Immigration
Portugal D7 Visa: Requirements and Process in 2026
The D7 gives non EU citizens with passive income legal residence in Portugal. See the 2026 income thresholds, the documents, and the real timeline
The Portugal D7 visa is the residence route for people whose income does not depend on working. Retirees are the classic case, but the visa is written broadly enough to cover anyone living on rent, dividends, royalties or financial returns. It carries no investment requirement, no job offer, and no minimum property purchase, which makes it the least expensive way into Portuguese residence for anyone who already has income arriving without effort.
It is also the visa most often applied for by the wrong people. The paragraphs below set out what the law actually requires in 2026, where applications fail, and what changed in the last year, because two reforms have rewritten parts of this route since October 2025.
What the Portugal D7 visa is
The D7 is a residence visa issued by a Portuguese consulate. The name is administrative rather than statutory, which is why you will not find a D7 chapter anywhere: it is the label consulates use for the residence visa granted to people who live on their own income. What the visa does is fixed. It is valid for two entries, it allows you to stay for four months, and a decision is due within 60 days of a complete submission. What it does not do is let you live here. It lets you enter in order to apply for a residence permit, which is a separate document issued after you arrive.
The same consular category also covers retired persons and religious ministers. The passive income branch is the one this guide covers, and the financial rules for it sit in Portaria 1563/2007, which pegs the requirement to the national minimum wage and updates automatically every year.
What the visa leads to
Once you attend your appointment with AIMA and receive the residence card, you can live and work in Portugal, use the public health service, enrol children in state schools, and travel in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180. The first card is valid for two years. Renewals run in successive three year periods.
Who qualifies for the D7 and who does not
Any citizen of a country outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland can apply. Nationality is not otherwise a filter. What matters is the nature of the income.
Qualifying Income
Pensions: state, occupational or private, including social security payments from the country you are leaving
Rental income: from property anywhere, provided the payments are regular and documented
Dividends and interest: from company holdings, bonds, funds or deposits.
Royalties: from intellectual property, licensing or published work
Annuities and trust distributions: where the payment schedule is fixed and evidenced
D7 or D8
The two visas lead to the same residence permit, the same permanent residence timeline and the same naturalisation timeline. They differ only in what pays for your life. The D7 asks for 920 EUR a month in 2026 and accepts only income that arrives without work, so salary, client fees and drawings from a business you run do not count toward it. The D8 asks for four times that, 3,680 EUR, and requires the opposite, active income paid by a person or company outside Portugal. If your money comes from work, the higher threshold is not optional. Our guide to the D8 covers that route in the same detail.
Portugal D7 visa income requirements in 2026
Portaria 1563/2007 sets means of subsistence per household member as a percentage of the national minimum wage, which is 920 EUR a month in 2026. The first adult counts for 100%, each additional adult for 50%, and each child under 18 or dependent adult child for 30%.
Single applicant: 920 EUR a month, 11,040 EUR a year.
Couple: 1,380 EUR a month, 16,560 EUR a year.
Couple with one child: 1,656 EUR a month, 19,872 EUR a year.
Couple with two children: 1,932 EUR a month, 23,184 EUR a year.
The twelve month rule
This is the part most guides miss, and it is where budgets break. The two figures above are cumulative, not alternatives. You have to receive the monthly amount, and you have to hold twelve months of it in a Portuguese bank account when you apply, because article 5 of the same portaria requires the means to be assured for a period of not less than twelve months and available in Portuguese territory. Availability is read literally: the account has to be a Portuguese one, in your name, and the money has to be in it before you apply.
A single applicant therefore shows 920 EUR arriving every month and 11,040 EUR in the account. A couple shows 1,380 EUR a month and 16,560 EUR in the account. With one child it is 1,656 EUR and 19,872 EUR, and with two it is 1,932 EUR and 23,184 EUR.
Documents you need
Completed and signed national visa application form
Passport valid for at least three months beyond the arrival date
Two recent passport photographs
Proof of passive income: pension award letters, tenancy agreements, dividend or interest statements, royalty agreements, according to your specific situation
Bank statements for the six months before the application, showing that income arriving
Statement from the Portuguese bank covering the twelve month benchmark
Signed lease or equivalent proof of accommodation in Portugal
Criminal record certificate from your country of nationality or residence, apostilled
Travel insurance valid in the Schengen area for the period of the visa
Portuguese tax number (NIF)
Authorisation for AIMA to consult your Portuguese criminal record
Motivation letter
How to apply for the D7
Get a NIF: You need it to sign a lease and open a bank account, and both feed the visa file. It can be obtained remotely through a tax representative before you set foot in Portugal
Open a Portuguese bank account: This is where the twelve months of subsistence has to sit, so for the D7 it is not optional in the way it is for other routes. It is also useful at the AIMA appointment
Secure accommodation: A signed twelve month lease in your name. The start date can fall on or shortly after your planned arrival. If you already own property in Portugal, the deed does the same job
Assemble and legalise the documents: Apostilles, and certified translations where the original is not in Portuguese, English or Spanish
Book the consulate appointment: Slots can go months ahead. Book before your documents are complete, not after.
Attend in person and pay the visa fee: Submission is at the consulate or its outsourced visa centre
Wait for the decision: The legal deadline for a residence visa is 60 days from a complete submission. Consulates frequently take longer, and nothing follows from that, so treat 60 days as the earliest realistic answer rather than the date to plan around
Travel to Portugal inside the four month validity: The visa allows two entries
Attend the AIMA appointment: Often scheduled automatically and printed on the visa. If it is not, you book it yourself
What happens after you arrive
The visa gets you into the country. The residence permit is what makes you a resident, and AIMA issues it at your appointment, where you bring the originals of everything the consulate saw plus proof of health coverage.
The card runs for two years and then renews for three at a time. That first renewal matters more than people expect, because it is the second time anyone reads your file. Income, address and insurance all get looked at again, and for the D7 the question is whether the income that qualified you is still arriving.
Registering at your local health centre is what opens access to the public system, and it is worth doing on arrival rather than when you first need it. Tax does not work the same way: holding the residence card does not by itself make you a Portuguese tax resident, and section 8 covers what does.
Absences count against you at that renewal. Extended periods outside Portugal during the permit's validity can lead to cancellation unless the reason is documented and accepted. If you intend to split the year between two countries, plan that calendar in the first year rather than the second.
Bringing your family
Law 61/2025, in force since 23 October 2025, changed this significantly. There are now two routes with very different timing, and which one you are in depends on when your family travels.
If your family travels with you, their applications are submitted alongside yours at the consulate as accompanying family. No prior residence period applies, because you are not yet a resident. The household income threshold from section 3 applies in full.
If you move first and bring family later, you are in the family reunification regime. The holder of the residence permit must generally have held it for two years, reduced to fifteen months for a spouse or equivalent partner. Minor and incapacitated dependent children are exempt from any waiting period.
Tax on the D7 visa
Holding the visa does not make you a tax resident. Spending 183 days in Portugal in any twelve month period does, as does keeping a home here in conditions that suggest you intend to occupy it habitually. Once you are resident, Portugal taxes your worldwide income, including the pension or rent that qualified you for the visa in the first place.
Holding the visa does not make you a tax resident. Spending 183 days in Portugal in any twelve month period does, as does keeping a home here in conditions that suggest you intend to occupy it habitually. Once you are resident, Portugal taxes your worldwide income, including the pension or rent that qualified you for the visa in the first place.
Permanent residence and citizenship
Organic Law 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026, rewrote article 6 of the Nationality Law, and any guide written before that date is wrong on this point.
United States, United Kingdom, Canadian and other non EU nationals: ten years of legal residence, previously five.
European Union nationals and citizens of Portuguese speaking countries: seven years.
The counting method changed as well. Time now runs from the issue of the residence card rather than from the date of the application, so months spent waiting on AIMA no longer count toward the total. The requirements are heavier too: alongside the A2 language test, applicants must demonstrate knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols, of fundamental rights and duties and of the political organisation of the State, and sign a declaration of adherence to the principles of the democratic rule of law. Parts of this are still awaiting regulation.
Permanent residence was not touched by the reform. It remains available after five years of legal residence, and for most D7 holders it is now the realistic first destination rather than a step passed on the way to a passport. It carries almost everything citizenship carries in daily life: you live and work without restriction, use the same public services, and stop renewing your status every few years. What it does not give is an EU passport, so moving to another member state and voting in national elections stay out of reach.
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