Can I work while I wait for my residence card?

Short answer: it depends on where you are in the process. A work visa or a valid residence title lets you work; while a renewal is in progress you keep working with the expired card plus AIMA's receipt; and since 11 September 2026 changing employer only needs a notice to AIMA.

Before your first card

If you entered on a residence visa, what matters is the purpose it was issued for. A visa issued for employment is itself a legal basis to work: the ACT lists "a work visa or a residence permit" as what a foreign worker needs, and your employment contract must refer to it. Visas granted for another purpose — passive income, remote work, study — were not issued for a local job, so check what yours covers before you sign a Portuguese contract.

The residence visa is valid for four months and two entries; within that time you apply for the residence permit at AIMA. The old shortcut — arriving without a work visa, starting to work and regularising later through a manifestação de interesse — was revoked on 3 June 2024; only procedures started before that date continue under the old rules. The general job-seeker visa was also replaced by Lei 61/2025 with a job-seeker visa for highly qualified work, which allows that work until the visa ends or the permit is granted. When the law changed, applications could only be filed once the implementing regulation was published — check the consulate's page for the current status.

While your card is being renewed

An expired card does not take away your right to work. Once you register the renewal and pay the fees, AIMA issues a receipt. By law (Lei 23/2007, art. 78 n.º 7) it has the same effect as your card for 60 days, renewable; AIMA says the receipts it issues are valid for 180 days (AIMA notice of 15 October 2025), so check the date on yours. Carry it together with the expired card: under Decreto Regulamentar 84/2007 the right of residence does not lapse before six months have passed after the card's expiry. Two limits: automatic extensions for cards that were never renewed ended on 15 October 2025, and the expired card with the receipt is valid inside Portugal only — not for travel to other European countries. Full detail: AIMA in 2026: renewals and your rights while you wait.

Changing jobs

Lei 62/2026, in force since 11 September 2026, lets a permit holder change employer — or, if self-employed, change the nature of the activity — through a simple communication to AIMA, without a new residence permit. The new employer still needs a written contract that refers to your permit.

What your employer has to do

• A written contract in two copies — one is yours — that refers to your work visa or residence permit.
• Report your hiring and the end of the contract to Segurança Social through Segurança Social Direta.
• Treat you like any other employee: a foreign worker authorised to work has the same rights and duties as a Portuguese one.

You also need a NISS; if you are regularising at AIMA, since late July 2026 it is assigned automatically during the appointment — see how to get your NISS.