Portugal Digital Nomad Visa

The applicant must file proof of average monthly income from professional activity, whether employed or independent, over the last three months, at a minimum equal to four times the guaranteed monthly minimum wage.

In money, that is EUR 3,680 a month in 2026. Decree-Law 139/2025 of 29 December 2025 raised the guaranteed monthly minimum wage to EUR 920 with effect from 1 January 2026, according to the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations.

Because the threshold is set as a multiple rather than a fixed sum, it rises whenever the minimum wage rises. An application filed early in a year and one filed late in it may face different figures if the wage is adjusted in between.

This is a test on the income stream, not on an account balance. For proof of means of subsistence, only income arising from an employment contract, a company incorporation contract or a services contract counts.

What is granted is a temporary residence permit for professional activity carried out remotely for outside the national territory, and its rhythm is uneven: valid for two years from the date the title is issued, then renewable for successive three-year periods.

That two-then-three rhythm is worth recording because it differs from the two-then-two of the investment route run by the same authority.

Four conditions attach to the grant: the absence of any fact which, had the competent authorities known of it, ought to have barred the visa; no conviction for a crime punishable in Portugal by more than one year's imprisonment.

Not being within a period of prohibition on entry and stay following a removal measure; and no indication in the information system under Articles 33 and 33-A of the REPSAE.

The legal basis is Article 88(1) of the REPSAE read with Articles 42-G, 42-H, 51, 53 and 54(1) of Regulatory Decree 84/2007.

One detail shows what the authority worries about on this route: the page lists four administrative offences applicable to the permit and, alongside illegal stay, failure to declare entry and failure to produce a travel document, one of them is unauthorised independent professional activity under Article 198 of the REPSAE.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa portal sets 60 days as the decision period for a residence visa, save for exceptions provided by law. It advises filing early enough for the authorities to assess the application.

The authority states that the documents listed are the base set, and that the consular post reserves the right to request additional documentation. In other words this is the floor of a file, not its ceiling.

If refused, the applicant has three routes, and they are not mutually exclusive. The first is a complaint to the author of the decision within 15 days of notification, lodged at the consular post.

The second is a hierarchical appeal to the member of the Government responsible for foreign affairs within three months. The third is an administrative action before the Lisbon Administrative Court of Circle, also within three months.

Each use of the administrative challenge costs EUR 75 in handling fees. A hierarchical appeal suspends the time limit for going to court, so the applicant can take that route first and then decide whether to litigate.

The immigration agency AIMA does not set a minimum number of days of residence for this permit. The residence condition it does set is about accommodation: the file must carry a sworn declaration of the address of residence stating on what basis the applicant lives there — owner, tenant, sub-tenant, usufructuary, borrower or otherwise.

Anyone living there as owner or usufructuary must produce a land registry certificate or the access code to it; anyone living there as a tenant must produce a declaration from the landlord or the housing provider stating the legal basis of the right of use.

The permit is valid for two years from the date of issue and is renewable for successive three-year periods

The D8 permit page carries no line about family members, because in Portugal family travels by a separate procedure: family reunification under article 98(1) of the REPSAE, for family members who are outside national territory.

The application is made by appointment and filed in person at any Loja AIMA, together with the residence permit of the person already residing in Portugal, an authenticated copy of the family member passport, and proof of means of subsistence.

It also needs a criminal record certificate for the family member from their country of nationality or from the country where they lived for more than a year before coming to Portugal. The last item is a sworn declaration of the address with evidence of the basis of occupation, the same accommodation bundle as the principal file.

The categories of family member can be read off the list of specific documents: a spouse by an authenticated marriage certificate. A partner in a de facto union of more than two years by evidence of that union.

Children by birth certificate, and adult dependent children additionally by evidence of economic dependence and enrolment at an educational establishment in Portugal.

Adopted children by the adoption decision; an incapacitated person by a medical report or a judicial declaration; and a person under guardianship by the guardianship decision recognised by the national authority

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Portugal passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Portugal passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Portugal passport reaches 202 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The file must carry a document attesting the applicant's tax residence. It is a separate item in the list of required documents, meaning the applicant must establish and evidence where they are tax resident before applying to move their residence to Portugal.

After the move, the tax question is answered by Article 16 of the IRS Code. A person is tax resident if they remain in Portugal for more than 183 days, consecutive or not, in any 12-month period beginning or ending in the tax year.

A shorter stay can still make someone resident: it is enough to have, on any day of that period, a dwelling in conditions suggesting an intention to keep and occupy it as a habitual residence. Any day, whole or partial, that includes an overnight stay counts as a day of presence.

Residence begins on the first day of presence and is lost from the last day of presence. For a remote worker spending most of the year here, income from a foreign employer is therefore likely to fall within Portuguese taxation.

The non-habitual resident regime, once weighed by many remote workers, is no longer a way in: paragraphs 8 to 12 of Article 16 were repealed by Law 82/2023 of 29 December 2023.

The fee schedule is Portaria no. 307/2023 of 13 October.

Two lines touch this permit, and the table carries them as separate items, each with two columns, in euro:

The table does not say the two lines combine, so they are not added up here.

The second column is not a different tier of fee: point XIV of the schedule itself provides a 25 per cent reduction where the application is filed through the digital channel.

A second copy of the residence card costs 50 per cent of the issue fee, and a third or later copy 100 per cent.