Who can file here from 31 August 2026
Citizens of Portugal and anyone holding legal residence in Portugal. Without it you cannot file, and the fee for such a filing is not refunded — the post has said so since 2022. The proof is a residence card, the título de residência, or an EU citizen’s registration certificate. Temporary protection does not count as residence. You have to be in Portugal: Portuguese nationals in Thailand or in another country cannot file, they have to come back first.
What Lisbon will count as “permanent residence” under the new rule the post has not announced: its page says “legal”, while since 31 August the e-Visa form asks for “permanent”. Whether the post will accept a temporary autorização de residência or an EU citizen’s certificate will show in the first decisions; there are no cases yet from after 31 August.
A page from 2022, with no DTV on it
The embassy’s only visa document is its announcement of the move to e-Visa, dated 21 October 2022: it contains no DTV and not a word about the 31 August rule. The requirements live in the e-Visa form: since 31 August it asks for proof of permanent residence and a criminal record certificate. We assemble the package for the form.
A trap: the only “five-year visa for €350” on that same page is the Non-Immigrant O-X, which is not available to Portuguese nationals, and the fee for the wrong visa type is not refunded. The DTV is a different visa.
How filing works
- Everything runs online through the e-Visa portal. You do not come to the embassy unless you are invited for an interview.
- The post does not publish the DTV fee. Aggregators say €350, the same figure officially confirmed by Rome, Madrid and Frankfurt.
- Timeline per the post’s site: 3 to 7 working days. Practice has never once confirmed it: in our cases 18 to 23 days, around 4.5 weeks, with stalls running from two or three weeks to 2.5 months.
- Finances: a three-month statement with a balance no lower than 500,000 THB, about €13,050, or a sponsorship letter. In our cases Recibos Verdes, an IRS tax return and statements from three banks in one file all went through.
- Dependants: a spouse and children under 20; per the form they need the criminal record certificate too, and the post has announced no age exemption.
- From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for Portuguese citizens is 30 days instead of 60; the post has said nothing about that, just as it has said nothing about the 31 August rule.
The mail goes unanswered, the phone works
Four independent accounts: letters to the embassy get no reply. A call to +351 21 301 4848 moved a case along within minutes in two of them.
Filed on 6 June. On the 25th I called the embassy and explained that my flight was on the 30th. They answered straight away, and ten minutes later the status changed to Pending Approval. Approved on 29 June, with no document requests. — ask.in.th forum, June 2026
Document requests come from thai.consul.lisbon@gmail.com, the address given on the post’s site. The only refusal we know of was “insufficient reasons for the trip”, in the summer of 2025: Lisbon’s weak spot is the purpose of travel, not the finances.
The criminal record certificate
The Portuguese certificate, the certificado de registo criminal, is the most convenient document in the package: €5, online at registocriminal.justica.gov.pt, up to three working days. And it comes bilingual, Portuguese and English: no translation needed.
A foreign national with a título de residência orders it online through Chave Móvel Digital, where the name has to match the document letter for letter, or in person. The certificate’s verification code is valid for 90 days — we order it last.
Whether Lisbon needs the certificate legalised the post has not announced; an apostille for Thailand only becomes usable on 28 February 2027. The form accepts the certificate of either the country of citizenship or the country of filing: for a foreign national with Portuguese residence the Portuguese one is enough.
What we track here
The first decisions under the new rules: how Lisbon will read “permanent residence” for a temporary autorização de residência and for an EU citizen’s certificate, whether it will accept the certificate without legalisation, whether it will update that page from 2022. We put our questions to the post by phone: it does not answer letters.
A package you have assembled yourself we check before filing — the Preflight Check: $300, a written report within two working days. Full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.
The state of every consulate is on the live board, and the consulate assigned to your country is on the map.