Brasília announced the 31 August rule on 1 September: with the Thai foreign ministry’s infographic in English and Thai, under a Portuguese headline, and without a word of its own. Lisbon announced nothing at all: its visa page has not changed since October 2022, and there is no DTV on it. The e-Visa form is the same one for the whole world, and since 31 August it carries two new documents. We opened both sites on 4 September.
What changed
| Before 31 August | From 31 August |
|---|---|
| a proof-of-current-location document | proof of permanent residence in the country of filing |
| no criminal record certificate | a certificate from the country of citizenship or the country of filing |
| Brasília also took people merely present in Brazil | citizens and permanent residents only |
| Lisbon: “legal residence” | the site says the same, the form asks for “permanent residence” |
What did not change: the finances, 500,000 baht held over three months, and the silence of both posts about the DTV fee. Anything filed before 31 August goes by the old rules.
Brasília: an image instead of an explanation
The post added no reading of “permanent residence”, no shelf life for the certificate, no requirements for translation. The embassy has no DTV page; its visa page is four lines of “go to thaievisa.go.th”, and there is no Portuguese version of the site. Filing is online only; there is no visa desk in São Paulo or Rio, and the honorary consulate is closed.
A citizen uses a passport or an RG, with a comprovante de residência ready in case of a document request. A foreign national’s document is the CRNM, with the class printed on the card: PERMANENTE for an open-ended resident, TEMPORÁRIO for a temporary one. Whether the post will take a temporary card has not been announced, and there are no cases after 31 August.
The Polícia Federal certificate: free, but in Portuguese and good for 90 days
The Certidão de Antecedentes Criminais is issued online, free and instantly; a foreign national orders it on a passport or a CRNM. But it comes in Portuguese only and is valid for 90 days. If your full namesake is in the database, the certificate is issued at a PF office instead, in up to 15 days.
Whether a legalised certificate is needed for the DTV the post has not said: filing means uploading scans. If it does demand one, the chain runs like this:
- 1.Legalisation of the electronic certificate at Itamaraty’s CGLEG: no notary needed, plus 48 hours, with reception in Brasília on Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment, or 10 days by post. We could not find the price.
- 2.A sworn translation into English: one lauda, the standard translation page, at R$ 95–132 by the 2026 reference tariffs.
- 3.An Itamaraty stamp on the translation.
- 4.The embassy in Brasília, in person: R$ 90 for each foreign ministry stamp, paid by PIX; the original plus the translation makes R$ 180 — check the amount with the post.
An apostille will not help until 28 February 2027. The chain has to fit inside the certificate’s 90 days of validity: without legalisation you order the certificate last, with legalisation you start with it once the rest of the package is assembled.
Lisbon: a 2022 text that got ahead of the reform
The post’s only visa document is its announcement of the e-Visa launch, dated 21 October 2022: six visa types, no DTV. Yet that text already contains what other posts have only introduced now: without legal residence the applicant is not accepted, the proof is a residence card or an EU citizen’s certificate, a temporary protection certificate does not count, the fee is not refunded when the status is wrong, and a Portuguese national abroad has to come back first.
The gap is elsewhere: “legal residence” is broader than the form’s “permanent residence”. A temporary autorização de residência is granted for two years, a permanent one after five; how Lisbon will read a temporary card and an EU citizen’s registration has not been announced. A trap on the same page: the only “five-year visa for €350” there is the O-X, which is not available to Portuguese nationals, and the fee for the wrong type is not refunded.
The Portuguese certificate: €5, three days, bilingual from the start
- 1.Ordered at registocriminal.justica.gov.pt for €5, paid by card or MB WAY; the document appears in “Os Meus Pedidos” within three working days.
- 2.A foreign national with a título de residência signs in through Chave Móvel Digital, where the name has to match the card letter for letter; without CMD, in person at the DSIC, a court or an Espaço do Cidadão.
- 3.The certificate comes in Portuguese and English at once, so no translation is needed. The form allows the certificate of the country of filing: for a foreign national with a título, the Portuguese one is enough.
- 4.The verification code is valid for 90 days. Order it last. Whether Lisbon requires legalisation has not been announced.
The fee and the money
Brasília’s benchmark from the form is 10,000 baht, about R$ 1,540 at the ECB rate on 3 September. For Lisbon the aggregators say €350, the figure officially confirmed by Rome and Madrid, but the post itself has never confirmed it. Finances: no less than 500,000 baht held over three months in any bank, about R$ 76,900 or €13,050; a sponsorship letter is allowed.
Timelines: Brasília in hours, Lisbon in weeks
Six Brasília cases closed in anything from five hours to 14 days, most often in two or three; we found no refusals. Lisbon promises 3 to 7 working days, and practice says: 18 and 23 days, four and a half weeks, stalls of more than two months. The embassy does not answer letters, but the phone works: in one case the status changed ten minutes after a call, on +351 21 301 4848. The only refusal was “insufficient reasons for the trip”: Lisbon’s weak spot is the purpose of travel. All of these accounts predate 31 August; since then there have been none, and we quote no timelines under the new rules.
Family, vaccination, 15 September
A spouse and children under 20 with proof of relationship; per the form they need the certificate too, and neither post has announced an age threshold. Brazil is on Thailand’s yellow fever list: the certificate was already being checked at boarding in São Paulo, and the vaccination has to be no later than ten days before entry. From 15 September visa-free entry for Portuguese citizens drops from 60 to 30 days; for Brazilians it stays at 90 under the bilateral agreement, and they need the DTV so as not to leave every three months.
What to do now
In Brazil: make sure the CRNM says PERMANENTE; order the PF certificate last, and if the post asks for legalisation, fit the chain inside 90 days; get the vaccination. In Portugal: be in the country, order the €5 certificate before filing, call rather than write, and work through the justification for the trip. On a temporary residence card, start with the Preflight Check: it shows where the package will stumble over the form, before you pay the fee. The details are on the Brasília and Lisbon pages, and the state of every consulate is on the board.
If you are not sure whether your residence status qualifies or where to start collecting documents, message Mira: she will check your citizenship and status, tell you which consulate is yours and send you the preparation steps. A package you have assembled yourself can go through 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.