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UK applicants now supported - ACRO, HMRC, London consulate

in Announcements

Greenlight now supports UK-based applicants for every Portuguese residency visa we cover. ACRO Police Certificate replaces the FBI check, HMRC tax documents replace the US Form 1040, and applications are submitted through VFS Global UK at London / Manchester / Edinburgh (the Portuguese consulate is the decision-maker). Pricing in EUR + USD; Stripe handles GBP at checkout.

What changed

From v1.30.61 (May 2026), Greenlight ships a complete UK-applicant flow alongside the existing US one. Whether you are a UK citizen or a lawful UK resident applying from Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or Gibraltar — the platform now adapts your visa journey, document checklist, AI advisor guidance, and consulate routing automatically.

What is different for UK applicants

  • Criminal record: ACRO Police Certificate (acro.police.uk) — Subject Access £55 ~10 business days; Premium £95 ~2 business days. ACRO covers the whole United Kingdom, so you do not also supply a state/local criminal record — that is a US-only concept.
  • Apostille: FCDO Legalisation Office (gov.uk/get-document-legalised) — standard £30 ~10 business days; premium £75 next-day. The Portuguese consulate accepts the apostilled certificate up to 90 days from ACRO issuance.
  • Tax documents: instead of the US Form 1040, the consulate accepts HMRC SA302 + 2-year Tax Year Overview (if self-employed) or P60 + 12 latest payslips (if employed). All free, downloadable from your HMRC personal-tax-account portal.
  • Where to apply: through VFS Global UK Portugal Visa Services at London, Manchester, or Edinburgh (visa.vfsglobal.com/gbr). VFS collects your application and biometrics in person; the Portuguese consulate (London or Manchester) remains the decision-maker. Note the visa-letter quirk: on the VFS-UK system the digital-nomad visa is filed as D9 (same convention as the DC consulate), even though Greenlight calls it D8 internally — your case lawyer / VFS officer will use the D9 form. Greenlight also curates a ~42-post UK consular network for post-decision paperwork (NIF, AIMA prep, etc.).
  • Application form: the same universal MNE national-visa form (formulario_visto_nacional_en.pdf) — Portugal uses one canonical form for all D-series residency visas, regardless of where you apply from. Greenlight auto-fills it from your Greenlight profile.
  • Pricing: shown in EUR (primary) and USD (comparison) — Stripe handles the conversion to GBP at checkout transparently. You see the conversion at the payment step, never before.

What stays the same

The 9 supported visas — D1, D2, D3 / Tech Visa, D4, D6 / Family Reunification, D7, D8, ARI / Golden Visa, CPLP — are open to UK applicants too. The decision tree the Visa Advisor uses (income type, family situation, planned arrival, goal) is identical. So is the timeline: anchor your VFS or consulate appointment date and the journey computes every lead-time backwards from there.

Already a Greenlight user?

If you set your residence country to United Kingdom (or any of: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man) in your Profile, the journey reload picks up the UK adaptations automatically — the FBI task becomes ACRO, the state-criminal task is hidden, and the US tax-return task becomes the HMRC equivalent. No re-onboarding needed.