Does salary from a remote job count as passive income for the D7?

This mix up is the single most common wasted consulate appointment. The two visas sit next to each other on the same ministry page, the D7 threshold looks friendlier at 920 euros a month against 3,680 for the D8, and people reason that money is money.

Consulates do not read it that way. They ask what produces the income. A payslip and a contract say you produce it, every month, by working. That is exactly what the D8 document list is written for, with its employment contract or employer declaration for employees and its service contracts or written service proposals for independents.

Where the line actually falls

The honest grey zone

Dividends from your own one person company are where advisers disagree, because the money arrives as a distribution but the work behind it is yours. Some files pass. Many are read as disguised salary, especially when the dividend appears monthly in the same amount. If that is your structure, expect to be asked to explain it, and prepare to qualify on the D8 numbers instead.

Mixed households are simpler than they look. If one partner has a pension above the household threshold, the D7 works for both of you, and the other partner can still work in Portugal once the residence permit is issued.

What the D7 lets you do afterwards

The D7 does not forbid working. Once the residence permit is in hand you may work as an employee or as an independent professional. The passive income test is a gate at the consulate, not a lifelong restriction, which is why some remote workers with a genuine rental or pension base choose it deliberately.

Put the two side by side in the Portugal visa comparison guide.