# Portugal's New 2-Year Rule Delays Family Reunification Visas > Sponsors in Portugal must now prove two years' legal residence (or 15 months for cohabiting couples) before reuniting with spouses and children. - Source: https://www.growinportugal.com/news/new-2-year-residency-rule-for-family-reunification-splits-im-2026-10-05 - Publisher: GrowIN Portugal (https://www.growinportugal.com) - Published: 2026-10-05 - Last reviewed: 2026-10-05 - Language: en > **Key figures — as of 2026-10-05:** Two years of legal residence required before most sponsors can apply for family reunification — down to **15 months** for couples who cohabited at least 18 months before the sponsor moved to Portugal — exemptions apply for minor/dependent children, highly qualified (D3) workers and Golden Visa holders — AIMA has up to **9 months** to decide, extendable once for complex cases. ## The rule that's keeping families apart Portugal's reformed immigration law has made one thing brutally clear to recent arrivals: bringing a spouse or child to live with you is no longer automatic once you hold a residence permit. Under the amended Article 98 of the Immigration Law, the right to family reunification is now granted to immediate relatives of a foreign national who has held a valid residence permit for at least two years. The change took effect with Portugal's new Lei dos Estrangeiros, and it applies regardless of whether the couple formed their relationship before or after the sponsor's arrival. For couples who were already together before one partner relocated, there's a partial reprieve. For a spouse or equivalent who cohabited with the permit holder for at least 18 months immediately before the holder's entry into Portugal, the waiting period is reduced to 15 months. Everyone else — spouses who met or married after the sponsor arrived, adult dependent children, parents — falls under the full two-year default. ## Who's exempt, and who isn't The exemptions are narrower than many applicants assume. The two-year requirement does not apply to minor or incapacitated children, nor to a spouse or equivalent who is, together with the permit holder, the parent or adoptive parent of a dependent minor or incapacitated person. Highly qualified workers and Golden Visa investors are also carved out of the general rule. But a childless couple on a D7 or D8 visa — arguably the most common profile among GrowIN's readers — gets no such shortcut. Even once the waiting period is satisfied, the clock doesn't stop. AIMA must decide the application within nine months, extendable once for an equal period in exceptional cases involving complexity. That means a straightforward case can still take the better part of a year to process after eligibility kicks in. ## GrowIN's calculation: the real separation timeline Here's the number that matters more than the headline two years: stack the residency requirement on top of AIMA's processing window, and a childless couple applying under the standard rule could face **up to roughly 2 years and 9 months of physical separation** from the date the sponsor's permit was issued to the date a spouse can legally join them — and up to **3.5 years** if AIMA invokes the complexity extension. Even in the "fast track" cohabitation case, 15 months of residency plus a 9-month decision period adds up to a **minimum two-year separation** before reunion, not the 15 months the headline exception implies. Families planning a move to Portugal need to budget for the processing tail, not just the residency floor. "The fifteen-month exception sounds generous until you add AIMA's own clock — most cohabiting couples are still looking at two years apart in practice," says GrowIN Portugal Editorial. ## Why this is landing hard now The law, which overhauled the 2007 immigration framework, came with a backlog problem attached. With around 133,000 lawsuits filed against AIMA and rising for over a year, the government wants to stem this flood of cases, caused by the agency's own acknowledged administrative inefficiency. Family reunification files are processed inside that same overloaded system, which means the statutory nine-month ceiling is a best-case scenario rather than a guarantee. Transitional arrangements exist for people who applied in the gap between the law's publication and its full regulation, but they don't change the underlying math for anyone applying fresh today. Sponsors on D7 or D8 visas who assumed they could bring a partner over within months of landing are now recalculating household budgets, schooling plans and, in some cases, whether to maintain two residences in two countries. ## What to watch next AIMA has signalled it will clarify documentary requirements — proof of cohabitation, housing adequacy, income thresholds — through further guidance, so the practical experience of filing may still shift in the coming months. Anyone currently weighing a D7, D8 or Golden Visa route with a family in mind should model the full residency-plus-processing timeline before committing, not just the headline eligibility date. Readers planning a move with dependants should start with our visas hub and talk to a licensed immigration lawyer before filing, since exemption eligibility is assessed case by case and outcomes are never guaranteed. GrowIN Portugal will continue tracking AIMA's implementation guidance as it's published. ## Sources - [RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)](https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/pais/lei-dos-estrangeiros-o-que-determina-o-diploma-promulgado-por-belem_n1691562) - [Diário de Notícias](https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/nova-lei-dos-estrangeiros-promulgada-o-que-muda) - [Cuatrecasas (legal analysis)](https://www.cuatrecasas.com/pt/portugal/laboral-1/art/alteracoes-lei-estrangeiros) - [AIMA — Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum](https://aima.gov.pt) --- © GrowIN Portugal. Cite as: GrowIN Portugal, "Portugal's New 2-Year Rule Delays Family Reunification Visas", https://www.growinportugal.com/news/new-2-year-residency-rule-for-family-reunification-splits-im-2026-10-05