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Portugal Listed as a Safe Destination for the UK
4 September 2020
The British government announced on 20th August 2020 that Portugal will be added to the air travel corridor list for the UK, which means that visitors from the country will not have to quarantine upon their return to the UK. This positive news was already confirmed by the UK Secretary of State and Transport, Grant Schapps, who revealed on Twitter “Data also shows we can now add Portugal to those countries INCLUDED in Travel Corridors (…)” and by the British Embassy in Lisbon: “UK travel advice restrictions to mainland Portugal have been removed with immediate effect. The British Embassy wishes to thank the Portuguese authorities for their constructive cooperation in recent weeks, including regularly providing updated figures on the evolution of the virus in Portugal”.
This decision follows a review of the recent data from the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Center and entered into force at 4 am on 22nd August 2020. Portugal is now part of the small group of countries that were added to the corridor list for the UK since July, which includes Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the archipelago of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Brunei, and Malaysia. Besides Portugal, the UK air travel corridor also includes Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Cyprus.
Other countries, such as Croatia, Austria and the Island of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, will be removed from the list due to the growing number of infections.
In a statement, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs explains that “this decision is very important in the sense that it will allow to restore the usual mobility of people between Portugal and the UK, whatever the reason for the travels may be: tourism, work, family motives, study, educational exchange programmes, among others”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs adds that this decision is the “(…) acknowledgment of the positive evolution of the Portuguese situation, namely the ability of testing on a large scale, detecting the positive cases, controlling their transmission and treating them in the most adequate form. It also emphasizes the ability from our National Health Service, that never ceased to assure regular monitoring of the people infected with COVID-19”. According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Portugal has been registering a decrease in the number of infections, having recorded 27.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks.
The Portuguese National Confederation of Tourism considered this to be a “very positive” decision: “It is obviously good news for the Tourism, since the UK is our main outbound market. However, it comes rather late (…)”.
Despite last week rise in coronavirus cases, Portuguese government is confident the situation is under control. For now, United Kingdom, with the exception of Wales and Scotland, will keep the travel corridor list unchanged.
On Friday, 14 February 2025, Law No. 9/2025 came into effect, introducing amendments to Law No. 23/2007 of 4 July, which governs the legal framework for the entry, stay, exit, and removal of foreign nationals from Portugal. For context, Law No. 9/2025 introduced amendments to seven articles, aiming to facilitate and simplify the entry and stay of citizens from the Member States of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) in Portugal. The CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries – Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) is an international organisation comprising countries where Portuguese is an official language. Its primary objectives are to promote cooperation in political, economic, and cultural areas among its member states while fostering the Portuguese language and cultural exchange. Among the amendments, Article 75, paragraph 2 is particularly noteworthy. It states: When the applicant is covered by the CPLP Agreement and holds a short-stay visa or has legal entry into the national territory, they may apply for a temporary residence permit. In practical terms, this means that citizens who enter Portugal legally can apply for a temporary residence permit without the need for a visa. They simply need to enter the country as tourists, as is the case for citizens of CPLP member states. Tourist stays are limited to a maximum period of 90 days. Citizens from countries that are not members of the CPLP can still apply for a temporary residence permit; however, they must first obtain the appropriate visa . Temporary stay visas are intended for individuals planning to stay in Portugal for more than 90 days but less than one year. Various types of temporary stay visas are available to accommodate different purposes, such as medical treatment, family reunification, employment, study, and seasonal work. These visas are formally classified as E1 Visa, E2 Visa, and so forth. The member states of the CPLP include: The Republic of Angola The Federative Republic of Brazil The Republic of Cape Verde The Republic of Guinea-Bissau The Republic of Equatorial Guinea The Republic of Mozambique The Portuguese Republic The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
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