Visa-ready plans from $721 per adult, billed annually · see your exact price by age.
The rule in writing
“Portugal’s national-visa documentation page requires valid insurance covering urgent medical care and possible repatriation. In practice, consulates and visa centres commonly apply the €30,000 Schengen standard (Schengen-wide validity, urgent care, hospitalisation, repatriation), and some US visa centres ask for a full year of validity — treat €30,000 as the practical bar, with the published national-visa rule as the floor.”
Official source: Portuguese MFA visa portal — national-visa documentation (vistos.mne.gov.pt); €30,000 = the MFA’s published Schengen-visa standard, commonly applied in practice — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“At the AIMA residence-permit appointment after arrival, travel-grade insurance is no longer enough: applicants show full health insurance valid in Portugal, or registration with the public SNS. Applicants consistently report this second stage catching them out.”
Based on: AIMA appointment guidance as documented by applicants and advisors (not a single government checklist — confirmed case-by-case) — Last verified:
The two insurance checks every Portugal mover faces
Most Portugal moves run through two separate insurance checks, and they are not the same requirement wearing two names.
- Consulate stage. Portugal's visa portal calls for insurance covering urgent medical care and possible repatriation. In practice, consulates commonly apply the €30,000 Schengen standard, and some US visa centres ask that the policy run a full year.
- AIMA residence-permit stage. Once you're inside Portugal applying for residency, travel-grade cover no longer clears the bar. AIMA wants to see full health insurance valid in Portugal, or proof of SNS registration.
The two-stage logic is explained end to end in our D7 insurance walkthrough, and route-specific detail lives on the D7 visa and D8 digital nomad pages. We're an introducer, not the insurer, so a specialist checks your certificate wording against the exact office you're filing with before you buy; nothing here is a guarantee of acceptance.
Choosing a cover level: how the ladder works
Every plan we arrange runs through one insurer across all eight destinations, so moving up or down the ladder is a matter of scope, not switching providers. The five tiers, low to high, are Essential, Major Medical, Standard, Comprehensive, and Fully Comprehensive, with annual limits ranging from US$1,000,000 to US$2,000,000 depending on the plan.
What moves people up the ladder is usually the AIMA-stage requirement for genuinely resident-grade cover, plus how much out-of-pocket exposure they're willing to carry. All five tiers share the same mechanics: same-day cover, no medical exam, and a 14-day cooling-off period. Children aged 0-17 sit on one flat rate per plan, whatever their age within that range.
The limits, stated plainly. Pre-existing conditions are excluded on every tier, treatment inside the United States is not covered, and new applicants are accepted up to age 70, except on Essential, which extends to 80. Comprehensive is the level most movers land on when they want AIMA-stage cover without stretching to the top tier, but a specialist reviews your situation before confirming which plan fits. Real prices by age are published on our Portugal cost page, and you can run your exact household through the price calculator.
Where every answer lives
This page is the map. Here's where to go for the detail behind each piece of it.
- By visa route: the D7 passive-income visa and the D8 digital-nomad visa each have their own insurance page, and the two-stage explainer walks through consulate versus AIMA in full.
- By price: real premiums by age sit on the Portugal cost page; for your exact household, the price calculator gives an exact figure.
- By system: how SNS fits around private cover, and when you can actually use it, is covered on the healthcare system page.
Ready to move from research to paperwork? Start a quote, run your current policy through the policy check, or work from the visa checklist to see what else the file needs.
Honest limits: Cover is worldwide but excludes treatment in the United States. Pre-existing conditions are excluded, including conditions you did not know about. We disclose this before you request a quote. Consulates keep discretion, and requirements can change. We show the published rule and its source; the final decision is the consulate’s.