How to fill out an application for a residence permit for a startup in Portugal

The application for consideration of a startup project is submitted electronically on a special portal.

Portal authorization window

Registration on the portal

By default, the portal loads with the Portuguese interface. Before all actions you can switch to English language for better understanding (right top corner). Click the register here link. A 7 field form will open. Enter on the form:

Passport number;
Select the country of your citizenship;
Your passport name;
Your phone number in international format;
Your contact email;
Password (minimum 9 characters with capital and small letters and numbers).

Account registration page

Activate your account through a letter in the mail and log in.

The page that loads after logging in. Nothing interesting, general information, immediately press the orange Access button on the top right

The most important page with information about the application. Date of submission, number, current status, applications to incubators. To access the application, click on the link in the application number field. The Access link in the Monitoring box displays the detailed status of the application. If there is no application yet, this page will have blank data.

The application itself consists of five pages. Each page has a different informational purpose.

The first is basic and brief information about the project.
The second is information about each project participant.
The third is applications to incubators.
The fourth is a detailed description of the project.
Fifth is optional for existing businesses.

The first two pages are basic information about the project and participants (let's call it the first part of the application). You need to fill it out in order to move on to the second part - communication with incubators. And once you have received approval from at least one incubator, you can fill out the second part of the form and send it in for review.

Filling out the first part of the application

First page: Identification of the entrepreneurial project

The first page contains fields with the number (Nr), the status of the application (Status), the date (Date). Below you will find the fields you need to fill out:

Designation of the Project.
Typology of the project.
Business areas.
Brief description of the project (no more than 2500 characters).
Expression of interest in developing an entrepreneurial and/ or innovative project in Portugal, through a Letter of Motivation duly dated and signed by all entrepreneurs.

First page of the application: Identification of the entrepreneurial project

We recommend that you press the SAVE button after each change. The questionnaire does not save data and it can get lost if you switch between pages or open a link.

Second page: Identification of the entrepreneurs

On this page we fill in information about each participant in the project. The first participant is marked as the leader. The page with two participants already filled in looks like this:

Second page with the list of participants. Personal information is hidden.

The project participant data form is quite simple, the fields are intuitive. But some fields require explanation.

Name.
E-mail.
Phone number.
Gender.
Nationality.
Country of permanent residence.
Date of birth (dd-mm-yyyyy).
Training area.
Qualification degree.
Passport Nr.
Passport expiration date (dd-mm-yyyyy).
Is your tax situation regularized?
Add declaration of tax obligations fulfilled
Do you have criminal record?
Add certificate or criminal record from the judicial services of the country of origin
Do you own financial resources and subsistence means equivalent to 12 times the International Accounting Standard (IAS)?
Add curriculum vitae
Add Qualification Degree certificate.
Background/ Experience of the entrepreneur and justification of its importance to the project.

Member profile page

Approval by incubators

The entire application is available to fill out right away. But you cannot send it for consideration without approval by at least one incubator. This is done on the third page of the application. There you will find a list of all the incubators in the country that are authorized to consider projects for IAPMEI. The list could be filtered by region and business area. And send applications to incubators.

On the right side of the main application window you can see the statistics of the interaction with the incubators. Pending - how many applications to incubators are pending. Interested - how many incubators have agreed to support your project. Not interested - how many projects are not interested in your project. The number of Not interested can be 2-3 times the number of Interested, this is normal. Incubation contracts - is the number of contracts signed with incubator, this will be necessary to get the final declaration from IAPMEI for the application for residence permit.

Page 3 (Incubator's declarations to host your project) with a list of applications sent to incubators, with dates and application status notes

A pop-up window with a list of incubators, with business area and region filters

Filling out the second part of the application

The fourth page of the form, Characterization and presentation of the entrepreneurial project, raises the most questions. It has many fields and their purpose is not always clear. Let's describe each field and give recommendations.

Innovative nature of the project.
Justification of the internationalization business potential or potential for the export of goods and services.
Identification of the technology/ knowledge that supports the innovation of the product/service and demonstration of its associated potential.
Job creation potential (do not include entrepeneurs).
Justification of job creation potential.
Estimated turnover in fifth year expressed in euros (ex: 1,200.50 euros).
Estimated assets in 5th year expressed in euros (ex: 1.200,50 euros).
Justification of the estimated values.
Planning of the steps to carry out until the creation of the company during the period of 12 months.

The beginning of the fourth page, the most difficult part, which requires explanation

Surely there will be a temptation to write very much and in great detail. But not for nothing there is a limit of 2500 characters per field. Try to keep your thoughts as compact and simple as possible, just the most important things. IAPMEI staff review a lot of projects, they can't devote a lot of time to each one, and too complicated a description can discourage them from the project.

That's it, the form can be considered complete. Don't forget to press SAVE. And before sending the form (by pressing the SUBMIT button), be sure to check the data entered several times. Once sent, the application can no longer be edited.

If you're afraid of making a mistake, and you're willing to leave this work to experienced people - contact us, we will help you fully fill out the application. If necessary, we can fit you into an existing team with an already completed project. All questions can be asked on the form below.