Visa requirements for Portuguese citizens

Portugal belongs to the European free movement area, so Portuguese citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Portugal and 93 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Portuguese passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Portugal without one.

The reverse holds for 66 countries: holders of the Portuguese passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Portugal (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 61 others).

13 countries ask holders of the Portuguese passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 1 of them has an embassy or consulate on record in Portugal.

12 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Portugal, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Portugal, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Spain (7) and France (3).

The United States refused 8.2% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Portugal in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 22 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 174 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Portuguese passport

By continent, the Portuguese passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 30 countries in the Americas, 21 countries in Asia, 16 countries in Africa and 11 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Portuguese citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Portuguese citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 21 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Portuguese citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 19 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Portugal’s neighbours

Spain admits Portuguese citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Spanish passport ranks 5th (162 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Portugal.