Portugal pays people who move from the coast to the country’s interior. The Emprego Interior MAIS program has been running since August 2020. Foreigners with legal status were included in December 2021, while remote workers for foreign companies were added in March 2023. Government information

How much do they pay? For a permanent employment contract, transferring an existing job or starting your own business, the base amount is €3,759.91. For a fixed-term contract of at least 12 months — including a scientific contrato de bolsa — it is €2,685.65. Each family member adds 20% of that amount, plus up to €805.70 for moving your belongings.

So a single person with a permanent contract gets €4,565.61; with one family member, €5,317.59; with two, €6,069.57. Payments are one-time per person; family and moving allowances are paid once per household. Applications are accepted until the budget runs out.

Foreigners who legally live in Portugal on a visa or residence permit and work remotely for a company outside the country can also receive the payment when moving to the interior. The work must have started after January 1, 2022, with income of at least €920 per month in 2026 on the mainland. DECO Proteste

But simply renting a cottage in the countryside isn’t enough. Your new home must be in an area officially classified as interior, according to the approved list. Guarda, Covilhã, Castelo Branco and Bragança are all on it. You must live at the new address for at least 12 months. Your previous address cannot be in the interior — unless the distance between the old and new homes is at least 100 km. You can also live outside the interior if your job is there, provided the distance to work is no more than 50 km.

The deadlines matter too. The move must take place within 180 days before or after the start of the employment contract, creation of the business or transfer of the workplace. The application through the iefponline portal must be submitted no later than 180 days after that date. The first 60% is paid within 10 working days after the applicant submits the signed acceptance and required documents. The remaining 40% comes in the 13th month.

The government is telling people in Lisbon or Porto who work from a laptop: if you don’t actually need to be in the capital, move somewhere with fewer people — and we’ll help pay for the move. Portugal’s interior is losing population, while major cities face expensive housing and infrastructure pressure. In June, President António José Seguro called depopulation of the interior one of Portugal’s major structural challenges. JN

And how much does it actually cost to live there? According to idealista data for February 2026, Bragança is among the five cheapest municipalities in Portugal for renting: Bragança costs €6.7 per square meter, Covilhã €8.5, while the Guarda district has a median of €6.4. Rents there fell 5.9% over the year.

For a typical T2 (70–85 square meters), that means roughly €450–580 a month in Guarda, €470–570 in Bragança and €600–720 in Covilhã. Covilhã is pricier because of the University of Beira Interior. Listings in smaller towns can start at €250–300. The same T2 in Lisbon costs 3–4 times more.

So what does this mean in practice? €4,565.61 is roughly nine months of rent for a T2 in Bragança or Guarda. For a couple receiving €5,317.59, it’s around ten months. The first 60% is about €2,740 — five or six months of rent. The remaining 40% arrives in the 13th month, after the required 12 months of residence are over. The program helps cover the move and first year; it does not finance a year of free living.