Free State-Funded Portuguese Lessons in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Português Língua de Acolhimento Courses, the 150-Hour A1 to A2 Path, the Six 25-Hour Modules, and the Certificate That Replaces the Nationality Language Test

If you are a foreign resident in Portugal on any track that ends in permanent residence, long-term resident status or a Portuguese passport, you will eventually have to prove you speak Portuguese to A2 level. Most people assume that means paying for a private course and then paying again to sit an exam. It does not have to. The Portuguese state runs a course that produces exactly the certificate those three regimes accept, it is open to almost anyone with a foothold in the country, and in the great majority of cases it costs nothing.

It is called Português Língua de Acolhimento (Portuguese as a Host Language), universally shortened to PLA. This guide sets out who can enrol, what the course actually consists of, where it runs, what the certificate is worth, and how it compares with the paid alternatives. September, when school clusters and training centres publish their offer for the new academic year, is the natural moment to sign up.

What PLA is, and what it replaced

PLA courses were created by Portaria n.º 183/2020 of 5 August, amended by Portaria n.º 184/2022 of 21 July. The 2020 portaria repealed the older Português para Falantes de Outras Línguas (Portuguese for Speakers of Other Languages) courses set up in 2009, which had themselves grown out of the Português para Todos (Portuguese for All) programme.

The stated purpose sits in two halves. The first is ordinary language teaching: reading, writing and speaking. The second is legal, and it is the reason the course exists in the form it does. PLA is designed to satisfy the Portuguese-language requirement written into the rules for acquiring Portuguese nationality, for obtaining a permanent residence permit, and for long-term resident status.

Who can enrol

The threshold is deliberately low. Since the 2022 amendment, PLA is open to anyone aged 16 or over whose mother tongue is not Portuguese, or who does not hold basic, intermediate or advanced Portuguese-language competences under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

On documents, you need to be a holder of a residence permit, or to present one of the following:

• proof that you have started the procedure to extend your stay in Portugal, or to obtain or renew a residence permit;
• proof that you have lodged an application for international or temporary protection;
• proof that you have been assigned a NISS (Número de Identificação de Segurança Social, Social Security Identification Number).

The 2022 amendment also brought in holders of short-stay seasonal work visas, temporary stay visas and residence visas. In its own published guidance, AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo, Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) goes further and describes the courses as open to eligible people "regardless of their regular situation in the country," which is why the NISS route matters: a social security number, on its own, is enough to get you into a classroom.

If you do not yet have one, our guide to getting your NISS covers the routes.

What it costs

AIMA's answer is short and honest: yes, PLA courses are free, "in the great majority" of cases, although this can depend on the type of provider and on whether the particular course is co-financed by EU funds. In practice, courses run by public schools, IEFP centres and Centros Qualifica are free at the point of use. Always confirm with the specific provider before you commit, and be sceptical of any operator charging you a fee to "enrol you" in a PLA course.

How the course is built: two paths of 150 hours

PLA is not one course but two, and each is capped at 150 hours.

Percurso A (A1 + A2), Utilizador Elementar (Basic User), maximum 150 hours, built from six modules of 25 hours each. These are Unidades de Formação de Curta Duração (Short-Duration Training Units, UFCD) drawn from the Catálogo Nacional de Qualificações (National Qualifications Catalogue):

• Level A1: UFCD 6452, Me and my daily routine (25 hours); UFCD 6453, Eating habits, culture and leisure (25 hours); UFCD 6454, The human body, health and services (25 hours).
• Level A2: UFCD 6455, Me and the world of work (25 hours); UFCD 6456, My past and my present (25 hours); UFCD 6457, Communication and life in society (25 hours).

Percurso B (B1 + B2), Utilizador Independente (Independent User), also capped at 150 hours:

• Level B1: UFCD 6397UI, Me, society and culture (50 hours); UFCD 6398UI, Me and others (25 hours); UFCD 6399UI, Cultural affairs (25 hours).
• Level B2: UFCD 6400UI, Society and life projects (50 hours); UFCD 6401UI, Current affairs (25 hours).

Two footnotes on the B path are worth knowing. UFCD 6399UI deepens cultural knowledge of the host country and is not compulsory for B1 certification if you have already completed 6397UI and 6398UI. And although the listed hours add up to more than 150, the official position is that the teaching is flexible and the total for completing B1 and B2 is always treated as 150 hours.

Separately, the catalogue holds UFCD 10647, Graphic dimension and alphabet in Portuguese for users of other writing systems, worth 25 hours. It is added when learners use a script other than the Latin alphabet, and it is the piece of the design that most often goes unmentioned in general advice about learning Portuguese.

You do not have to start at the bottom

Two provisions of the portaria matter more than anything else for an adult who already speaks some Portuguese.

First, providers are required to assess your starting level and place you at the proficiency level that assessment indicates. You are not automatically dropped into A1 because you are foreign.

Second, and more usefully: obtaining a given proficiency level is not conditional on having completed the level below it. If you test into A2, you do not need to sit through A1 first. For someone who has been living in Portugal for three or four years and has picked up conversational Portuguese without ever certifying it, this is the difference between 150 hours and a much shorter route to the paperwork.

Where the courses run, and how to find one

PLA is delivered through three networks:

• Public basic and secondary schools, through DGEstE (Direção-Geral dos Estabelecimentos Escolares, Directorate-General for School Establishments);
• IEFP (Instituto do Emprego e da Formação Profissional, Institute for Employment and Vocational Training) employment and vocational training centres, both directly run and protocol-based;
• Centros Qualifica, the network of adult qualification centres.

To find one, search the Portal da Oferta Formativa (Training Offer Portal) using "Português Língua de Acolhimento" in the course name field. Then contact the school, training centre or Centro Qualifica directly: enrolment procedures, start dates, timetables and any additional requirements are set locally, not nationally.

If the portal search leaves you no wiser, there is a human fallback. AIMA's Direção de Serviços de Promoção da Língua Portuguesa (Portuguese Language Promotion Service) will tell you which schools, training centres or Centros Qualifica are nearest to your home or workplace. The published contact address is [email protected].

Why a course may not open near you

Groups must have no fewer than 15 and no more than 20 learners. Smaller or larger groups are allowed only by exception, with authorisation from the competent service, and the portaria specifically contemplates geographic-coverage grounds for granting one.

This is the single most common reason a rural or small-town applicant hears "not this term." It is not discretion being exercised against you; it is a quorum. Two practical responses follow. Put your name down anyway, because providers open groups when the numbers arrive. And ask about distance learning: since the 2022 amendment, PLA courses may run wholly or partly online where the technical and pedagogical conditions are met, which has widened access considerably outside the metropolitan areas.

Timetables, by law, must be flexible so that the offer can be adapted to learners' needs, which in practice means evening and weekend groups exist and are worth asking for. Teaching is delivered by qualified Portuguese teachers, preferably with specific training in Portuguese as a foreign or second language, or by trainers with equivalent specialist training.

The certificate, and exactly what it proves

Passing the full set of modules for a level produces a certificate on the model annexed to the portaria, issued through SIGO (Sistema de Informação e Gestão da Oferta Educativa e Formativa, the national education and training offer information system). Where a course has been run by a partner organisation rather than a public school or IEFP centre, the certificate must be homologated by one of those two. Duplicate copies come from the issuing body; if that body no longer exists, the responsibility falls to the national qualifications agency.

Article 11 of the portaria then does the load-bearing work. A certificate attesting completion of level A2 or above proves knowledge of Portuguese for the purposes of:

• Portuguese nationality, under Article 25(2) of Decreto-Lei n.º 237-A/2006 of 14 December, the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Nationality Regulation), in its current wording;
• A permanent residence permit, under Article 64(1)(e) of Decreto Regulamentar n.º 84/2007 of 5 November;
• Long-term resident status, under Article 74(1)(g) of the same regulation.

AIMA confirms all three in its published questions and answers, and adds the point that saves people the most trouble: if you hold a PLA certificate at A2 or above, you are exempt from sitting the Portuguese language test for nationality, the test commonly called the "prova da nacionalidade."

How PLA compares with the paid routes

The nationality regulation, as amended in 2022, accepts six different proofs of Portuguese. Ranked by what they cost you:

• PLA certificate at A2 or above. Free in most cases. Costs you 150 hours of attendance, or fewer if you test in above A1.
• School certificate. If you attended a recognised Portuguese school, public, private or cooperative, and passed Portuguese or Português Língua Não Materna (Portuguese as a Non-Native Language) in at least two school years, that certificate is accepted on its own. Foreign parents frequently overlook that their own children's schooling can qualify them.
• The public language test. A pass certificate from a test taken at a public school in Portugal, or at a Camões Institute accredited location abroad. Administered by IAVE. Free to sit, but it is a single sitting with no course attached.
• A Portuguese as a Foreign Language certificate from a centre recognised through CAPLE (Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira, Centre for the Evaluation of Portuguese as a Foreign Language). This is the CIPLE family of exams, covered in our guide to CIPLE, DEPLE and DIPLE. Paid, and the fastest route if your Portuguese is already there.
• An A2-or-above certificate under the old 2009 portaria. Still valid if you did one of the predecessor courses years ago. Dig it out before paying for anything new.
• A qualifications certificate covering Portuguese-language units inside a dual-certification qualification from the National Qualifications Catalogue, totalling at least 100 hours. This is the route that quietly rewards anyone who has done vocational training in Portugal.

The honest comparison is about time versus money. If you already speak Portuguese comfortably, a paid CAPLE exam is one afternoon and done. If you do not, PLA gives you the teaching and the certificate together, at no cost, and the teaching is the part you actually need.

The bridge to a Portuguese qualification

One provision of the portaria is easy to miss and worth real money. Learners with low qualifications, or who cannot obtain documentary proof of the schooling they do have, must be referred by their PLA provider to the Centros Qualifica network, so that their qualification pathway can continue. Centros Qualifica then handle recognition, validation and certification of competences and the recognition of non-higher-education qualifications obtained abroad. And the PLA modules themselves can be capitalised towards a Portuguese school qualification or a dual certification.

In other words, the free language course is also the front door to converting undocumented foreign schooling into a Portuguese certificate. If your qualifications are at higher-education level, that is a different process, covered in our guide to recognising a foreign academic qualification.

Who runs the system

Oversight sits with the Grupo de Trabalho PLA, created in 2021 as an informal national monitoring commission and formalised under the 2022 portaria. It is coordinated by AIMA and includes the national qualifications agency, DGEstE and IEFP. Note that the 2020 portaria repeatedly assigns outreach duties to the Alto Comissariado para as Migrações (High Commission for Migration); that body no longer exists, and AIMA now performs the role, including through the CNAIM and CLAIM migrant support centres.

What this means for you

• On a nationality track: the 2026 reform that doubled the residency requirement to ten years for most non-EU applicants changed the clock, not the language standard. A2 remains the bar, and the longer wait is an argument for getting the certificate out of the way early rather than late.
• On a permanent residence track: the same A2 certificate does the job under Article 64(1)(e). Our guide to the Autorização de Residência Permanente sets out how that application fits together.
• If you are working full time: ask specifically about evening groups and distance delivery. Both are provided for in law, and neither is offered by default.
• If you already speak decent Portuguese: insist on the diagnostic assessment and ask to be placed at A2 or in the B path. Skipping the level below is expressly permitted.
• If you use a non-Latin script: ask whether UFCD 10647 is being run alongside your course. It exists precisely for you and adds 25 hours.
• If you are job hunting: the IEFP centres that run PLA are the same network covered in our guide to finding a job in Portugal as a foreigner. Registering once puts you in front of both.
• If you already did a course years ago: check the paperwork before repeating anything. Certificates from the 2009 courses at A2 or above still count, and so do old Português para Todos units.

The PLA system is the least publicised piece of Portugal's integration architecture and one of the few that costs the user nothing. Its weaknesses are real: groups need 15 people to open, provision is thin outside the cities, and nothing about the enrolment process is centralised. Its strength is that at the end of 150 hours you hold the single document that three separate legal regimes accept without argument. September is when the groups form. It is the month to ask.