The Requirements to Live in Portugal 8 months a year during Residency Visa

Actually, it looks like it is 8 months in Portugal out of 60 (or 1 month every 7.5 months) according to the SEF site:

• The holder of a temporary Residence Permit who intends to be absent from Portugal, during the validity period, for a timeframe exceeding six consecutive months or eight unsequential months has a duty to inform SEF before leaving national territory

8 Un-sequential months over 5 years (or 60 months) = 1 month out of Portugal every 7.5 months. Or do they mean 8 un sequential months out of 12? This is just not at all clear what the requirements are (at least to me).

From SEF Website: "The holder of a temporary Residence Permit who intends to be absent from Portugal, during the validity period, for a timeframe exceeding six consecutive months or eight unsequential months has a duty to inform SEF before leaving national territory"

When they say "during the validity period" do they mean the five years, or just the 2-Year Temporary Permit? 

If it means the full five years, we are only allowed to be out of the country 8 of the 60 months (5 Years).  If it means each individual permit, the 2-year temporary permit allows 8 months out of the 24 months, and then 8 months of the 2nd 36-month temporary permit.

Do we need to track this by counting days? For example If we leave to go to Spain for three weeks, does it count at all because it is less than a month? Or do we need to track the days we are gone? If we are tracking the days, then how many days count as a month? 30 or 31? 

When they say "national territory" do they mean just the country of Portugal? 

I have too many questions....

My take is this:

From SEF Website: "The holder of a temporary Residence Permit who intends to be absent from Portugal, during the validity period, for a timeframe exceeding six consecutive months or eight unsequential months has a duty to inform SEF before leaving national territory"

It doesn't say anything about only being "allowed" to be out of the country for this period, during the lifetime of your permit, just that you have to "inform" SEF. 

The key word is "inform".

So, if you knew you were going away for more than six months you would inform SEF. If you had a series of small trips which added up to more eight months in total you would inform SEF.

For context, as a owner of holiday accommodation there is a requirement to inform SEF when overseas visitors arrive and when they leave. These are UK guests, there's no suggestion of how many times they can visit, just that there is a legal requirement to inform SEF which is strictly enforced with fines for non-compliance.

Hope this helps.

This is a topic I have mulled on a great deal. It seems to me that there is no way for PT to know if you cross land borders within Europe, so, take, say, a month in Spain. If you got stopped on the way back in to Pt, could one just say one was there for a day/weekend? Making sure one has some days left within the allowance in case of such a thing.

I know if I go for the visa I would want to be able to go to other parts of Europe, but keep my allowed months out for UK visits which will register on their system. 

The other thing I wondered about with travelling sneakily in Europe is travel insurance. Would my insurance be valid? I would have some personal insurance but in an emergency would it be UK or PT agreements with that country that counts?

The thing is, we don’t know their technology to track us. If they have access to bank records or credit cards they would know. If they have access to passport scanning, which is used by hotels then they might know. They put the rules in place, so I imagine they have some way to ascertain the time spent outside of their he country. 

Without knowing the facts, we only have guessing. I would hate to have my resident visa extension denied. Has anyone had trouble by being out of the country too long?

National territory includes Madeira and I assume the Azores, as far as I am aware.

The way around the “8 months” rule is to apply for Non-Habitual Resident Status. Then the rule does not apply, but you will have to file annual tax returns with the Portuguese govt. 

Thank you very much for your reply, you are saying the rule to be in Portugal under a D7 is waived if you apply for the non habitual tax scheme? Do you have a reference for this?  I have not heard of this. 

Here is a useful link that will edify my comment. https://www.portugal.com/moving-to-portugal/guide-to-the-non-habitual-resident-nhr-tax-regime/

I hope this helps to clear up the confusion.