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
What the Portugal D7 visa is
The D7 visa Portugal issues to people living on their own income is granted by a consulate abroad, never by AIMA. The name is administrative rather than statutory, which is why you will not find a D7 chapter in any law: it is what consulates call the residence visa for people living on their own income, a category that also covers retired persons and religious ministers. The financial rules sit in Portaria 1563/2007, which pegs the requirement to the national minimum wage and moves with it every year.
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 visa is valid for two entries and allows a stay of four months, and a decision is due within 60 days of a complete submission. It does not make you a resident. It lets you enter in order to apply for a residence permit, which AIMA issues after you arrive.
What the visa leads to
Once you attend the AIMA appointment 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 runs for two years, and renewals run for three at a time.
Who qualifies for the D7
The D7 is for citizens of countries outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
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 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 from outside Portugal. 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%. Article 5 of the same portaria adds a second condition: those means have to be assured for a period of not less than twelve months and available in Portuguese territory.
Income Rules
The two conditions are cumulative. You have to receive the monthly amount, and you have to hold twelve times that amount in a Portuguese bank account in your name when you apply.
Single applicant: 920 EUR a month, plus 11,040 EUR in the account
Couple: 1,380 EUR a month, plus 16,560 EUR in the account
Couple with one child: 1,656 EUR a month, plus 19,872 EUR in the account
Couple with two children: 1,932 EUR a month, plus 23,184 EUR in the account
Documents you need
A foreign account does not satisfy the availability condition, whatever the balance on it. That is why the NIF, the Portuguese account and the transfer belong at the start of the process.
These are minimums, and two things can move you under them between building the file and attending the appointment. Income in dollars or pounds is converted on the day someone reads it, so a pension of 1,000 dollars clears 920 EUR at one rate and falls short of it a few cents away. The threshold itself rises every January with the minimum wage. If your income sits close to the line, build the file against the worst rate of the last twelve months rather than the rate on the day you print the statements.
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 get a D7 visa for Portugal
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.
Health and tax registration
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.
Renewal and absences
The card runs for two years and then renews for three at a time, so the renewals fall at year two and year five. Each one checks that the income that qualified you is still arriving, that the address is current, and that health coverage is in place. Year five is also when permanent residence becomes available.
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.
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.
Travelling together
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.
Coming later
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.
How pensions are taxed
Foreign pensions are taxed at the ordinary progressive rates, which run across nine brackets, with the top marginal rate of 48% applying to income above roughly 86,000 EUR. The flat 10% that the original non habitual resident regime applied to pension income is closed to new arrivals.
Why IFICI does not apply
IFICI (NHR 2.0) does not help here. Eligibility runs through seven categories in article 58-A(1) of the Tax Benefits Statute, each verified by a different agency, and each one attaches to an activity: research, teaching, work for an exporting company, a certified startup. Passive income qualifies under none of them. A D7 holder who also takes qualifying work in Portugal is a different case, and worth assessing before arrival, because registration closes on 15 January of the year after you become resident. Our IFICI guide sets out the seven categories and the bar on each.
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.
Citizenship after Organic Law 1/2026
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 at five years
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.
FAQ Section