Like

It’s allowed to stay outside longer if you have a good reason (eg you’re a sailor working on a ship outside PT) and you contact AIMA in advance to get permission

Yes, while also clocking at least 16 months in-country out of 24.
Flying back and forth is not a consecutive absence as far as I understand it, so your pattern should work as long as your total absence in 2 years does not hit 8 months.

1 Like

That last answer is exactly what my lawyer advised a few years ago. I kept track in a spreadsheet to make sure I didn’t go over as I had to fly back multiple times to take care of my parents. Also all three tax authories for me at least NCDOR,IRS and AT recognize the arrival dates of your planes as the dates of the trip. This becomes important for revenue recognition purposes for investment and pension income.

1 Like

If you plan so, I’m afraid, you should have gone thru golden visa program…but, I won’t suggest anyone to go thru it…Becoz applicants will be drowned by endless waiting…hoping…and waiting…

The requirements is that you could be out of Portugal 6 mo in one go, but 8 months cumulatively for the whole period of residence permit. So flying in and out definitely breaks consecutive absence, and in that case 8 months becomes the main restriction. So if you need to spend only 6 month or about that, I do not see any problems especially If you break this absence couple times. The only problem is that you will be left with only 2 months of absence for the rest of yr permit. If you need to live in that regime during a year, it will not work.
It is also possible to get allowance from AIMA to stay more out of Portugal if the reason is very serios.

1 Like

Thanks a lot. I was just wondering whether me flying back to Portugal for literally 1-2 days actually breaks the period of consecutive absence or if AIMA would just dismiss this because the visit to Portugal is too short to break it. I haven’t seen an official response to this anywhere though. So I’m still quite apprehensive. Nor was I able to contact either SEF or AIMA these last couple of days. They are not responding to emails or phone calls. I don’t know what to do at this point. I really want to get info from the top authority on this