StartUP Visa is a hosting program for foreign entrepreneurs who intend to develop an entrepreneurial and/or innovative business in Portugal, through the granting of a visa or residence permit to these foreign entrepreneurs. This programme is ruled by very specific regulation

Foreign entrepreneurs, who want to establish an innovative business, will access a residence visa, allowing the development or relocation of their StartUP business to Portugal. Applicable to entrepreneurs who want to develop their project in Portugal and still have no business company in their country of origin, and/or for entrepreneurs that already have their entrepreneurial projects developed in their country of origin and are looking forward to establish a business activity in Portugal.

StartUp Visa welcomes one entrepreneur or more per project, up to a maximum of 5(five) elements. Residence visas under the program shall also be granted up to a maximum of five elements, by project.

Only one of them must be meet: either you are an entrepreneur with a project, or an entrepreneur with a company set up outside Portugal.

The documents are the copy of the passport and the copy of the residence permit of the country indicated in the application, if the citizen has permanent or long-term residence in another country outside the Schengen area. It is considered as permanent non-residents in the Schengen area, all third-country nationals who are not qualified with a permanent residence permit valid for 5 (five) or more years, according to article 76^th of Act 23/2007, oh 4^th July, in its present edition ( Aliens Act).

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The information regarding the existence/non-existence of debts is always relative to Portugal. If the entrepreneur has a tax and/or social security number in Portugal, he/she must grant authorization to IAPMEI for online checking with Tax and Social Security Authorities, and enclose the certificates obtained from the related portals. For this purpose, the tax identification number of IAPMEI is 501373357 and Social Security number of IAPMEI is 200457827. In case the entrepreneur does not have a tax and/or social security number, he/she must provide a solemn declaration instead.

The entrepreneur must provide evidence of the criminal record certificate, issued by the competent authorities, requested in the country of origin or residence, once a resident for more than a year. This must be presented properly translated and authenticated by the consulate office of the country of origin or apostille by the Hague Convention.

The total amount works on a cumulative basis, representing the minimum amount of € 428.84/ per month (per person). This represents the value of the Index of Social Support (IAS) in Portugal for 12 (twelve) months, and ensures the subsistence of the entrepreneur in Portugal.

Yes, the compliance with this requirement is mandatory to submit the application, and shall be proven through a bank statement. This requirement must be proven individually by bank statement if there is more than one entrepreneur.

Yes, you can, since there is no limit for presenting declarations of interest to the incubators. You can send several, once for moving forward with the application submission you have to be accepted in at least one incubator.

No, each entrepreneur can only apply for one project at a time. If this is not respected, two of the eligibility requirements will be affected. This defines that candidates have to demonstrate that they have an effective interest in developing an entrepreneurial project, namely through the creation of an innovation based company, and the individual contribution of each candidate is essential to the development of the entrepreneurial project. Only in case of the application´s rejection or withdrawal, may the same entrepreneurs apply for another project.

The evaluation of the economic and innovative potential is based on the degree of innovation, scalability of the business, the potential for the market, the capacity of the management team and the potential for creating qualified employment in Portugal.

The final decision on the application in the maximum period of 30 (thirty) working days from its submission, making  it available on the electronic platform within 3 (three) working days”, after the decision.

It is not possible to integrate new elements or entrepreneurs into the application after a favorable evaluation. The evaluation of the application, after its submission, results from the fulfilment of all the eligibility requirements. Failure to comply with the requirements, a t the date of submission of the application, as well as the acceptance of subsequent elements to a project already decided, calls into question the evaluation decision on the project and / or team that initially integrates it. As an alternative to this situation the entrepreneurs may cancel the initial application and formalize a new application, including the additional elements and / or entrepreneurs in the new application.

The visa must be requested at the Portuguese consulate section after the approval of the entrepreneur in the programme, after being formalized the incubation contract and issued the Acceptance Statement. The company does not have to be set up in Portugal for this purpose, once its establishment should take place already during the process of incubation. The residency visa is intended to allow the holder to enter the Portuguese territory in order to apply for a residence permit. This visa is valid for 2 entries and entitles its holder to stay in national territory for 4 months.

StartUP Visa is a residence visa valid for 4 (four) months. The visa can be extended, within national territory for a period of 90 (ninety) days  and grants the right to apply for a residence. This way, the holder of the StartUP visa, newly arrived in national territory, will have an appointment to request for residence permit with Immigration and Borders Service, booked by us and accompanied by one of out attorneys.

Only holders of valid residence permits are entitled to family reunification with family members, and must be requested from the SEF. Therefore, the application for a residence visa for the purpose of family reunification can only be carried out after the SEF has approved the referred family reunification.

Family reunification may be requested, being its approval namely conditioned to the granting of the right of residence to the holder/ entrepreneur.

Obtaining a favorable evaluation of the family reunification request, can the family of the entrepreneur develop their regular and professional life in Portugal, during the validity of the entrepreneur’s visa.

Downstream of the project and/ or company integrated in the scope of the program, and granting of visas to the entrepreneurs, it might apply other appropriate visa requests. Those shall respect the period and the reason of the stay of the other applicants, integrating them in the company project in Portugal.