Insurance for a Portuguese Visa: What Portugal Accepts
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Peter Gratale
CEO & Co-Founder - Citizen Remote
Last update
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Good news if you're applying for a Portuguese visa: Portugal asks for travel insurance, and a normal travel policy is what it wants. That sounds obvious until you look next door, where Spain rejects travel insurance outright for its residence visas and demands a policy from a Spanish-licensed insurer.
Two neighbours, opposite rules. Here's what Portugal actually requires, and what changes once you land.
What the consulate asks for
The Portuguese embassy checklist for residence visas, the D7 and the D8 digital nomad visa included, lists:
"Valid travel insurance, covering necessary medical expenses, including urgent medical assistance and possible repatriation."
Three things follow from that wording.
It says travel insurance. Not a Portuguese health policy, not a local insurer. The international plan you'd buy for a long trip is the right category.
Three things have to be covered: medical expenses, urgent medical assistance, and repatriation. If your policy excludes repatriation, it doesn't meet the checklist.
No minimum amount is stated on the residence visa checklist. The €30,000 figure you'll see everywhere comes from the Schengen rules for short-stay visas. It's a sensible floor rather than a published requirement for a D7 or D8, and most consulates accept policies at that level or above.
Citizens of CPLP countries, the Portuguese-speaking community that includes Brazil, are exempt from presenting travel insurance under the mobility agreement.
Cover it for the right period
The residence visa itself is valid for four months, long enough to get you into Portugal and to your AIMA appointment. Consulates generally want the insurance to cover that window at a minimum, and many want it to run the full first year.
Buy the longer period. It's cheap next to the cost of a refused file, and you'll want cover during the gap before your residency is sorted anyway.
Customizable insurance plans!Get tailored coverage that is most important to you!
What happens after you arrive
This is the part worth planning for, and it's where Portugal is genuinely generous.
Once you hold a residence permit you can register with the SNS, Portugal's national health service, and use it on the same terms as a Portuguese citizen. Access follows legal residence, not nationality.
You register at your local health centre, the centro de saúde, and ask for a número de utente. Take your residence permit or title, your NIF, and proof of your address. Some health centres will register you on an AIMA appointment confirmation while your permit is still in process. That varies by centre, and by the person at the desk.
The catch is timing. AIMA has been badly backlogged since it replaced SEF in 2023, so the gap between landing and holding a permit can run long. Keep private cover through that gap rather than assuming the SNS will pick you up on arrival.
If you're only visiting
For stays under 90 days, nobody makes you buy insurance. Americans, Brits, Canadians and Australians don't need a visa to visit Portugal at all.
If your nationality does need a Schengen visa, the rule is the familiar one: €30,000 of medical cover, valid across the Schengen area, including emergency treatment and repatriation.
EU citizens travelling can use a European Health Insurance Card, and Brits a UK GHIC, for state healthcare during a temporary stay. Neither card is a substitute for the insurance a residence visa asks for. If you're a UK state pensioner moving to Portugal permanently, ask about the S1 form, which moves your healthcare cover across and removes the private policy question entirely.
What to buy
For the visa file, you want a policy that:
Is described as travel or international medical insurance
Covers medical expenses, urgent medical assistance and repatriation, in those words if possible
Runs for the whole period you're asking the consulate to cover
Comes with a certificate naming you, in English or Portuguese
That's a lower bar than Spain's, and it means the plan you'd buy for the trip generally doubles as the plan for the paperwork. You can compare nomad insurance plans here.
One habit worth keeping after you get your número de utente: the SNS covers treatment, not the rest of your life abroad. Lost laptops, cancelled flights and cover while you're out of the country are still travel insurance territory.
Customizable insurance plans!Get tailored coverage that is most important to you!
Author
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Since the inception of remote work visas, I've been captivated by this new space. Remote workers now have the freedom to live where they want, not where they work. Citizen Remote is building a "one-stop-shop" app that allows users to get help with visas, insurance, accommodation, community, and much more. 10+ years experience in marketing, product, and entrepreneurship. I've had the honor to work with many high-growth SaaS companies around the world and am passionate around building products users love.
