Portugal’s employment agency is offering financial support to eligible people who move their habitual residence to designated interior areas of the country for work.
The Emprego Interior MAIS scheme, run by the Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP), is aimed at people starting a job, transferring an existing professional activity, setting up a business or working remotely from Portugal’s interior.
Who can qualify for Portugal’s relocation grant?
The measure is open to employees, self-employed workers and people registered as unemployed or looking for work with IEFP or an employment service in one of Portugal’s autonomous regions.
IEFP also lists the following as potential applicants:
- Citizens of EU countries, Switzerland and the European Economic Area;
- Third-country nationals who are legally resident in Portugal, including people with temporary protection;
- Portuguese emigrants who left Portugal after 31 December 2015 and lived outside the country for at least one year;
- Foreign workers who work remotely for organisations headquartered outside Portugal.
According to IEFP, people can apply with or without Social Security contributions in the month before the application, the start of an employment contract or the creation of their business, where applicable.
How much support is available?
The level of financial support depends on the applicant’s employment arrangement.
People with a new or existing open-ended employment contract can receive €3,759.91, equivalent to seven times Portugal’s 2026 social support index. The same amount is available in cases involving the creation of self-employment or a company when the workplace is moved to an interior area.
A lower base amount of €2,685.65 is available for fixed-term or uncertain-term employment contracts lasting at least 12 months, as well as grant contracts of at least the same duration.
The base payment rises by 20% for every household member who moves with the applicant. There is also a separate payment of €805.70 to cover the transport of belongings to the new home.
What kind of move is required?
The programme is linked to a move to an eligible interior municipality or parish, alongside a qualifying work arrangement.
The move must be permanent for at least 12 months. It can be linked to a new job, the transfer of an existing workplace, the creation of self-employment or a company, or remote work carried out from an interior area.
For people beginning a new job or launching self-employment, the residence move must generally take place within 180 days before or after the employment contract begins or the business activity is created.
Employment contracts must start after 1 January 2020, pay at least Portugal’s national minimum wage and have a workplace in an interior territory. IEFP lists open-ended contracts, fixed-term and uncertain-term contracts lasting at least 12 months, and grant contracts of at least 12 months among the accepted arrangements.
Support for businesses and self-employment
The scheme can also apply to people creating their own work or setting up a business in the interior.
IEFP lists self-employment, private for-profit entities, cooperatives, and the purchase or expansion of a stake in an existing company through a capital increase as eligible routes.
Applicants must create at least their own full-time job. In the case of a for-profit company, they must hold more than 50% of the share capital and voting rights.
Existing workers transferring to the interior
People already in work may qualify if they move their workplace to Portugal’s interior and change residence.
The workplace transfer must have happened after 1 January 2022, while the home move must take place within 180 days before or after that transfer. The new residence must be in an interior municipality or parish, and the move must last at least 12 months.
For fixed-term workers, the remaining contract period must be long enough to allow them to live in the interior for at least 12 months.
What are the rules for foreign digital nomads?
IEFP specifically includes foreign remote workers who provide services to entities headquartered outside Portugal.
To qualify, they must be legally resident in Portugal and hold a valid visa or residence permit. They must establish or move their home to an interior municipality or parish, while their remote professional activity must have begun after 1 January 2022.
Their monthly salary must be at least Portugal’s national minimum wage.
How to apply
Applications are submitted through the form available on the iefponline portal.
Applicants may need to provide employment, grant or telework documents; evidence of self-employment or company creation; proof of the residence move; and documents relating to workplace transfers where relevant.
IEFP also requests confirmation that applicants have no debts to Portugal’s Tax Authority or Social Security system, or authorisation for the agency to check this information online. Applicants seeking the household increase must provide proof of their household, while returning emigrants may need a declaration from a Portuguese consulate.
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