D7 vs D8 Portugal: Which Visa Fits Your Income in 2026?

In practice, the difference is straightforward.

D7 is built around retirement or your own stable income. D8 is built around active remote work for an employer, clients or another business outside Portugal.

If the money you rely on comes mainly from a pension, rent, investments or other qualifying own income, the D7 route may fit. If you are actively working online for a foreign employer or providing services remotely to foreign clients, the D8 route is normally the route that needs to be tested first.

The grey area is usually: founders who pay themselves through their own foreign company, consultants with both active and investment income, or families whose financial file uses several different sources. In those cases, what matters is how the work, contracts and payments are actually set up.

D7 and D8 are for different situations

These two routes are often grouped together because both are commonly used by people who want to relocate to Portugal without taking a conventional Portuguese job before moving.

But they are not interchangeable.

D7 asks: can you live in Portugal from your own stable resources?

The route commonly called D7 covers retirees, recognised religious applicants and people who live from their own income.

For D7, you need to show where the income comes from, how much you receive, how regularly it is paid and that the money is available to support you in Portugal. The legal subsistence calculation also has to cover the household.

D8 asks: are you actively working remotely for an employer or clients outside Portugal?

The remote-work residence visa is expressly designed for employees and independent professionals whose professional activity is performed remotely for persons or organisations domiciled or headquartered outside Portugal.

For D8, you need to prove the remote work itself, not just show money in a bank account.

D7 vs D8 at a glance

The table is useful for orientation, but mixed-income and founder cases often require a closer review.

The 2026 D7 income reference

Portugal's general means-of-subsistence scale uses the minimum monthly remuneration as its reference.

For 2026, that amount is €920.

The basic household arithmetic is:

For a D7 application based on your own income, the important point is not just reaching a number. The application must show that the resources are genuine, stable, regular and available to support the applicant in Portugal.

A large balance or one-off transfer can strengthen liquidity, but it is not automatically the same thing as proving a regular income.

Portugal D7 Income Requirements

The 2026 D8 income test

The D8 residence route uses a different test.

The rule looks at the average monthly income from your remote work over the previous three months. It must be at least four times Portugal's monthly minimum wage.

With the 2026 minimum wage at €920, the current arithmetic is:

€920 × 4 = €3,680 per month

This is separate from the D7 household calculation. It is the D8 income rule.

The application must also show the remote professional relationship.

For an employee, that can include an employment contract or employer declaration.

For an independent professional, the regulations recognise evidence such as a company contract, service contract or evidence of services provided to one or more entities.

You also need to prove your tax residence.

Portugal D8 Visa Guide

Choose D7 when the real basis is your own income

D7 is usually the first route to check when your income mainly comes from:

• retirement or pension income;
• rental income from property;
• income from investments or financial assets;
• income derived from intellectual property;
• a combination of qualifying own-income sources.

The strongest file is not simply the one with the largest bank balance.

It is the one where the origin of the income, the payment history, the household calculation and the 12-month availability all tell the same story.

Example

A retired couple receives a regular pension and rental income from a property abroad.

Their income does not come from remote employment, so D7 is the natural route to check first.

Choose D8 when the real basis is remote professional work

D8 should normally be tested first when you:

• are employed by a company outside Portugal and work remotely;
• freelance remotely for foreign clients;
• provide professional services remotely under service contracts;
• work through a foreign business structure and can document the actual professional relationship and income.

Example

A software engineer employed by a German company plans to work full-time from Portugal and has no Portuguese employer.

This is a remote-work case, not a passive-income case, so D8 is the natural route to check first.

What if you are a freelancer?

Freelancer does not automatically mean D8.

The real question is where your professional activity is directed.

A freelancer who performs remote services for foreign clients may fit D8.

A person whose project is to establish or operate genuine independent professional or entrepreneurial activity in Portugal may instead need the D2 route to be analysed.

D8 vs D2 Portugal: Remote Work, Freelancing or Portuguese Business?

What if you own the foreign company that pays you?

This is one of the cases where a generic checklist is often not enough.

The remote-work regulations recognise a company contract as one possible form of evidence for independent remote activity. That does not mean that every shareholder automatically qualifies.

The application still needs to establish:

• what work you personally perform;
• which entity receives that work;
• where that entity is based;
• how you are paid;
• whether the income test is met;
• whether the structure is genuinely remote or is effectively a Portuguese business project.

A founder may therefore need D8 and D2 compared before any company or visa steps are taken.

What if you have both passive income and remote-work income?

Mixed income does not create a new visa category.

You still need to choose the route that best matches the work and income supporting the application.

For example:

• pension plus occasional investment income may remain a D7-style case;
• pension plus a full-time remote job may mean D8 needs to be checked instead;
• foreign-company income plus an intention to establish Portuguese operations may require D8 and D2 to be compared.

The safest approach is to sort out the income and work pattern before you prepare the documents.

Do D7 and D8 both lead to residence in Portugal?

Yes. Both are residence-visa routes that lead to a second residence stage in Portugal.

The consular visa is not the residence card.

After entry, the applicant completes the Portuguese residence stage under the applicable procedure and AIMA verifies the residence conditions.

Temporary residence generally starts with a two-year permit and can then be renewed for three-year periods.

Can family move with you?

Family planning should be done at the same time as route planning.

The answer depends on:

• who is the main applicant;
• the relationship between family members;
• whether family applications are filed together or through a later family route;
• the additional resource calculation;
• civil-status documents;
• document legalisation and translation.

Do not treat the main applicant's income test as the complete family file.

Common route-selection mistakes

1. Calling all online income "passive"

Salary and professional fees do not become passive simply because the work is performed online.

2. Choosing D8 because the number looks safer

A higher income does not make D8 the better route if the underlying activity is not remote professional work for foreign employers, clients or businesses.

3. Choosing D7 because the threshold is lower

The lower arithmetic does not allow an active remote-work file to be re-labelled as own income.

4. Forming a company before deciding whether D2 is actually required

Company formation can be useful in the right case, but it should follow the route analysis, not replace it.

5. Ignoring family and document geography until the end

A route may look straightforward for the main applicant but become complicated because of marriages, previous divorces, children, multiple countries of residence or criminal records from several jurisdictions.

How to choose between D7 and D8

Step 1: identify how you actually earn

Pension, property, investments, salary, freelance services, company activity or a combination.

Step 2: separate your own income from income earned through active work

This is the central D7/D8 distinction.

Step 3: identify where the employer, clients or company are based

This is critical for D8.

Step 4: calculate the applicable income test

Do not mix the D7 household calculation with the D8 four-minimum-wage income rule.

Step 5: add the family

Spouse, partner, children and other qualifying dependants can change the document and financial architecture.

Step 6: confirm where you should apply

You still need to file through the Portuguese consulate, visa centre or other channel that is competent for where you live.

Step 7: build only the application that matches the chosen route

Do not prepare a D7 application and later try to turn it into D8, or the reverse, after the evidence has already been collected.

If you want us to handle it

We can review the way you earn, your contracts, the countries involved and your family structure before you commit to a route.

For a D7 case, we can handle the process from the initial route check through the consular application and the residence stage in Portugal.

For D8 and other residence routes, we can check which route fits, prepare the document list and support the residence process in Portugal.

Not sure whether your case is D7 or D8?

Send us a short description of:

• your nationality;
• where you legally live now;
• how you earn;
• where your employer or clients are based;
• who is moving with you.

You may also need

• Portugal D7 Visa Guide
• Portugal D7 Income Requirements
• Portugal D8 Visa Guide
• D8 vs D2 Portugal
• Residence Permits in Portugal
• Portugal D7 Visa Legal Support