Indians in Portugal: the 2026 guide to AIMA, work visas, Goan and Portuguese nationality, health, rents, tax, driving, schools, temples and Diwali

AIMA, the agency that issues residence permits in Portugal, counted 1,585,854 foreign citizens as residents on 31 December 2025, in its Migrations and Asylum Report 2025, published in September 2026. 91,405 of them were Indian citizens: 75,077 men and 16,328 women. That makes India the third-largest foreign nationality, 5.8% of the total, behind Brazil (493,622) and Angola (99,050) and ahead of Cape Verde (71,005), Nepal (56,304) and Bangladesh (55,579). A year earlier AIMA gave 98,616 Indians, then the second-largest group. AIMA’s count is of people with a valid residence permit, with a file it has already seen at an appointment and not yet decided, or with a permit that has lapsed and is being renewed; it treats a permit as live for six months after its end date. It leaves out Indians who have become Portuguese.

The Indian government counts a wider group. The site’s population line for Portugal reads: “About 177,000 overseas Indians (Indian citizens and people of Indian origin) live in Portugal: 176,616 in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ estimate for January 2026. That is 98,616 Indian citizens and 78,000 people of Indian origin.” The ministry’s 98,616 is exactly AIMA’s count for 31 December 2024, so its citizen figure is a year behind AIMA’s newest one (91,405). The 78,000 “people of Indian origin” is an estimate for which we found no method. The Embassy of India in Lisbon puts persons of Indian origin at about 180,000, including 14,125 OCI card holders, on a page that carries no date. The counts answer different questions and should not be subtracted from one another.

Work visas, salaries and the job hunt are in the jobs guide; there are no separate guides yet for OCI or passports, so this page deals with those itself. Where a rule changes on a date, the date is given, and the open questions are listed at the end, in the embassy and safety section.

Counts of the same community

Four published numbers describe Indians in Portugal, and each counts something different. AIMA’s 91,405 (31 December 2025) is Indian citizens with a permit or a pending file. The Ministry of External Affairs’ 176,616 (January 2026) adds an estimate of 78,000 people of Indian origin. The Embassy’s about 180,000 persons of Indian origin includes 14,125 OCI holders. And Eurostat counts those who ceased to be Indian by becoming Portuguese: 680 in 2024.

The count over time

Read the jump with care. AIMA’s 2024 report says its national total includes 286,302 attendances for pending “manifestação de interesse” files, and the 2025 report’s national total still includes 50,695 such cases waiting for a decision, 76,907 expired permits whose holders have paid the fees for an appointment and 24,476 family-reunification cases already attended. The change in what is counted, and the clearing of the backlog, rather than 54,000 arrivals in a year, probably explains most of the step from 44,051 to 98,616; AIMA does not give the split for Indians. The 2024 report also says that an upward revision of about 50,000 foreigners expected in AIMA’s April 2025 interim report did not happen, because half of the applicants under the transitional scheme did not turn up and cross-checks with other databases found people who had become Portuguese or had died. The 2025 report says AIMA kept correcting, validating and updating its statistics. The fall of 7,211 (7.3%) in the Indian count in 2025 may therefore reflect a cleaned register as much as a community that shrank; AIMA does not explain it.

The permits granted

In 2025 AIMA granted 25,594 residence permits to Indians (22,443 to men, 3,151 to women), the second-largest group after Brazilians (115,709) and ahead of Nepalese (17,889), Bangladeshis (17,499) and Pakistanis (15,656). Indians received 11,221 in 2024 and 12,185 in 2023. AIMA warns that the yearly number of grants mostly shows how fast it cleared a backlog, not how many people arrived that year. Its 2025 report singles out Nepal, Bangladesh and India as groups in rapid expansion.

Who is counted, and who is not

More than four in every five Indian residents in AIMA’s count are men (82.1%), against 55.6% across all foreigners. That is the mark of a labour migration in which men arrive first and families follow, and family reunification (see bringing family) is the route that will change it. The count leaves out two groups. Indians who naturalised are in Eurostat’s series instead: 1,326 in 2020, 1,113 in 2021, 1,104 in 2022, 715 in 2023 and 680 in 2024, and 13,597 in the 17 years from 2008 to 2024. And people born in Goa, Daman and Diu before 1961 who are already Portuguese appear in no count at all: they are not naturalised, so Eurostat does not list them, and they are not foreigners, so AIMA does not either (see the Goa route).

The South Asian neighbours

AIMA’s 2025 table gives the other South Asian communities beside the Indian one: 56,304 Nepalese, 55,579 Bangladeshis, 42,042 Pakistanis and 753 Sri Lankans. Together with Indians that is 246,083 people, by our sum about 15.5% of all foreign residents. Each community has its own associations and places of worship; the numbers are given so that a reader can judge how large the Indian one is. The safety section describes farm-labour cases in which India and Nepal are both named among the victims’ countries.

Languages and religion

No official source counts mother tongues. The Embassy names Goa, Daman and Diu, Gujarat by way of Mozambique and Angola, and Punjab and Haryana as the origins. The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal gives Gujarati lessons and Portuguese lessons for migrants, and the origins the Embassy names point to Konkani, Gujarati, Punjabi and Hindi, but no source counts speakers. There is no reliable count of Hindus, Sikhs or Muslims of Indian origin either: Rita Cachado’s 2017 study of Hindu Gujarati merchants cites an estimate of about 33,000 Hindus in Portugal and says it is only indicative, and the Comunidade Hindu says it has about 9,000 members and 800 full members.

Five centuries and a treaty

The Embassy of India dates the link to Vasco da Gama’s voyage to Calicut in May 1498. The Portuguese took Goa in 1510 and later held Diu, Daman and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Indian forces liberated Goa on 19 December 1961, ending more than 450 years of Portuguese rule. After the Carnation Revolution of April 1974 the two states restored relations and signed a treaty on 31 December 1974 on India’s sovereignty over Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli; it came into force on 3 June 1975. India and Portugal marked 50 years since the re-establishment of relations in 2025, and President Droupadi Murmu visited Portugal on 7 and 8 April that year.

Two older strands

The Embassy’s community page names two older groups: people from Goa, Daman and Diu, and people, mostly Gujarati, who came in the 1970s from Mozambique and Angola when Portuguese rule there ended. The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal gives its own account: it grew from 1975 as a result of the decolonisation of Mozambique, was formally constituted in 1982 as a charity with public-utility status, and reports about 9,000 members in the Lisbon and Porto areas, most from Mozambique and some from the Gujarat territories of Portuguese India. Rita Cachado, writing in Etnográfica in 2017, adds that Hindu Gujaratis had moved to Mozambique over the previous hundred years, many from Diu and Goa, that merchants opened shops in Lisbon from the late 1970s and that the main wave arrived in the early 1980s during Mozambique’s civil war. Their shops started around Martim Moniz and are now spread across the city.

The Ismaili community has a similar route. The Ismaili Centre on Avenida Lusíada in Lisbon, whose foundation stone was laid in December 1996, was opened on 11 July 1998 by President Jorge Sampaio and the Aga Khan; Wikipedia, citing the Ismaili community’s own page, says the community in Portugal has grown since the 1970s, and an excerpt of the Aga Khan’s opening speech speaks of families who came from Mozambique and other Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and Asia. Goans have their own association: Casa de Goa, in Lisbon, founded in 1987 according to an academic study of it, with premises off the Calçada do Livramento.

The newer wave

The Embassy says that more recently people from Punjab and Haryana have moved into agriculture, construction and hospitality. The numbers follow that account: RIFA counted 17,619 Indian citizens in 2019 and 24,550 in 2020, AIMA’s counts then rise to 98,616 at the end of 2024 (partly a change of method, see the community in numbers), and 25,594 permits went to Indians in 2025 alone. In September 2021 India and Portugal signed an agreement on the recruitment of Indian workers, under which an employer notifies Portugal’s employment institute, the Indian authorities run the selection and the worker receives a visa; the Portuguese statement said it still had to be ratified and would apply 30 days after the last notification. We did not find a record that it has entered into force, and Law 61/2025 (article 5) tells the Government to negotiate more agreements of this kind.

Skilled arrivals

Besides the farm, construction and hospitality workers, qualified staff, students and people transferred by an employer can use the routes described in skilled work. AIMA does not publish their numbers by nationality in the reports we read, and no source we found counts Indian IT or engineering workers in Portugal or says in which cities they live, so this guide does not guess.

Who this is about

The people concerned were born in the former Estado da Índia, the Portuguese territories on the Indian coast, before Portuguese rule ended in December 1961. The Provedor de Justiça, Portugal’s ombudsman, wrote in Recommendation 9/B/2009 about thousands of delayed files for the “transcription of birth” of people born in Goa, Daman and Diu before 20 December 1961. They are decided by the Conservatória dos Registos Centrais in Lisbon under article 2 of Decree-Law 249/77, as amended by Decree-Law 36/97, and they rest on the birth and marriage records of the central archives at Panjim, Daman and Diu. The Embassy of India confirms the result from its side: Indian nationals “hailing from erstwhile Portuguese territories” who acquired Portuguese nationality under the Portuguese nationality law are a recognised category.

What the State is wary of

The 2009 recommendation is blunt. It speaks of serious doubt about the authenticity of the old records, of identity theft and of the same identity being used several times, and it asked the Minister of Justice for a law requiring original documents of the Portuguese administration in these files. We did not find whether that rule was enacted. RTP, in a report we could not date, described falsified records and intermediaries who charge thousands of euros for files that the state handles at a much lower fee, and a police investigation that broke up one network. The practical rule is the same as for every document scam: do not pay an intermediary who promises a Portuguese passport, and ask the Conservatória or a Portuguese lawyer what the file needs.

Children and grandchildren

The Nationality Law as republished by Organic Law 1/2026 sets two routes for descendants. Under article 1(1)(c) a child of a Portuguese parent born abroad is Portuguese by origin if the birth is registered in the Portuguese civil register or the child declares the wish to be Portuguese. Under article 1(1)(d) a person with at least one grandparent of original Portuguese nationality, who has not lost it, can declare the wish to be Portuguese if they have an effective link to the national community. The new part is article 1(3): attribution under (d) now requires the person to meet the conditions of article 6(1)(c) to (h), that is, a test or certificate of Portuguese language and culture, history and national symbols, knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties, a solemn declaration of adherence to democratic principles, no final prison sentence of more than three years for the listed crimes, no threat to national security and no UN or EU restrictive measure. Files pending on 19 May 2026 continue under the earlier text (article 7(2) of the organic law).

Whether a particular Goa-born grandparent counts as Portuguese by origin and has kept the nationality, and which route a particular child or grandchild falls under, is a question for the Conservatória or a Portuguese lawyer. The Justice Ministry’s own nationality page was still marked “em atualização” on 23 October 2026 and still said five years, so do not rely on it.

The Indian side

India does not allow dual citizenship. The Embassy’s page on citizenship says that anyone who takes foreign nationality must surrender the Indian passport at once to the nearest mission, that keeping it is an offence under the Passports Act 1967, and that a foreign national of Indian origin who already holds another citizenship cannot renounce because the citizenship ended under section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1955. A minor child of a person who renounces ceases to be a citizen too, and may resume it within a year of coming of age. The surrender certificate costs €20 (plus €2 and €4 for the welfare fund and postage) and must be handed in at the Embassy; the renunciation certificate costs €80. For people from Goa, Daman and Diu the Embassy accepts a passport “revocation order”, where one was issued instead of a surrender certificate, as the alternative document for an OCI application, and asks the person to certify that the Portuguese passport was not obtained fraudulently. OCI cards are now issued electronically only, on Wednesdays by appointment (see the Embassy section).

The numbers

No count we found covers this group. AIMA counts foreigners, Eurostat counts people who became Portuguese, and the ministry’s “people of Indian origin” has no published method. If you are told that “100,000 Goans hold Portuguese passports” or any other round number, ask where it comes from.

What changed in 2026

Organic Law 1/2026 amended the Nationality Law (Law 37/81). Parliament approved it on 1 April 2026, the President promulgated it on 3 May, it was published on 18 May and it came into force on 19 May 2026. An earlier version had been blocked by the Constitutional Court, according to the press accounts we read. For a naturalisation under article 6(1) an adult must now show:

• legal residence for ten years if a national of a country outside the European Union and the Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP), which includes India; seven years for nationals of CPLP countries and of EU member states. Before the reform the period was five years for everyone;
• a test or certificate of enough Portuguese language and culture, history and national symbols, and enough knowledge of fundamental rights and duties and of the political organisation of the state;
• a solemn declaration of adherence to the fundamental principles of the democratic rule of law;
• no final prison sentence of more than three years for terrorism, violent or highly organised crime, crimes against the security of the state or aiding illegal immigration; no threat to national security; no UN or EU restrictive measure;
• means of subsistence.

How the residence is counted

Under article 15 a person resides legally if their situation is regularised under any of the titles, visas or authorisations of the foreigners law or the asylum law. Periods of legal residence may be added together, consecutive or not, provided they fall within a maximum interval of 12 years for a person of a non-CPLP, non-EU nationality. The former paragraph 4 of article 15 is repealed. A law-firm summary reported that the count now runs from the issue of the residence permit and no longer from the date of the application; the text of article 15 does not say so in words, so ask a lawyer how a permit that took a long time to issue is counted. A person with a file pending on 19 May 2026 is dealt with under the old law.

Other routes

• Born in Portugal to foreign parents: a child born in Portugal can be Portuguese on declaration if one parent has legally resided in Portugal for at least five years at the time of birth (article 1(1)(f)), and a minor can be naturalised if a parent has resided for five years and the child is enrolled in compulsory schooling (article 6(2)).
• Marriage or a stable union: a foreigner married for more than three years to a Portuguese citizen can acquire the nationality by declaration; for a union of more than three years it follows a court decision (article 3).
• The Goa route is in its own section.

Where the rules are still open

The organic law told the Government to amend the Nationality Regulation within 90 days of publication, that is by about 16 August 2026 (article 4). We did not find the amended text or the format of the language and culture test, so we cannot say what a candidate will sit. The Justiça.gov.pt page on nationality was marked “em atualização” and still gave five years on 23 October 2026. Do not rely on it.

The Indian side and the numbers

An Indian who becomes Portuguese loses Indian citizenship and surrenders the passport (see the Goa section for the Embassy’s steps); an OCI card is the way back for long visits. Eurostat counts the former Indian citizens who acquired Portuguese citizenship: 680 in 2024, 715 in 2023 and 1,104 in 2022. Most of today’s Indian residents arrived after 2019, when AIMA’s predecessor counted 17,619 Indian citizens, so with a ten-year period the number of Indian residents who reach the mark will stay small for some years. That is our inference from the dates, not an official projection.

What the sources say

The Embassy says the community is mainly in the Lisbon metropolitan region, the Algarve and Porto. AIMA’s reports give foreign residents by municipality for all nationalities together, and by nationality for the country only, so there is no official count of Indians in a given town in the documents we read. The table below is therefore the foreign population as a whole on 31 December 2025, from the annex to AIMA’s 2025 report, in municipalities that are named in this guide.

The last two rows matter for this guide. Odemira and Beja are farming districts, and AIMA’s table shows their foreign populations as 74% men in Odemira (16,240 of 22,038) and 78% in Beja (5,383 of 6,919), against 55.6% across the country. That is not a count of Indians, but it is the profile of the labour migration the safety section describes, in which India is among the countries named.

Lisbon

Martim Moniz and the Mouraria, below the castle, are the old centre for South Asian shops. Rita Cachado’s 2017 study says the Hindu Gujarati traders who started there are now spread across the city, with more South Asian and Chinese shops along Avenida Almirante Reis, about two kilometres long. Time Out Lisboa lists two shops in the Centro Comercial da Mouraria, Rua Senhora da Saúde 2: Popat Store, which sells Indian products (loja 251, in a 2021 guide), and Nita Cash and Carry, which it calls the place for spices (loja 231, in a 2019 entry that gives Monday to Saturday, 09:30 to 20:00). We could not confirm that either is open now, so telephone before a journey. In the north of the city the Comunidade Hindu de Portugal and its temple are at Alameda Mahatma Gandhi in Lumiar, the Ismaili Centre is on Avenida Lusíada, and AIMA’s two Lisbon stores are at Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar 20 and Rua Álvaro Coutinho 14 (Anjos).

Odivelas and Loures

Odivelas, just north of Lisbon, has 50,082 foreign residents in AIMA’s count, Loures 51,134 and Amadora 55,457. The Sikh temple for the Lisbon area is on Rua José Duarte Lexim in Odivelas, according to a Correio da Manhã report of June 2025, and the Embassy’s statement of 9 October 2026 names the Odivelas gurdwara. AIMA has a store in the Strada Outlet at Casal da Troca, Odivelas.

The Algarve

Albufeira has 26,371 foreign residents and an AIMA store at Quinta da Bela Vista. The Embassy lists the Algarve among the places where Indians are concentrated and says it holds periodic consular camps with the community, without naming the towns. Wikipedia lists a gurdwara at Albufeira (Sri Guru Teg Bahadur) and one at Porto (Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji), which we could not confirm from the temples’ own pages.

Porto

Porto has 60,351 foreign residents. AIMA has two stores in the city, at the Edifício Capitólio on Avenida de França 316 and at Rua Calouste Gulbenkian 176. The Embassy lists Porto with Lisbon and the Algarve as the places where Indians are concentrated.

Odemira and Beja

Odemira, in the Beja district, has 22,038 foreign residents and its own AIMA store at Rua Sousa Prado; the town of Beja has 6,919 and a store at Rua Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira. Rents in the Alentejo Litoral subregion, which includes Odemira, rose by 21.6% on a year in the second quarter of 2026, the largest rise of any subregion in INE’s figures as Postal reported them. A job on a farm often comes with a bed; treat it as a rental contract all the same (see renting).

How to choose

The job usually decides: a farm job comes with a place and the questions are transport and a doctor; a Lisbon or Porto job comes with the rents in the renting section. Find the nearest temple or gurdwara and the nearest AIMA store before you sign a lease; attendance for the permit is at a store, and the store you can reach decides how many days of work the process costs.

What has ended

For years a foreigner already in Portugal could apply for a permit by “manifestação de interesse”, with a work contract or social-security record and no visa from abroad. AIMA’s 2025 report says the mechanism, created in 2017, was extinguished on 3 June 2024 by Decree-Law 37-A/2024, and the AIMA pages for work permits without a visa (article 88(2) and 89(2)) are marked as revoked from 4 June 2024 and still applying only to earlier requests. Law 61/2025, published on 22 October 2025, went further: it revoked the procedures resting on expressions of interest and set 31 December 2025 as the last day for the transitional cases in which a person could prove social-security contributions before 4 June 2024; that deadline has passed. The route today is a residence visa obtained abroad, before the work starts.

The visa and the permit

A residence visa for subordinate work is valid for four months and two entries; within that time the holder must book at AIMA for the residence permit (AIMA’s glossary). For the permit AIMA asks for the passport, the valid visa, the employer’s declaration of the work relationship, a declaration of address supported by the landlord’s statement or the property record, and proof of registration with the tax authority and social security. A temporary permit for work is valid for two years and is renewed for three-year periods. The Embassy of Portugal in New Delhi and the Consulate General of Portugal in Goa are the two posts the visa portal lists for India. The national visa fee is €110. The visa portal sets means of subsistence at the 2026 minimum wage of €920 a month (Decree-Law 139/2025) for the first adult, plus 50% of that amount for a second adult and 30% for each child; for a work visa the funds from the contract or promise of a contract count.

D1 and E8: the appointment rule

The Embassy of Portugal in New Delhi announced on 14 April 2026 that from 15 April all appointment requests for subordinate work visas (categories D1) and for temporary-stay visas for seasonal work of more than 90 and less than 270 days (E8) must go exclusively to a dedicated email address, vistostrabalho.novadeli@mne.pt, and that only requests sent there are considered. Its earlier notice of October 2023 said that, for D1 and E8, the company has to ask the Embassy for an appointment for its workers, and that VFS Global slots, which then covered centres in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Kolkata, are for other categories. Check the current notice before any step. No agent can sell you the appointment: for D1 and E8 the request comes from the company.

The protocol of April 2025

AIMA’s page on the Protocol for Regulated Labour Migration (PCMLR) describes a measure of the Government, put in place in April 2025 under its Action Plan for Migration, that sets up a regulated channel inside the existing law. It does not create a new visa and does not lower any visa requirement. The Government, AIMA, the consular directorate, the border-coordination unit, the employment institute IEFP and the business confederations of industry, agriculture, trade, tourism and construction signed it. The questions listed on AIMA’s page cover an AIMA suitability check of the company, a check of the file by the consular directorate, the consulates’ scheduling of appointments and a requirement of professional training and Portuguese-language learning in Portugal; we could not read the answers. For a worker the point is that a company recruiting under the protocol is meant to have been vetted, which is useful to know when an agent’s promise sounds too easy.

Seasonal work and scams

The visa portal says an applicant for a seasonal temporary-stay visa does not have to show a return ticket. The Embassy of India has warned that Indian nationals have received calls and emails from supposed Portuguese firms offering jobs or work-visa services in return for money; it advises not to pay or share bank or passport details without checking, and lists the signs: a job you did not apply for, a vague description with a very high salary, a request for personal details and a personal email address. The visa fee is €110 and goes to the state, so a “guaranteed” job or visa for a fee is a warning.

Some official figures

At the end of 2025, 482,818 foreigners held permits for professional activity, all nationalities together: 402,314 employed, 64,375 self-employed and 10,723 in highly qualified work (AIMA). The national minimum wage for 2026 is €920 a month. In 2025, 71.1% of the permits AIMA granted were for professional activity.

The routes for qualified workers

Three routes serve a graduate with a job offer. Tech Visa, in force since 1 January 2019, is for highly qualified people recruited by companies certified by IAPMEI as active in technology and innovation; it was widened in 2022 to include intra-company transfers to certified firms. The general regime for highly qualified work (article 90(1)(a) of the foreigners law) and the EU Blue Card (Cartão Azul UE, articles 121-A and following) are the two routes AIMA’s page names when the employer is not certified. The holder applies with a residence visa from the consulate, proof of lodging and, for the Tech Visa, the company’s statement of responsibility.

Pay thresholds

The visa portal says that for subordinate highly qualified work the contract or promise must run for at least six months and carry a salary of 1.5 times “the annual gross salary” or three times the social support index (IAS) and, for professions the Government has recognised as in particular need, 1.2 times or twice the IAS. The English text does not say whose annual salary it means, so ask the employer for the 2026 amount in euros and for the legal basis before you resign from a job in India.

Family comes sooner

Law 61/2025 sets a two-year wait before family reunification, but not for the family of holders of permits under article 90 (teaching, highly qualified or cultural work), article 90-A (investment) and article 121-A (EU Blue Card): article 98(3)(c) exempts them. For a skilled worker, bringing a spouse and children is therefore not delayed (see bringing family). The law also gave holders of ordinary work permits who met the conditions of article 90 a window of 180 days from 23 October 2025 to convert to one of those permits; that window has closed.

Remote work

Portugal has a residence visa for remote workers, often called the digital-nomad visa. The visa portal asks for a work contract or the employer’s declaration (or, for the self-employed, a company contract or service contracts and proof of services), a document showing fiscal residence and proof of average monthly income over the last three months of at least four times the monthly minimum wage, which is €3,680 at the 2026 minimum of €920. Work for Portuguese clients does not fit it. AIMA’s page for the resulting permit says it lasts two years and is renewed for three-year periods.

The cities and the employers

Lisbon and Porto have the highest rents in INE’s figures (see renting) and each has AIMA stores. Two Indian IT companies publish Portuguese offices on their own pages: HCLTech, in Portugal since 2009 with a delivery centre in Lisbon, and Wipro, with an office at Porto-Maia. No source counts Indian IT workers in Portugal; the jobs guide covers who hires and how. If you are comparing destinations, the site’s jobs guides cover the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Switzerland and Sweden.

Tax for new arrivals

The IFICI regime (see tax and money) is open to some of these workers: a flat 20% on qualifying pay for ten years. It has its own application, on the Portal das Finanças, by 15 January of the year after you become tax resident.

The skilled job-seeker visa is not open

Law 61/2025 replaced the old job-search visa with a visa for qualified job search (article 57-A): valid only in Portugal, for people with specialised technical skills that a ministerial order is to define, for 120 days (one summary says extendable by 60). It lets the holder work in a highly qualified job until the visa ends or a permit is granted, and it carries an appointment at AIMA within the 120 days. A holder who has not started work and regularised the file by the end must leave and cannot ask for a new visa of this kind for a year. The visa portal says today, 23 October 2026, in capitals: “not yet available at Portuguese consular offices”, waiting for the regulation of article 57-A. AIMA’s page for the permit that follows an older job-search visa (article 88(7)) is still on its list; do not read that as a sign that the visa is open. Any agent selling a “job-seeker visa for Portugal” is selling something the consulates are not issuing.

Passive income and retirement

The visa portal lists a residence visa for people who live from passive income, for retirees and, with a different document, for religious reasons. The documents are a certificate of the retirement income or of income from movable or immovable property or from intellectual or financial assets, plus the general papers: a clean criminal record certificate, travel insurance, proof of subsistence at the same multiples of €920 as for a work visa and, for the permit, a health insurance policy or SNS cover and proof of address. It is meant for people who do not need a Portuguese job.

The investment route (“golden visa”)

AIMA’s page on the investment residence permit (article 90-A, in force since 8 October 2012) lists what counts today: creating at least ten jobs (eight in a low-density territory); €500,000 or more for scientific research; €250,000 or more for artistic production or cultural heritage; €500,000 or more in qualifying funds of at least five years’ maturity; or €500,000 or more to set up a company with five permanent jobs. The page adds that the investment may not be directed, directly or indirectly, at real estate. The holder must spend at least 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 days in later years, can bring family and can later ask for permanent residence and for nationality. We found no 2026 change to this list in the sources we opened, so do not take a consultant’s “2026 form” for granted; compare it with AIMA’s page. Residence under this route counts toward the ten-year nationality period like any other.

Start-ups and entrepreneurs

Law 61/2025 (article 89(4)) grants residence to a third-country national who runs an entrepreneurial project, including an innovative start-up, within a certified incubator, with the general conditions of article 77 except the one in paragraph (a) of its first number. The visa portal asks for IAPMEI’s declaration of an incubation contract for the Startup Visa programme.

Long-term resident status

After five years of uninterrupted legal residence a person can ask for long-term resident status, which is permanent and comes with an EU long-term residence title valid for at least five years and renewable. AIMA asks for proof of stable resources, health insurance or SNS cover, tax and social-security compliance and, where applicable, basic Portuguese: a school certificate, an IEFP course, a CAPLE test or an A2 certificate from a Portuguese-as-a-host-language course.

Study

AIMA has pages for permits for students, interns, researchers and volunteers (articles 91 to 94). A visa-portal page shows that students admitted to a recognised higher-education institution are exempt from showing travel insurance and means of subsistence; check the institution’s international office for the current rule.

The rule since 23 October 2025

Article 98 of the foreigners law, as Law 61/2025 rewrote it, says that the holder of a residence permit valid for at least two years has the right to family reunification with the family members of articles 99 and 100, if they have lived with the holder or depend on them, whether the family tie came before or after the holder entered Portugal. For a spouse or equivalent who lived with the holder for at least 18 months immediately before the holder entered Portugal, the first permit is for 15 months. The spouse and the holder must both be at least 18 (article 99).

Who does not wait

The two-year period does not apply to dependent minors or incapacitated persons, to a spouse who is also the parent or adoptive parent of a dependent minor or incapacitated person, or to the family of holders of permits under article 90 (teaching, highly qualified or cultural activity), article 90-A (investment) or article 121-A (EU Blue Card). The member of the Government responsible for migration may waive or shorten the wait in duly reasoned exceptional cases, weighing the strength of the family ties and how well the person is integrated. A Tech Visa or Blue Card holder can therefore bring family at once, and a farm or construction worker usually cannot, unless the family are dependent children or a spouse who is also the child’s parent.

Conditions and decision

Under article 101 the holder must show housing, owned or rented, that is normal for a comparable family in the same region and meets safety and health standards, and means of subsistence sufficient for the whole family without social benefits, both as defined in ministerial orders. After the permit is granted the family members must complete integration measures: Portuguese-language training, training in constitutional principles and, for minors, compulsory schooling; renewal depends on having done so. The application is to be decided within nine months, and the law allows one extension of the same length in exceptional, complex cases, with the exceptions article 105 lists. A person already in Portugal whose family tie qualifies could apply for residence for family members who entered legally within 180 days of 23 October 2025 (article 6 of the law); that window has closed.

The steps from India

AIMA’s page for family reunification with a relative outside Portugal lists the documents: the resident’s permit, a certified copy of the relative’s passport, authenticated proof of the family tie (marriage certificate, birth certificate, adoption decision, or proof of two years’ stable union), a declaration of address with the landlord’s statement, proof of means and a criminal record from the relative’s country. Documents in a foreign language need a translation by a notary, a Portuguese consulate or the relevant consulate in Portugal. After AIMA authorises, the relative has 90 days to lodge the family-reunification visa application at the consulate, and loses the authorisation if the visa application is not made within that time (visa portal). AIMA’s page does not mention the two-year wait, which the law sets, so read the law as well as the page.

Size of the queue

AIMA’s 2025 report counts 24,476 family-reunification cases that had been attended and were waiting for a decision at the end of 2025, and, in its paragraph on investment permits, 3,967 family-reunification permits under article 98 in 2025 beside 2,685 investment permits. We found no official waiting time for 2026. Plan for a long process and keep every receipt.

Children

A child without a permit can still be registered. AIMA’s “Registo de Menores” issues a credential to foreign children whose papers would otherwise block access to education and health; it is not a permit and does not regularise the child or the family. AIMA issued 7,332 in 2025.

The size of the problem

The Government’s communiqué of 18 December 2025, on the mission structure set up in September 2024 to clear AIMA’s backlog, says it started with about 450,000 “manifestação de interesse” files, and that the other types of file added up to about one million pending processes, among them over 215,000 CPLP permits, 80,000 files of the transitional regime, 375,000 permit renewals and 25,000 family-reunification files. By its closing date of 31 December 2025 it reports more than 750,000 attendances, more than 300,000 residence titles issued, about 60,000 refusals and 97% of the expression-of-interest files dealt with, with 1,610 people mobilised. The communiqué says the cases still open pass to an organised and sustained transition, and gives no waiting times.

What AIMA reports for 2025

AIMA’s own report counts 671,273 appointments booked in 2025, of which 261,474 at its stores and 409,799 by the mission structure, and 605,890 attendances (219,053 at the stores and 386,837 by the structure). About 9.7% of bookings did not happen because the applicant did not turn up or cancelled. The contact centre made 278,693 bookings, for 2025 and 2026, and answered 546,048 calls. The Lisbon II (Anjos) store took 64,504 walk-in attendances from June to December 2025. AIMA issued 527,375 titles in 2025: 337,880 grants (up 55% on 2024) and 189,331 renewals. AIMA says the grants show how fast it cleared old files, not the pace of arrivals.

What is still slow

We found no official 2026 waiting time for a first permit, a renewal or family reunification, and the 2025 report publishes none. Press reports and complaint sites describe delays in 2026, but give no figure we could check. Law 61/2025 (article 104(3)) lets AIMA organise family-reunification interviews and appointments in view of its administrative capacity and publish the method, and a new article 87-B says challenges to AIMA’s decisions or silence go to the administrative courts, with a special procedure, the intimação, for rights that are seriously and directly compromised. On request the judge must weigh the number of files AIMA has and the means it has when deciding such a case. Using the courts is a matter for a lawyer, not a first step.

What to do

• Book early, and keep the proof. AIMA’s portals are at servicos.aima.gov.pt for services and portal-renovacoes.aima.gov.pt for renewals, and its contact centre made 278,693 bookings in 2025. Keep every receipt and email.
• Renew before expiry. AIMA’s statistics treat a permit as live for six months after its end date for the purpose of renewal; do not read that as a right to travel or work on an expired card without checking.
• Go to the right store. AIMA has 35 stores. For this guide’s towns: Lisboa I (Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar 20), Lisboa II (Rua Álvaro Coutinho 14, Anjos), Odivelas (Strada Outlet, Casal da Troca), Porto (Edifício Capitólio, Avenida de França 316), Albufeira, Odemira (Rua Sousa Prado) and Beja.
• Use the local support centres. AIMA’s CLAIM network recorded 196,607 attendances in 2025 and also teaches Portuguese; the Comunidade Hindu de Portugal offers administrative help to migrants.
• Do not pay a third party for a slot. We found no AIMA page that sells one; be wary of anyone who does.

Why the dates matter

Many deadlines in this guide run from a date on a document: 15 January for the IFICI application, two years from the issue of a permit for the licence exchange, ten years of residence for nationality. A permit that takes a long time to be issued leaves less time before those dates, so ask the lawyer or the employer which date counts.

Almost everything in Portugal asks for the NIF, the tax number, and a proof of address, and the order of the steps matters because each asks for the one before it. The sequence below is the usual one for a worker; check it with your employer or one of AIMA’s support centres before you rely on it.

1. The NIF. A foreigner gets the number at a Serviço de Finanças or Loja do Cidadão, and an appointment is mandatory (Portal das Finanças > Atendimento por Marcação, choose the option for people without a cartão de cidadão, or telephone the tax authority’s call centre at +351 217 206 707 on working days from 09:00 to 19:00). Bring the passport and proof of a foreign address unless it is on the passport. A representative with a power of attorney can apply instead, through the e-balcão or in person. The number is first given with non-resident status; when you meet the conditions of Portuguese tax residence you must update the address. If you come on a work visa, ask the employer whether it can arrange the NIF before you arrive.
2. An address you can prove. AIMA wants a declaration of address and, for a tenant, a statement from the landlord or host about the legal basis for living there; for an owner, the property record. Ask for the statement when you sign.
3. The NISS, the social-security number. AIMA’s work-permit pages ask for proof of registration with social security. We could not open the Segurança Social’s own page, so ask the employer how the number is obtained.
4. AIMA. Book the residence-permit appointment within the four months the visa gives you (see work visas).
5. The health number. At the first visit to a health centre or public hospital a foreigner gets a user number; see health care.
6. A bank account. Banco de Portugal’s basic-account scheme caps the yearly fee at 1% of the social support index, €5.37 in 2026, and a bank has ten working days to open the account or refuse. Ask for the “serviços mínimos bancários” account if a bank offers you a dearer one.
7. A phone. Operators sell prepaid and contract plans; ask the shop which documents it wants. Keep your Indian number active if your Indian bank or payment app sends codes to it.
8. A transit pass. In 2026 the Lisbon-area Navegante pass stays at €40 a month for the metropolitan area and €30 for one municipality, and Porto’s Andante is generally €40 or €30 (DN, 22 December 2025).
9. Register with the Embassy of India on its registration page; students are asked to use the MADAD portal.
10. Start the licence clock if you drive (see driving).

Two practical warnings. First, take the originals and photocopies of everything to each office. Second, an employer, landlord or agent who asks you to hand over your passport or residence permit “for safekeeping” is asking for something you should not give; a photocopy is enough.

The SNS number and what it does not give you

Portugal’s national health service is the SNS. The government portal says a foreigner is given a national user number the first time he or she goes to a public health unit, such as a health centre or hospital, and it adds that the number does not by itself guarantee that the SNS pays for the care. Observador reported on 14 August 2025, from the national user registry, that 975,397 foreigners with a residence authorisation were registered, 832,507 of them enrolled at a health centre, 7.83% of everyone enrolled in July 2025, and that registration at a health centre is allowed only to immigrants with a valid residence authorisation.

For a visa and a permit

A residence-visa applicant must hold valid travel insurance that covers medical expenses, urgent care and repatriation, with exceptions only where a bilateral agreement says so. For the residence permit AIMA asks for a health insurance policy or proof that the person is covered by the SNS; and for long-term resident status the same.

SNS 24 and emergencies

SNS 24 is 808 24 24 24, a helpline that refers people to the right place; 112 is the emergency number. The health regulator ERS reminded hospitals in April 2024 that a referral through SNS 24 gives priority and exempts the patient from the moderating fee (the rule is Despacho 4835-A/2016). Montepio’s fee guide, updated on 24 April 2026, gives the fee for a hospital emergency visit without a referral as €18 at a polyvalent emergency service, €16 at a medical-surgical one and €14 at a basic one, with a ceiling of €40 for the visit; there is no fee after an SNS referral or if the patient is admitted. The fees are small beside a private bill, but ask the hospital which applies to you.

Children and people without papers

AIMA’s Registo de Menores credential helps a foreign child whose papers are incomplete to reach health services and school (see bringing family). We did not find an official page that states what an adult without a permit is entitled to in the SNS, and the rules differ for urgent care; ask a CLAIM centre or a migrant-support organisation before you go.

Help in your own language

The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal runs a spiritual and religious assistance service at the Hospital de Santa Maria and the Hospital Pulido Valente (the Lisboa Norte hospital centre) and lists among its services support for patients and families in hospitals, simultaneous interpretation between specialists and patients, and translations for schools, libraries and health centres. Ask the Comunidade’s secretariat which languages it can cover.

Records from India

Keep your vaccination record and prescriptions from India, with a translation, because a doctor who starts a long-term treatment will want them.

What a rent is, officially

INE, Portugal’s statistics institute, publishes the median rent per square metre of new rental contracts, the rent that people actually signed. For the second quarter of 2026, published on 29 September 2026 and reported by Postal on 3 October: the national median was €10.17 per m², 10.2% above a year earlier and 7.5% above the first quarter; Greater Lisbon €15.24; the Porto metropolitan area €10.83; the Algarve €11.56; and the municipality of Lisbon €17.79, up 5.1% on the year. In the Alentejo Litoral, which includes Odemira, rents rose 21.6% on the year, the largest rise of any subregion. For the first quarter of 2026 INE gave €17.42 in the municipality of Lisbon and €14.60 in the municipality of Porto, with Greater Lisbon at €14.38, the Porto metropolitan area at €10.13 and the country at €9.46 (ECO, 26 June 2026). We did not find INE’s second-quarter figure for the municipality of Porto.

What is advertised

The listing site Imovirtual, opened on 23 October 2026, showed 2,960 apartments for rent in the municipality of Lisbon and 1,728 in the municipality of Porto. Taking the first 361 adverts of each, in the site’s default order (353 and 357 of them had both a price and a floor area), our calculation gives:

This is one day’s asking prices, not a survey. It is a quarter above INE’s signed-contract median in both cities (Lisbon €22.35 against €17.79; Porto €18.15 against INE’s first-quarter €14.60), as asking prices usually are. Read INE as the figure that tells you what contracts closed at, and ask what has been paid in the same building.

What AIMA needs from a landlord

For almost every permit AIMA asks for a declaration on honour of the address and the legal basis on which you live there. If you rent, it also asks for a statement from the landlord or host naming that basis; if you own, the property record. A landlord who will not give the statement is a risk to your permit, not only to your deposit. Ask for a written contract in your own name and keep the receipts. Law 61/2025 also makes housing a condition of family reunification: housing that is normal for a comparable family in the region and meets safety and health rules, as ministerial orders define them.

Farm and company housing

For a worker housed by an employer or an agency, AIMA’s forms accept a statement from the “entidade alojadora”, the host, as the proof of the address. Ask for it in writing, and ask for the terms of the stay: the rent or the deduction from pay, how many people share a room and the notice.

Renting well

Do not pay a deposit for a flat you have not seen. A “landlord” abroad who asks for a transfer first is a common pattern in rental scams everywhere. Read what the monthly condominium costs and utilities include. A local CLAIM centre can help with the documents.

Income tax in 2026

Residents of mainland Portugal pay IRS on a progressive table. For income earned in 2026, under Law 73-A/2025 (the 2026 budget), the marginal rates and the upper limit of each bracket are, as a bank’s guide reproduces them: 12.5% up to €8,342; 15.7% to €12,587; 21.2% to €17,838; 24.1% to €23,089; 31.1% to €29,397; 34.9% to about €43,090; 43.1% to about €46,566; 44.6% to €86,634; 48% above. Sources differ by €1 on the sixth and seventh limits. Those first six rates are being cut for 2026 income: Law 64-B/2026 of 22 October authorised the Government to lower them to 12.2%, 15.2%, 20.7%, 23.6%, 30.6% and 34.6%, and the Council of Ministers approved the decree-law on 29 October with effect back to January, so withholding falls from the November payslip and the rest is settled in the annual return (Lusa). The minister has said the 2027 budget will update the brackets. An employee’s tax is withheld through the payslip under the retention tables the tax authority approves each year. The Portuguese tax year is the calendar year.

Who is a resident

Residence for tax is decided under article 16 of the IRS Code, which the tax authority’s own guide refers to. In outline, someone who spends more than 183 days in Portugal in a year, or has a home here on 31 December that suggests an intention to keep it as a habitual home, is resident; ask the Finanças or an accountant about your first year. A resident is taxed on income from anywhere, so Indian rent, interest and dividends belong on the Portuguese return, and the Indian side has to be settled as well.

NHR is gone; IFICI is the successor for a few

The old non-habitual resident regime (NHR) was ended for new residents by the 2024 budget (Law 82/2023), with transitional rules for those already in the procedure (article 236, cited in the tax authority’s guide). The new IFICI, a tax incentive for scientific research and innovation (article 58-A of the Tax Benefits Statute), is a flat 20% on qualifying employment and self-employment income, for ten consecutive years. The tax authority’s guide of 26 February 2025 says you must become tax resident in the year the benefit starts, must not have been resident in Portugal in any of the previous five years, must not have had NHR, must not have used the IRS “Programa Regressar” and must work in an eligible job: for example teaching and research, a qualified job at an investment-benefit company, a highly qualified profession listed in Ordinance 352/2024/1 with a degree and three years’ experience, or a job at a certified start-up. You apply on the Portal das Finanças by 15 January of the year after you become resident, and employers withhold 20% on showing your application. IFICI users cannot also use the “IRS Jovem” scheme from 2025.

India and Portugal: the treaties

The Embassy’s list of bilateral agreements includes a protocol of 24 June 2017 amending the double-taxation agreement and an “Agreement on Social Security Convention (2013)”. EPFO’s table of India’s social-security agreements gives the Portugal agreement an effective date of 8 May 2017, with a five-year detachment period, totalisation and portability: staff posted by an Indian employer can stay in the Indian system for the posting with an EPFO certificate of coverage, and periods in both countries can count towards a pension. Ask EPFO and Segurança Social how it applies to your own record before relying on it. Ask the employer, the Finanças and, for the Indian side, the EPFO before you rely on either.

Minimum wage and the basic account

The national minimum wage for 2026 is €920 a month (Decree-Law 139/2025). Banco de Portugal’s brochure of June 2026 says a basic-account customer pays at most 1% of the social support index a year, €5.37 in 2026, for an account with a debit card, deposits, withdrawals, direct debits and a capped number of transfers, and that a bank has ten working days to answer.

Sending money

This site has no Portugal guide on sending money to India. Compare the exchange rate and the fee together, keep every transfer in your own name and keep the record, because the tax authority or a bank may ask where a deposit came from.

The calendar

School is compulsory in Portugal from the age of 6 to 18, and pre-school is optional from age 3. The 2026/27 enrolment dates were set by Despacho 4472-A/2026 of 6 April 2026: pre-school and the first year of primary, 22 April to 1 June 2026; the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th years, 16 to 29 June; the 2nd to 5th years, 1 to 13 July; and the 10th and 12th years, 15 to 22 July. A candidate with qualifications from a foreign school can enrol outside those periods, subject to a place in a class already formed. Enrolment is made on the Portal das Matrículas, with a citizen card, the digital mobile key or the Portal das Finanças login; the Despacho names the online portal as the preferred route, so a parent who has none of these should ask the school or the municipality what the alternative is. The dates for 2027/28 had not been published when this page was written.

Children without a permit

AIMA’s Registo de Menores, created by Decree-Law 67/2004, issues a credential to foreign children in Portugal whose documents might otherwise limit their access to rights, among them education, health and social protection; the credential is not a permit and does not regularise the child. AIMA issued 7,332 in 2025. Law 61/2025 also says that a family member who comes by reunification must complete integration measures, including Portuguese-language training for the adults and compulsory schooling for minors, as a condition of renewal. A child that comes on a family visa is therefore expected to be in school.

Learning Portuguese

AIMA’s CLAIM network gives Portuguese-language help; the long-term resident application accepts an A2 certificate from a Portuguese-as-a-host-language course run by public schools, the IEFP or a Centro Qualifica. The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal gives Portuguese classes for migrants and Gujarati classes, and the Embassy’s menu links a page on learning Hindi at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Letters. Children arriving without Portuguese can ask the school what support it gives; the guides we read do not give a national rule.

Childcare and pre-school

Pre-school (ages 3 to 6) is enrolled in the same period as the first year of primary school, from 22 April. For a nursery place under three ask the municipality, or the Segurança Social’s nursery list, for the dates as soon as you have an address; we did not find a national calendar.

Indian schools and exams

We did not find a school in Portugal that teaches the Indian CBSE or ICSE curriculum, and the sources we read did not list one. Families who want it should ask the Embassy and the international schools directly. Keep your child’s Indian school certificates and the recognition steps the receiving Portuguese school will ask for, with an apostille where required.

The rule

IMT, the mobility institute, says that a foreign licence from a country that has signed an international road-traffic convention, or a bilateral agreement, can be exchanged for a Portuguese one. A visitor can drive on the foreign licence for up to 185 days from entering the country if no residence has been set up. Once you hold a residence permit, the clock starts from the date the permit was issued:

• Up to 90 days: you can keep driving on the foreign licence but must apply for the exchange at IMT.
• After 90 days and up to two years: you can still apply, but you can no longer drive on the foreign licence.
• After two years: you can no longer drive on it, and to get a Portuguese licence you must take and pass the practical driving test.

India is on the list

IMT’s list of convention countries, based on the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Vienna Convention of 1968, names India. An Indian licence therefore falls under the exchange rule, with no theory or driving test, and the exchange costs €30 (10% off if you apply online).

How the exchange works

1. Get the medical certificate from your own doctor; it goes to IMT through the electronic platform and you need not send a copy.
2. Log in to the A Minha Carta de Condução portal and fill in the form.
3. Attach the identification document, the residence permit, a certificate of tax domicile if the address is not on the permit, your licence and, for categories C, D or E, a psychological assessment certificate. IMT also asks for a certificate of authenticity issued by the issuing authority or the consular service, listing the categories obtained by test. Ask in India which office issues it and allow time.
4. After the request, wait for IMT to call you to a counter, where you hand in the licence and your photograph and signature are taken.

For a licence from a non-convention country

A licence from a country not on the lists is not valid for driving in Portugal. The holder can ask to exchange it, but must pass a multimedia theory test and a practical test, at €30 each, for every category.

What to do now

Date the two years from the day the permit is issued, not the day you arrive, and write it down. Start the certificate of authenticity in India early.

The temples page for Portugal lists every confirmed place with its address and hours: the Templo Radha Krishna, the BAPS mandir on Avenida Almirante Gago Coutinho, ISKCON in Lisbon and Porto, the Shiv Mandir in Santo António dos Cavaleiros and the gurdwaras in Odivelas, Porto and Albufeira.

The Templo Radha Krishna and the Comunidade Hindu de Portugal

The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal is at Alameda Mahatma Gandhi, 1600-500 Lisbon (Lumiar). Its Templo Radha Krishna was inaugurated in November 1998 by President Jorge Sampaio, with the installation of the deities led by Shree Rameshbhai Oza. On the community’s website the temple has daily programmes from 08:00 to 10:30 and from 18:00 to 20:30, with the aarti at 08:30 to 09:00 and 19:30 to 20:00; guided visits for groups are booked by email to the secretariat. The secretariat is open Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. The community runs a vegetarian Cantina Indiana serving Gujarati dishes every day except Monday (meals 12:00 to 14:30 and 19:00 to 21:30), with food to take away and cooking workshops. Check the website for times: its footer is dated 2024.

What else the Comunidade does

It offers lessons in Indian dance, classical music, yoga, Indian languages and cooking, Gujarati classes and Portuguese classes for migrants, a women’s group (Radharani, over 200 members), sports and a youth committee, food and clothing collections for the Lumiar parish, a blood-donor drive and help to migrants with the legal formalities. It calls the temple a place open to everyone. It sells tickets for its shows and Navratri “Dairo” evenings at the secretariat and the Cantina.

The Sikh temple in Odivelas

The Sikh temple for the Lisbon area is on Rua José Duarte Lexim in Odivelas, according to Correio da Manhã (8 June 2025), and the Embassy of India names the “Odivelas Gurudwara” in its statement of 9 October 2026. We did not find the temple’s own page, so we do not give its name or hours: telephone or ask the community. Wikipedia lists a “Gurdwara Sikh Sangat Sahib” in Lisbon, which may or may not be the Odivelas temple; we found nothing that says. Wikipedia lists a gurdwara at Albufeira (Sri Guru Teg Bahadur) and one at Porto (Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji), which we could not confirm from their own pages. The langar, the community kitchen, is open to everyone at a gurdwara; ask what to wear on the head and how to sit before you go.

The Ismaili Centre

The Ismaili Centre, Lisbon, on Avenida Lusíada in the Palma de Baixo and Laranjeiras area, was opened on 11 July 1998 by President Sampaio and the Aga Khan, after a competition won by the Indian architect Raj Rewal, who later worked with the Portuguese architect Frederico Valsassina. Check the centre’s website for visiting arrangements.

Casa de Goa

The Goan community’s house in Lisbon is Casa de Goa, founded in 1987, with premises off the Calçada do Livramento, according to a Herald Goa article and an academic study of the association. It hosts events for Goans and “friends of Goa”. We could not open its own site, so confirm the address and what is on.

Groceries and restaurants

The Centro Comercial da Mouraria, at Rua Senhora da Saúde 2, is the established Indian-grocery cluster; see where Indians live for the two shops Time Out lists and the caveat. We left restaurants out because we could not confirm any single one from a source dated this year. The Comunidade Hindu’s Cantina Indiana is the one place whose current hours the organiser publishes.

Diwali

Diwali (Dipavali) falls on Sunday 8 November 2026. Portugal’s calendar of public holidays does not include it, and 8 November is in any case a Sunday this year, so the celebrations are held on the weekends around it. The Diwali in Portugal page has the dates, the rules and the Lisbon programme, and the Diwali page explains the five days and the festival’s customs; the events that organisers in Portugal publish are on the Portugal events page.

The Comunidade Hindu’s Diwali Show

The one dated event we can name comes from the organiser. The Comunidade Hindu de Portugal lists Diwali Show 2026 on 29 November 2026, from 17:00 to 20:30, at the Aula Magna of the Reitoria of the University of Lisbon (Alameda da Universidade), with tickets from €12.50 to €30.00. The community describes it as a dance show for the whole family, with more than 25 editions, built from dance performances prepared by members of the community in groups, with professional dancers taking part. It falls three weeks after Diwali itself. Buy tickets only from the community’s own channels.

Other events in the temple calendar

The community’s temple agenda for Shravan (the sacred month of Shiva, in August and September) is announced on its website, and it holds Navratri evenings with a traditional “Dairo” (songs, bhajans, storytelling and humour). Navratri 2026 ran from 11 to 19 October, so it has passed; the dates for 2027 should come from the community. The community also hosts Christmas and Carnival events with the Lumiar parish and the city’s events company, and a summer school for children.

Sikh and Goan festivals

We did not find a published 2026 programme for Vaisakhi or for a nagar kirtan in Portugal, and the Embassy’s event listings we opened did not carry one. Any date for a Sikh or Goan festival should come from the gurdwara committee or from Casa de Goa.

Embassy events

The Embassy of India, Lisbon, has organised cultural events for the 50 years of relations; its site describes an Indian film festival in Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We did not find an Embassy Diwali event, so check its upcoming-events page.

Is Diwali a day off?

No. It is a working day for most people in Portugal and no law gives employees the day off. Ask for annual leave or a swap of shifts, and tell the employer early.

The work

The Embassy says that more recently people from Punjab and Haryana have moved into agriculture, construction and hospitality. AIMA’s municipal table shows the farming municipalities of Odemira and Beja with foreign populations that are 74% and 78% men (see where Indians live). The reports and trials below name India among the countries of the workers involved; they do not say how many were Indian.

What the reports say

The Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking group GRETA published its report on Portugal on 4 June 2026. According to Lusa, as Observador reported it, the report covers 2021 to 2024 and counts 690 alleged victims, 250 of them confirmed (228 foreign nationals and 20 Portuguese, with two unrecorded), of which 233 cases were labour exploitation, mainly migrant workers recruited in their home countries in severe hardship and exploited in seasonal agriculture. Most cases were in the district of Beja, followed by Braga.

The Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) reports, from the 2025 data of the national trafficking observatory, 307 records of presumed victims, of which 125 of 191 analysed (65%) were labour exploitation. Beja was, with Faro and Setúbal, among the three districts with most records, and labour exploitation there is particularly linked to agriculture. Among presumed victims of labour exploitation, mostly adult foreign men, the nationalities that stand out are Brazilian, Indian and Timorese.

The trials

Police raids in the Alentejo in November 2023, reported by Reuters on 21 November 2023, detained 28 people after 78 searches and identified dozens of victims; the suspects were accused of luring migrants from countries that included Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, India, Senegal and Pakistan with promises of farm work, then exploiting them. Separately, a trial opened in Beja on 15 December 2025 with 35 official suspects, 22 individuals and 13 companies; on 11 February 2026 the prosecution asked for convictions, Lusa reported. The alleged victims came from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, India, Senegal, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Pakistan, and the charges include trafficking, criminal association, aiding illegal immigration and money laundering. We did not find the verdict. These are accusations in a trial, not findings.

What the law offers a worker

• A permit for victims of labour offences (article 122(1)(m)): AIMA’s page covers people who are victims of a criminal or administrative offence in an employment relationship involving lack of social protection, wage and hours exploitation or particularly abusive conditions. The papers include a copy of the complaint and a statement from the labour inspectorate, ACT, or from a judicial authority that the person is cooperating and that there is evidence of the offences, and a statement from ACT that the situation exists.
• A permit for victims of trafficking or of aiding illegal immigration (article 109): granted even if the person entered illegally, valid for one year, and a basis for a later temporary permit; the procedure starts after the authorities investigating the case tell AIMA.
• The courts: Law 61/2025 says challenges to AIMA go to the administrative courts (see AIMA and backlogs).

What a worker can do

These are practical steps, not legal advice: - Ask for a written contract before the first day, in a language you read, and keep a copy. Keep payslips, bank transfers, photographs of the housing and a note of the hours worked. - Do not give your passport or permit to an employer, an agency or a landlord. A photocopy is enough. - Do not pay a fee for a job. The Embassy of India warns of job and work-visa offers sold for money, and the visa fee is €110, paid to the state. - APAV, the victim-support association, has the helpline 116 006. The Embassy of India’s emergency line is +351 911 991 939 for medical emergencies, death or a lost passport. The ACT complaints form is on the labour inspectorate’s portal. A union, a CLAIM centre or the Comunidade Hindu’s migrant-support service can say which office to go to. - Call 112 for an injury or a danger to life. - Take legal advice before you report an employer or sign anything, because the permits above depend on cooperation with the authorities.

Newcomers are usually pointed to a WhatsApp group first, whether it is run by a temple, a gurdwara, a town, a university or a language community. The groups are one way the community organises itself, and this guide does not pretend otherwise.

What the groups are good at, and what they are not

They are fast: ask at nine in the evening which AIMA store has a free slot, or which bank opened an account without a fee, and someone may answer before ten. But the link often needs an introduction, the links that circulate go stale, most groups show your phone number to every member, and the answers scroll away. Groups are also where scams circulate: the “agent” who sells an AIMA slot, the “landlord” abroad who wants a deposit, the recruiter who needs a fee for a job. A work contract, a permit or an injury is not a question for a group of strangers; take those to a union, a lawyer or the Embassy.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have local groups (moderated and tied to a place), events near you, a directory of Indian businesses and Ask, where members answer questions. You can post under your name or anonymously, which matters if you want to ask about an employer. The Portugal groups are at /groups/in/portugal, the Portugal events page lists the events that organisers publish, and the Portugal directory lists Indian businesses, from grocers to translators.

Your first week, in practice

1. Open the Portugal groups and join the general one and the one nearest your town. Read before you post: the paperwork answers are usually there.
2. Go to one event, temple or gurdwara visit in your first fortnight. It is the quickest way from “the Indian community in Portugal” as a phrase to three people whose names you know.
3. Ask the question you actually have, and say which municipality you are in and which permit or visa you hold: the AIMA store, the doctor and the rent depend on it.
4. When you have found your flat, your doctor and your grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person.

The Embassy

The Embassy of India is at Rua Pero da Covilhã 16, Restelo, 1400-297 Lisbon. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30 (lunch 13:00 to 13:30), and the consular section is open from 09:30 to 12:00. Its telephone line for visa, passport, OCI and other consular queries, +351 213 041 104, is answered only between 14:30 and 17:00 on working days. For a medical emergency, a death or a lost passport the Embassy gives +351 911 991 939. It has no consulates in Portugal that we found.

Passports

The application form is filled in online on the Government of India’s passport portal and printed. The Embassy takes passport applications by appointment, booked on its web service, Monday to Friday except Wednesday, between 09:30 and 12:00; the usual time for a reissue is about 45 days, longer for a lost passport. The Embassy’s pages name no outside agency for passports, visas or OCI that we could find: applications are made at the Embassy. Birth registration of a child of Indian parents should be done within a year. A person without a Portuguese residence card gets a five-year passport at the same fee.

OCI

OCI applications are accepted on Wednesdays only, 09:30 to 12:00, with a prior appointment booked on a free form. A foreign (non-Portuguese) applicant must have lived in the Embassy’s jurisdiction for at least a year, and foreign documents must carry an apostille. The physical OCI booklet has been discontinued, so the card is the e-OCI downloaded from the OCI portal, and biometrics are valid for five years. A former Indian citizen who has become Portuguese needs the surrender certificate first (see the Goa section).

Miscellaneous services

From 15 August 2026 the Embassy takes applications for miscellaneous consular services, such as a power-of-attorney attestation, an affidavit or a child-passport affidavit, online only on the e-SEWA portal; e-SEWA does not cover visa, passport or OCI. Fees run from €10 for an affidavit attestation to €46 for a commercial document, each plus €2 for the welfare fund and €4 postage. Police clearance certificates are accepted by post only. The Embassy says it also holds periodic consular camps with the community; we did not find a date for a camp in 2026.

Registering

The Embassy asks Indian nationals to register on its registration page, and Indian students to use the MADAD portal.

Scams

The Embassy’s advisory warns of job offers and work-visa services sold by supposed Portuguese firms for money, and of callers pretending to be Embassy officers. Do not pay or share personal data without checking, and check any caller who says he is from the Embassy by ringing the Embassy’s published number.

Hostility and safety

Two incidents at the same temple are on record. On Sunday 8 June 2025 Portuguese police detained the 25-year-old leader of the far-right “Reconquista” movement on Rua José Duarte Lexim in Odivelas, where the Sikh temple is, during a demonstration that police regarded as inciting hatred against the Sikh community; he was held for disobedience and released the same afternoon, Correio da Manhã reported. The Embassy’s statement of June 2025 referred, according to an excerpt we saw, to an incident at the Odivelas Gurudwara on 8 June 2025 (its page no longer opens for us). On 9 October 2026 the Embassy said it had been informed of “targeted vilification and discrimination” against people of Indian origin that led to an altercation at the Odivelas Gurudwara on 4 October 2026, and thanked the Portuguese authorities for their support. We found no police or press account of the 4 October event, so we can say no more than the Embassy’s words. If you meet abuse, report it to the police (112 in an emergency) and tell the Embassy.

Other help lines

• 112 for police, ambulance and fire.
• SNS 24, 808 24 24 24, for health advice and referral.
• APAV, 116 006, for victims of crime.
• The Embassy: +351 911 991 939 for an emergency involving a death, a lost passport or a medical emergency.

Open points on this page

We could not open the Segurança Social’s NISS page, the IRN or Goa consulate’s nationality pages, INE’s own rent release, the text of the 2017 tax-treaty protocol or any 2026 AIMA waiting-time table. If something here has gone out of date, tell us through the report link at the end of the page.