Move to Madeira
An EU passport makes this a registration, not an application
The short answer
An EU, EEA or Swiss citizen needs no visa for Madeira. Free movement applies from arrival. A stay beyond three months requires registration at the câmara municipal of the area of residence, which issues a Certificado de Registo de Cidadão da União Europeia. After five years the permanent-residence document comes from AIMA.
Stay after which registration is required
three months
Below this, free movement alone covers the stay and no registration arises.
Diário da República · check it · read August 26, 2026Window to register at the câmara municipal
30 days
Counted from the moment the three months from entry have elapsed.
Diário da República · check it · read August 26, 2026Validity of the registration certificate
five years
Or the intended period of residence, where that is shorter.
AIMA · check it · read August 26, 2026Legal residence before permanent residence arises
five consecutive years
The document evidencing it is requested from AIMA, not from the câmara municipal.
AIMA · check it · read August 26, 2026This is the shortest route on the site, and the shortness is the point. An EU, EEA or Swiss citizen does not apply to live in Madeira. They arrive, and if they stay past three months they register at the town hall. There is no consulate, no visa, no income test, no AIMA appointment and no waiting queue at the front of it.
Most of what the relocation industry sells around this is service for a process that takes one counter visit. The genuinely hard parts of moving to Madeira with an EU passport are the parts that have nothing to do with immigration.
Free movement is the mechanism, and it starts on arrival
The right to enter and reside comes from the Union treaties, transposed into Portuguese law by Lei n.º 37/2006. It applies to citizens of EU Member States, EEA States and Switzerland, and to their family members. Nothing has to be obtained before travelling.
The obligation begins only when the stay passes three months, source: Diário da República, read August 26, 2026. At that point the law requires registration, and it fixes a window: within 30 days, source: Diário da República, read August 26, 2026 after the three months have elapsed.
The registration is made at the câmara, not at AIMA
Article 14.º of Lei n.º 37/2006 puts the registration at the câmara municipal of the area of residence. The câmara issues the Certificado de Registo de Cidadão da União Europeia, the CRUE, valid for five years, source: AIMA, read August 26, 2026 from issue, or for the intended period of residence where that is shorter.
This is the split that catches people who have read mainland-oriented or third-country-oriented guidance: the certificate is a municipal act. AIMA is the authority for third-country nationals and for the later permanent-residence document, and it is not where an EU citizen starts.
The certificate has no published price, and that is deliberate
Lei n.º 37/2006 does not fix an amount for the certificate. The fee sits in each municipality's own schedule of taxas, which means it is set eleven different ways across Madeira's eleven concelhos and can be changed by any of them without touching national law.
Any guide quoting a single national figure for the CRUE is quoting something that does not exist as a national figure. No amount is printed on this page for that reason: the only correct answer is the schedule of the specific câmara the person will stand in front of.
After five years the counter changes hands
The right of permanent residence arises after five consecutive years, source: AIMA, read August 26, 2026 of legal residence. The document that evidences it for an EU national is requested from AIMA rather than from the câmara municipal. So the sequence over a decade is town hall first, agency later, which is the reverse of what a third-country national experiences and one more reason the two sets of guidance should not be read across.
What the certificate does not do
It is not a tax number. The NIF is a separate registration with the Autoridade Tributária, and most of the rest of the move waits on it. It is not a bank account: a bank runs its own identification and due diligence under the anti-money-laundering law, and asks for its own documents. It is not health cover: registration for a número de utente is made in person at the regional health centre, and the service is SESARAM, not the mainland SNS.
It is also not tax residence. That is a separate test under article 16.º of the CIRS, and holding a CRUE is not the fact that decides it. An EU or EEA driving licence may be driven on in Portugal until it expires; the exchange deadline the Código da Estrada sets after residence reaches other licences, not this one.
Where Madeira actually differs
The immigration law is national and identical. What is regional is who the citizen deals with afterwards: eleven câmaras municipais rather than one, SESARAM instead of a mainland ARS, IMT's regional branch, and a labour market with its own higher regional minimum wage set by Decreto Legislativo Regional rather than by Lisbon.
That last one matters more to an EU citizen than to anyone else on this site, because an EU citizen can take a job here from day one without a work authorisation. The wage floor they will be paid under is a regional figure, and it is not the figure any consulate would have tested them against.
What this page does not certify
The content of article 14.º here was taken from the Diário da República consolidated text as reported by a sourced search and cross-checked against AIMA's own description of the certificate. The consolidated text itself was not opened directly. The substance is corroborated on both sides; the exact wording is not quoted for that reason.
One trap is worth naming. A separate Lei n.º 37/2026, de 28 de julho exists and is not an amendment to Lei n.º 37/2006. The numbering is nearly identical and a search will surface both. Anything that cites Lei 37 without the year is unusable.
Questions people actually ask
Do EU citizens need a visa to move to Madeira?
No. Madeira is part of Portugal and therefore part of the Union's free movement area. An EU, EEA or Swiss citizen may enter, live and work here without a visa, a residence permit or a consular application. The only formality is registration at the câmara municipal once the stay passes three months.
Is the registration certificate compulsory?
The law requires registration for a stay exceeding three months, within thirty days of that point. In practice the certificate is also the document other bodies ask for as proof of the right to reside, including the health centre when registering for a número de utente, so it tends to be needed well before anybody enforces it.
What does the CRUE cost in Madeira?
Lei n.º 37/2006 fixes no amount. The fee is set in each municipality's own schedule of taxas, so it varies across Madeira's eleven concelhos and can change without any change in national law. No figure is published here because a single national figure for it does not exist.
Does the registration certificate make someone a Portuguese tax resident?
No. Tax residence is decided by article 16.º of the CIRS on its own criteria, principally days of presence and having a habitual residence here, and it can attach to someone who never registered and miss someone who did. The certificate evidences a right to reside; it is not a fiscal act. The tax regime for new residents is a separate question with a separate deadline.
Can an EU citizen buy a house in Madeira before registering?
Yes. Buying property is not conditional on residence for anyone, EU or not. What it does require is a Portuguese tax number and, at the deed, the regional transfer tax. The purchase runs on its own track, and which transfer tax applies turns on tax residence rather than on nationality: the Region runs its own IMT brackets for a buyer who is tax-resident in Portugal, and a buyer who is not yet resident is charged a flat rate on housing instead of either table.
Where this came from
- Diário da República: Lei n.º 37/2006, de 9 de agosto (right of free movement and residence). diariodarepublica.pt/dr/legislacao-consolidada/lei/2006-128792 Read August 26, 2026.
- AIMA: Certificado de registo para nacionais UE. aima.gov.pt/pt/nacionais-ue-e-familiares/nacionais-ue Read August 26, 2026.
- Diário da República, 1.ª série: Decreto Legislativo Regional n.º 1/2026/M, de 3 de fevereiro (regional minimum wage). files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2026/02/02300/0001400015.pdf Read August 26, 2026.