Applying with family: whocounts, how they are evidenced,and what each person pays

Who counts as family

Under article 98 of the immigration law, the family members who may join an ARI holder are the spouse or a partner in a stable relationship of at least two years, children who are minors, adult children who are unmarried, dependent and in education, and parents who are dependent on the applicant or the spouse.² Reunification may be requested together with the main application and is decided only if the main application succeeds.¹

Siblings, adult children who work, parents who are not dependent, and a partner of less than two years are outside the definition. They need a permit of their own, which is a different decision with its own cost.

How dependants are evidenced

Each family member files their own identity, criminal-record and relationship documents, and foreign public documents are presented apostilled or legalised with a certified translation, as the main applicant's criminal-record certificate must be.¹ What proves the relationship differs by person:

• Spouse: the marriage certificate, recent enough to satisfy AIMA that the marriage subsists; ask what "recent" means in practice.
• Partner: evidence that the relationship has lasted at least two years, which is a matter of proof rather than of a single certificate; ask what the adviser has seen accepted.²
• Minor child: the birth certificate and, where only one parent applies, the other parent's consent or evidence of sole custody.
• Adult child: proof of enrolment in education and of financial dependency, both renewed at each renewal.²
• Parent: evidence of dependency on the applicant or spouse, which usually means proof of support and of the parent's own means.²

Every family member attends biometrics in person, and each must be lawfully in Portugal when they do.¹

The fee stack per person

Government fees for the ARI are set by Portaria 307/2023 and are charged per person, so every family member pays the same stack as the main applicant: a fee for the analysis of the application, a fee for the issue of the first residence card, and a renewal fee at each two-year renewal.³ The tariff has been revised since it was published, and figures published by advisers for 2026 range from about €6,300 to about €9,300 per person for the application and first card, and from about €3,000 to about €4,200 per renewal; one adviser's current itemisation is €842.80 for the application, €8,418.90 for the first card and €4,210.30 per renewal.⁴

The spread reflects different revisions of the tariff and different ways of totalling it, which is why the figure to plan with is the one the adviser shows in the current portaria, confirmed against AIMA's own fee page. Whatever that figure is, a family of four pays it four times at the first card and four times at each renewal, and the adviser's own fee is usually per person as well.

When a child turns 18 during the five years

A child who turns 18 stays within the family definition only while unmarried, dependent on the applicant and in education.² The test comes at the next renewal rather than on the birthday, when AIMA sees an adult child and asks for proof of enrolment and dependency.

The questions to put to an adviser are: what evidence of education AIMA accepts, whether a gap year or a change of course breaks dependency, and whether the child is better placed applying for a permit of their own before the renewal rather than defending dependency at it. A child who has held residence for five years may have their own route to permanent residence under article 80 in any case.²

Adding family later

AIMA's guidance provides for reunification to be requested with the main application.¹ A spouse married after the grant, or a child born later, is a separate request under the general family-reunification rules of article 98, and their time towards permanent residence runs from their own grant.² Ask how a later request is made and what it costs before deciding to leave anyone out of the first application.