What Changed on June 11-12
On June 11 and 12 2026, Portugal's parliament passed, at the in-principle votação na generalidade stage, a package of additional amendments to the Foreigners Law (Lei de Estrangeiros). The package cleared its first vote with the abstention of the right-wing Chega party, which was sufficient to carry it past the combined opposition of the left. The government's overarching objective, in its own words, is to shut the remaining routes that allow someone to obtain residence in Portugal without a visa obtained in advance in their country of origin.
One of the three measures in the package directly targets the study and training route. As the Portuguese daily PÚBLICO reported, the bill "altera ainda o regime de acesso à autorização de residência para estudo, exigindo-se a emissão de um visto consular prévio para esse efeito" (source, translated: it also alters the regime for access to a study residence permit, requiring the issuance of a prior consular visa for that purpose). In plain terms, the long-used path of entering Portugal on a tourist footing, enrolling in a professional or vocational course, and then requesting a residence permit from inside the country would be replaced by a requirement to hold a consular study visa before arriving. This sits alongside the end of tacit approval and the tightening of the parent-of-minor-child route in the same package.
The Route Being Closed: Enter, Enrol, Regularise
The pathway the government is closing has been one of the most widely used in-country regularisation mechanisms, particularly among Brazilian and other non-EU nationals. The pattern was straightforward: a person could enter Portugal lawfully on a short-stay or tourist basis, enrol in a vocational or professional training course (a curso profissionalizante) offered by a recognised institution, and then use that enrolment as the basis to apply for a study-purpose residence permit from inside the territory. It functioned as a bridge from visa-free or short-stay presence into a longer-term legal status without going back to a consulate.
This route has been under pressure for some time, and our earlier analysis of AIMA's shift on student and education-sector migration traced how the agency had already begun scrutinising course-based applications more closely. The June 11-12 amendment goes further by aiming to remove the in-country option altogether for this category, converting it into a consular-visa-first requirement. The government characterises the current route as a regularisation device rather than a genuine education pathway, and the reform is designed to force the qualifying decision back to the consulate stage, before the person ever travels to Portugal. The Diário de Notícias captured the framing in its headline that the government "apara lei com mais restrições a imigração sem visto" (source, translated: trims the law with more restrictions on immigration without a visa).
What a Consular Study Visa Requires Instead
If the amendment is enacted, the practical consequence is that the qualifying steps move abroad and forward in time. A consular study or residence visa is applied for at a Portuguese consulate in the applicant's country of residence, and it requires the supporting documentation to be assembled and approved before departure: proof of enrolment or acceptance at the institution, evidence of sufficient means of subsistence, accommodation, valid travel insurance, a clean criminal record certificate, and the other standard elements of a national visa application. The applicant then travels to Portugal on that visa and completes the residence-permit formalities with AIMA after arrival, on a footing that was authorised from the outset.
The difference is not merely procedural. Securing a consular visa first means the applicant must satisfy the requirements while still outside Portugal, with no ability to build up a presence in the country and regularise later. For people whose plan depended on being physically in Portugal — already renting, already studying, already working informally — that is a meaningful barrier, because consular processing takes time, can be refused, and does not permit the applicant to wait it out inside the country. Our complete student visa guide sets out the documentary requirements and the AIMA steps that follow arrival, and it becomes the relevant roadmap if the in-country course route closes.
Who Is Affected — and Who Is Not
The people most affected are prospective and current students who came, or planned to come, to Portugal without a study visa and intended to regularise through course enrolment from inside the country. In practice this is a large, predominantly Brazilian and non-EU working-age cohort for whom the course route was an accessible entry point into legal status. For them, the amendment removes a relatively forgiving pathway and replaces it with a front-loaded consular process that has to succeed before they can build a life in Portugal.
Equally, it is important to identify who is not the target. Consular-visa holders across the board — D8 remote workers, D7 retirees, Golden Visa investors, and anyone who already obtains a national visa abroad before arriving — are unaffected by this particular measure, because they were never using the in-country course route to begin with. The change is narrowly aimed at the conversion of tourist or short-stay presence into residence via course enrolment. As with the rest of the package, the unifying theme is the government's intent to require the relevant visa to be obtained in advance, abroad, rather than allowing presence in Portugal to be the springboard for a later application.
Pending Legislation, Not Yet Law
This is a proposal that has cleared its first parliamentary gate, not a rule in force. The June 11-12 vote was the votação na generalidade, the in-principle stage. The text now moves to the especialidade phase, where it is examined and potentially amended article by article, then to a final global vote, then to the President of the Republic for promulgation, and finally to publication in the Diário da República. Each of those stages can change the detail, including the precise scope of the study-route restriction and any carve-outs. Treating the headline as settled law would be a mistake.
The government has indicated it wants the package in force by the end of July 2026, which makes the timing tight but uncertain. As Posso te mostrar emphasised in summarising the package, none of it is yet in effect, and the next step is the especialidade discussion in which the text can still be altered (source). For someone weighing whether the course route is still open, the only authoritative answer is the final promulgated text in the official gazette. Until then, the current rules remain the live law, and a complete application lodged now is governed by them — subject to whatever transitional provisions the enacted version contains for cases already in progress.
What to Do If You Were Counting on This Route
If your plan to live in Portugal depended on entering and then regularising through a course, reassess it now rather than after the gazette publishes. The realistic alternatives are to pursue a consular study visa from your country of origin before travelling, or to qualify under a different visa category for which you are eligible. Both take preparation and time, so starting the consular documentation process early — enrolment proof, means, accommodation, insurance, criminal record certificate — protects you against the window closing while you are mid-decision. Do not travel to Portugal on a tourist basis assuming you can convert that into residence through a course; that assumption is exactly what the reform is designed to defeat.
If you are already enrolled and have a pending application under the current route, the decisive question is how the final law treats in-flight cases. Keep your file complete and current, record the date you submitted, and get specific advice on the transitional provisions as soon as the consolidated text appears. Our guide on when to hire an immigration lawyer in Portugal explains the situations where professional input is worth the cost, and a live legislative change to the route your status depends on is squarely one of them. The defensive posture is the same across the whole June package: understand precisely where you stand under the current rules, document everything, and avoid acting on a headline before the binding text is published.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still enter Portugal as a tourist, enrol in a course, and apply for residence?
At the time of writing the in-country course route still exists in practice, but it is exactly what the June 2026 Foreigners Law package proposes to close. If enacted, you would need a study residence visa from a Portuguese consulate in your country of origin before travelling. The change is not yet in force, so the current route may be available for a limited time — confirm the live position and any transitional rules with a lawyer before relying on it.
Does this affect university degree students or only vocational courses?
It is aimed mainly at the route using vocational and professional training (cursos profissionalizantes) for in-country regularisation. University students applying to recognised higher-education programmes were generally expected to obtain a study visa from a consulate anyway. The amendment makes the prior consular study visa the mandatory entry point for the course-based path too, removing the ability to convert a tourist entry plus course enrolment into a residence permit from inside Portugal.
Why is the government closing this route?
It frames the change as part of ending pathways that let a person already in Portugal, without a purpose-specific entry visa, obtain residence from inside the country. It treats course enrolment used this way as a regularisation device rather than a genuine study route, and requires the visa to be secured beforehand at a consulate. This matches the wider package, which also ends tacit approval and tightens the parent-of-minor route.
Is the course-route change already in force?
No. The package passed only the votação na generalidade — the first vote — on June 11-12 2026, carried by Chega's abstention. It still has to go through the especialidade article-by-article stage, a final vote, promulgation by the President, and publication in the Diário da República. The government wants it in force by the end of July 2026, but the final text and date should be verified in the official gazette before treating the rule as binding.
I am already enrolled in a course and waiting on AIMA — am I affected?
If you already applied under the current course route, your position depends heavily on the transitional provisions in the final law, which are not yet settled. Such laws often treat pending applications differently from new ones. Do not assume your application is automatically safe or automatically doomed — get specific advice on how the transitional rules treat in-flight cases, keep your file complete and current, and document the date you submitted relative to when any new rule takes effect.