Moving inland bonus: the Emprego Interior MAIS programme

First, honestly: what this money is and where the figures come from

Emprego Interior MAIS is a one-off payment from the state employment service IEFP (Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional) to anyone who has moved both their home and their job to the interior of the country. It is not a monthly benefit and not help with rent: the money comes in two instalments and only once in a lifetime.

Let us say straight away what this article does not contain. In the archive of Russian-speaking chats in Portugal — almost three million messages over four years — there is not a single account from someone who received this money or even applied for it. The programme came up twice, and both times it was a retelling of the news: in March 2023, that remote workers had been admitted to the programme, and in August 2026, an argument in a chat over whether a link to an article about it was spam. We will not retell someone else's retelling.

So everything below is taken from primary sources and checked on 1 September 2026: the programme page on the IEFP website, its summary sheet Ficha Síntese in the version of 30 December 2025, the rules of the measure in the 3rd revision of 23 May 2023, the list of inland territories in the version of 4 February 2026 and Portaria n.º 174/2020 itself, which created the measure. The only things taken from the chats are what surrounds the programme: how IEFP behaves, how people change their tax address and what life is really like in the areas you are being invited to move to.

Who qualifies

The list of beneficiaries on the programme page is broad, and foreigners are named in it explicitly. The following can apply:

— the unemployed and people looking for a new job who are registered with IEFP or with the employment services of the Azores and Madeira; — people who paid no contributions to Segurança Social in the month before applying, either as an employee or as self-employed; — emigrants who left Portugal after 31 December 2015 and lived abroad for at least a year; — citizens of the European Union, Switzerland and the European Economic Area, and third-country nationals with a legal right to live in Portugal, including people under temporary protection; — employees and the self-employed; — foreigners who work remotely for a client based outside Portugal — the programme page calls them exactly that, nómadas digitais.

Which documents count as a “legal right to live in Portugal” is set out in Annex 1 to the rules, and the list is long: residence permits for employment and for self-employment, the CPLP visa and residence permit, residence permits for family reunification, for study, research and internships, the residence permit for highly qualified activity, the temporary protection document, the temporary residence permit for asylum seekers and refugee status, the residence card for family members of EU citizens, long-term resident status and the permanent residence permit. The visa for remote work for employers abroad has a line of its own.

There are two conditions that apply not just at the moment you apply but the whole time: you must have no debts to the tax office or to Segurança Social, and no outstanding obligations on any other money previously received from IEFP.

Three routes in: a new job, moving your existing job, and remote work for a client abroad

The programme covers three different situations, and each has its own dates and requirements.

The first is a new job in the interior. Eligible are: a permanent employment contract; a fixed-term contract of at least 12 months; an open-ended temporary contract if its expected length is the same 12 months; a grant contract (in research, for example); setting up your own business — from self-employment to a company, but with no more than ten jobs. The contract must start after 1 January 2020, pay at least the national minimum wage (€920 a month in 2026) and give an inland territory as the place of work. Anyone setting up their own business must create at least their own full-time job; anyone setting up a company must hold more than half the capital and the votes. What this means for tax and contributions is covered separately: How to open an atividade and work on recibos verdes.

The second: you already have a job, and your place of work moves. Here, moves after 1 January 2022 count. You need a permanent contract or a fixed-term one of at least 12 months, and if it is fixed-term, the time left on it must be enough to live in the interior for those same 12 months.

The third is remote work for a client outside Portugal. This route is for foreigners from outside the EU, Switzerland and the EEA: you need a valid visa or residence permit, work for a person or company based abroad, activity starting after 1 January 2022, income of at least the minimum wage and a place of work in the interior. It applies both if you settled there straight after getting your visa and if you moved there later.

Which areas count as inland

“Inland territories” (territórios do interior) are not “everything that isn't Lisbon or Porto” but a named list of municipalities (concelho) and parishes (freguesia) set by Portaria n.º 208/2017. IEFP publishes it as a separate file; the current version is dated 4 February 2026.

Seven districts inland and along the Spanish border are on the list in full, with all their municipalities: Beja, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Évora, Guarda, Portalegre and Vila Real. Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Faro, Leiria, Porto, Santarém, Setúbal, Viana do Castelo and Viseu are on it in part.

And this is the main trap: “in part” literally means village by village. The municipality of Viseu is on the list, but not in full — only six of its freguesias: Calde, Cavernães, Cota, Ribafeita, São Pedro de France and the merged Barreiros e Cepões. The city of Viseu itself is not. In the Algarve, Alcoutim, Aljezur, Castro Marim, Monchique and Vila do Bispo are on the list in full, but from Loulé only the hill parishes of Alte, Ameixial, Salir, Querença, Tôr and Benafim, from Silves only São Marcos da Serra, and from Tavira only Cachopo and Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo. A neighbouring village five kilometres away may not be on the list. Check your address against the file before you move, not after.

There are two exceptions to the rule of “living in the interior”. First, your previous home must not be in the interior — but if the old and new addresses are 100 km or more apart, a move within the interior itself also qualifies. Second, your new home may be outside the list if your place of work is inside it and it is no more than 50 km from home to work.

How much is paid and how it is calculated

The amounts are tied to the social index IAS (Indexante dos Apoios Sociais), which is revised every January. In 2026 the IAS is €537.13, and all the programme's figures come from it.

The base is €3,759.91 (seven IAS) if you have a permanent contract, whether new or an existing one with your place of work moving, or if you are setting up your own business or moving it inland. The base is €2,685.65 (five IAS) if the contract is fixed-term of at least 12 months or a grant contract.

20% is added to the base for each family member who moves with you: €751.98 to the first base, €537.13 to the second — per person. Plus €805.70 (one and a half IAS) for moving your belongings.

Two examples from IEFP itself. A permanent contract and one family member moving: 3,759.91 + 751.98 + 805.70 = €5,317.59. A fixed-term contract and one family member: 2,685.65 + 537.13 + 805.70 = €4,028.48.

The limits are simple. A person gets the payment once — there will not be a second one, for another job or ten years later. The family supplement and the money for moving belongings are paid once per family: if two adults move, both work and both qualify, the same move of belongings will not be paid for twice.

Family here means people living in a shared household: a spouse or a person you have lived with for more than two years; blood relatives and in-laws up to the third degree — parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces, and your spouse's relatives of the same closeness; adoptive parents and guardians; adopted children and children placed in care by a court or child protection authority.

Deadlines you must meet: 180 days and 12 months

The move must be permanent — the programme takes this to mean at least 12 months living in the new place. And it must fall within a window: 180 days before or 180 days after the start of the employment contract, the opening of your business, the registration of the company or the first day of work in the new place.

The application itself must be submitted no later than 180 consecutive days after that same event. Miss it and there is no payment, even if the move is genuine and every other condition is met.

There are two exceptions on deadlines. The first is for young people under 35 looking for their first job: if someone lived in the interior, left to study and gained a qualification of at least level five, or, the other way round, gained such a qualification at an institution in the interior, the requirements about 12 months, the previous home and 180 days may be waived. The second is for former interns who did their internship in the interior: if they start work there within 12 months of the internship, the move counts within a window from 90 days before the start of the internship to 180 days after starting work.

You will have to prove the move on paper: a change of tax address on the Portal das Finanças, a rental contract or a deed of purchase, a Certidão de Domicílio Fiscal certificate. The tax address is changed online, with a delay for a letter: in the chats people describe the process step by step.

“[link] 1. Entregar Pedido de Alteração => fill in the new address. 2. Get the confirmation code by post at the new address. 3. Confirmar Morada => enter the code from the letter and confirm the new address. Now your NIF and Domicílio Fiscal will have the current address. And your Atividade too, straight away, if you need it.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

left4portugal10.04.2026

“As for opening a sole trader business - it's strongly recommended to change your tax address to a Portuguese one first, and right now that's almost impossible without at least an appointment at AIMA.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

reciboverde01.07.2026

How to apply

Applications are made online only, through the iefponline portal. Anyone registered with IEFP must have their registration in “ATIVO” status; everyone else — employees, the self-employed, remote workers, emigrants — must first create a user account on the portal, otherwise the application form will not open.

Attach whatever applies to your case: a copy of the employment or grant contract or a document showing you have set up your own business; an addendum to the contract, a remote work agreement or a letter from your employer about moving your place of work; proof of the change of tax address or an extract from the commercial register; a document showing your change of home; a certificate showing no debts to the tax office and Segurança Social, or permission for IEFP to check this itself; for emigrants, a certificate from the consulate; your household composition, if you listed relatives moving with you in the form.

IEFP must make a decision within 20 working days of the application date. The clock stops if you are asked for missing documents. The answer comes by email — you are asked to confirm you have read it — and if the email does not get through, it is sent by registered post. The approval decision sets out the amounts approved. There are two grounds for refusal: the conditions are not met, or the money allocated to the measure has run out.

A word on IEFP's habits. Nobody in the chats has described this particular payment, but people talk about its other services all the time, and the picture is always the same: the application goes off quickly, and then there is silence that you have to break yourself. The answer on this measure is bound by a legal deadline, but that does not change the need to keep a record of your correspondence and to chase them.

“That's just it, I signed up online with iefp straight away, and there's no feedback at all, it's like shouting into the void. But here the school invited me to apply for courses on its own initiative.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

chatalgarve29.07.2026

“Info for anyone who wants a consultation or to register their social status with IEFP in person - I applied on 21.10 at Serviço Picoas - they gave me an appointment for 12.11.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

chatlisboa10.11.2024

What you sign after approval

After the approval letter, you must send IEFP a signed “Termo de Aceitação da Decisão de Aprovação” within 10 working days — an acceptance of the decision that lists your obligations. It is signed by hand, with your document number and a signature on every page, or with an electronic signature via the Cartão de Cidadão; the same document gives the IBAN of the account the money will be paid into.

The other papers follow on their own deadlines. A copy of the employment or grant contract, and documents on setting up your business or moving your place of work — within 30 working days, if any of this happened after you applied. Proof of the change of tax address and of the move — for yourself and your family members — by the 12th month after starting work: a deed of purchase or a tax office extract on the property, a rental contract, or printouts of your address from the Portal das Finanças before and after the move will do.

By signing the acceptance, you undertake to: keep the job or your own business in the interior for at least 12 months; have no debts to the tax office or Segurança Social for as long as the support lasts; notify IEFP in writing of any change of home, change of place of work or any other change within 10 working days of it happening; keep all the documents for the application and show them on request. The rules explicitly allow checks, audits and inspections.

When the money arrives

In two instalments, and the second one not soon.

60% of the base and the family supplements, plus all the money for moving your belongings, is paid within 10 working days of your handing in the signed acceptance and the required documents.

40% of the base and supplements is paid in the 13th calendar month after the start of the employment contract, the setting up of your business or the move of your place of work. Before this payment IEFP checks that the job in the interior has been kept for the full 12 months; for those who set up their own business, the activity must be genuinely running on the day of payment, not just registered.

Applications have been accepted since 20 August 2020 and will be until the measure's budget runs out — the IEFP board announces application periods on its website. As of 1 September 2026, the programme page says “Candidaturas abertas”.

If you leave early or give up the job

Twelve months is not a formality but an obligation you have signed. If it is not met, the support is stopped immediately, and you are asked to pay back what you received — in full or in part.

The procedure is as follows. You have 60 consecutive days to repay from the day the notice arrives; after that, interest is charged at the statutory rate. You can ask for a repayment plan in instalments (this is provided for by Article 22 of Decreto-Lei n.º 13/2015), but missing a single payment makes the whole remaining amount due at once. If it is still not repaid, the debt is recovered through execução fiscal — tax enforcement, the same mechanism as for unpaid taxes.

On fraud specifically: if circumstances were staged to get the money, the whole amount must be repaid, and the rules expressly reserve IEFP's right to report signs of a crime.

The practical conclusion: anything that changes — you moved within the country, changed employer, closed your sole trader business — you must report yourself, within your 10 working days. Then IEFP can issue a new decision or an addendum to it, and the conversation will be about recalculation rather than a breach.

Tax, certificates and what we don't know

Let us start with what is known for certain. To receive the payment and not lose it, your tax and social security affairs must be in order — both on the day you apply and for as long as the obligations last. A certificate showing no debts is ordered in your personal accounts on the Portal das Finanças and Segurança Social Direta; in the application you can instead give IEFP permission to check this itself.

And now what we don't know. Neither the programme page, nor its summary sheet, nor the rules, nor the text of the Portaria itself say a word about whether this payment is subject to income tax or whether it must be declared in the annual tax return. The chats don't mention it either — just as there are no conversations about the programme itself. We will not invent an answer: this is a question for an accountant or directly for IEFP via the e-Balcão page on its website or by phone on 215 803 555 (weekdays, 9am to 7pm). It is better to ask before applying: the money arrives in two different calendar years, and the answer determines what to put in your tax return for each of them.

“There's a document both in finanças and in segurança social, certidão de não divida. It's free and not hard to find. I'd take it with me too.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

RussosEmPortugal12.04.2023

“💡For anyone interested, when applying at SEF today they asked to see a paper showing no debts to Financas. I didn't have that paper (CERTIDÃO), but I managed to send it quickly right there from my personal account (Pedido de Certificação de Dívida e Não Dívida). Better to have it with you than to run around and send it later. Showing you where to download it ;-) And bring laptops and mobile internet. Good luck everyone!”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

left4portugal03.05.2023

What it can and cannot be combined with

Emprego Interior MAIS can be received together with other measures for the same job: hiring support (Compromisso Emprego Sustentável), temporary exemption of the employer from social security contributions, and programmes supporting your own business — Programa de Apoio ao Empreendedorismo e à Criação do Próprio Emprego and Empreende XXI.

It cannot be combined with one measure: support for returning emigrants (MAREP, Portaria n.º 214/2019). One person gets one or the other, and you will have to choose in advance.

And something easy to miss: family members who moved with you can register with IEFP as unemployed and use its measures themselves — ATIVAR.PT internships and the same hiring support. For a family where only one person has found work, that is a second chance.

Finally, what this programme is not. It is not housing assistance: it does not pay rent and does not provide a flat. Housing is handled by another agency and other programmes — for example, Porta 65 Jovem, which refunds part of the rent every month to young people aged 18 to 35. It has its own application periods, its own online account and its own queue, and it has nothing to do with the moving money. Age, by the way, does not matter at all in Emprego Interior MAIS: what matters is the job, the address and the deadlines.

What these areas are like in everyday life

The money is one-off, but you will have to live there for at least a year, so it is worth weighing up more than the payment.

What people who live there say. Transport: many district capitals have no train at all, only buses, and not always direct ones (August 2026). Healthcare: a small town may have neither the specialist nor the test you need — you have to go to the district capital (February 2026). At the same time, distances are short, prices are lower, and everyday life is no worse than in the capital — people talk about this too, and quite calmly (September 2025, December 2025).

What the archive does not have is talk about jobs in the interior: the vacancies that turn up in chats for Guarda or Castelo Branco are construction and renovation work paid by the day. The programme requires a contract paying at least the minimum wage with a place of work on the list, and finding such a contract is a separate task that has nothing to do with the payment itself. Remote workers don't have this problem: their work comes with them, and the programme has given them a route of their own.

“In Portalegre there aren't even trains, only buses, and not always direct, with changes. Even aima there isn't close to the bus station”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

beremennost_portugal28.08.2026

“Here's a case. My husband and I have insurance with AdvanceCare, but we live in a small town (Sao Pedro do Sul) and our town just doesn't have some specialists and some tests. We were advised we could go to Viseu. And recently I happened to be in Viseu and decided to go to Sao Mateus with a problem while I was there. At that moment there were no appointments with a specialist and they suggested going to the emergency department, they took me there, the services (with the insurance applied) cost 90 euros, each follow-up visit to the nurse - 5 euros.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

med_strahovki_pt20.02.2026

“I live in a village near Fatima. I really like the area around it. The neighbours are very nice. I don't know rental prices for houses, I think you need to look on idealistic.pt. I like life in the Portuguese ‘backwoods’. civilisation in the form of 4 supermarkets 5 minutes' drive away. Three excellent restaurants three minutes' drive away. Fish on Tuesdays and vegetables on Mondays are delivered practically to the door.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

flowersPortugal13.09.2025

“Of course, happy to answer! We live in Covilhã, it's right at the foot of the mountain. We got there by taxi!) (10 minutes, 11 euros) and there's already snow - snowmen, sledging, the works.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

schoolinportugal24.12.2025