Portugal visa options in 2026: Schengen 90/180, D8, D7, D2, the golden visa and EU registration

People often ask which Portuguese visa is easiest. The Portuguese system does not rank visas by difficulty: it sorts applicants by the source of their money, and each source has its own file.

Question one: how long. Under 90 days in any rolling 180 day window, with a passport from a visa exempt country such as the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan or Brazil, you need nothing. Over 90 days there is no workaround and no border hop that resets anything. You need a national visa issued by a Portuguese consulate before you fly.

Question two: where the money comes from. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs document list splits residency applicants by income type, and mixing them up is a common reason a file gets sent back.

1. A salary or client invoices paid from abroad belong in the remote work file, the D8.
2. Pensions, rent, dividends, royalties and interest belong in the passive income file, the D7.
3. A company you want to build in Portugal, or services you will invoice as an independent professional established here, belong in the D2 file.
4. Capital you want to invest without living here points to the golden visa.

Two traps. The first is filing a remote salary as passive income because the D7 threshold looks friendlier. It is earned income, the consulate reads the evidence, and a salary slip in a D7 file invites a refusal (does salary from a remote job count as passive income for the D7). The second is assuming a higher threshold means a better visa. The D7, the D8 residence track and the D2 lead to the same two year residence permit and the same five year path to permanent residence. They differ only in the door you walk through.

Question three, if the answer is a D8: temporary stay or residence. A temporary stay visa covers a stay of under a year with multiple entries. A residency visa is valid four months with two entries and exists to get you to AIMA for a residence permit. One is a long trip; the other is the first day of a residence history.

For the whole country picture, start at our Portugal page. To let a machine do the sorting, run your passport, dates and income through Visa Check, which reads the same dated rules this page cites.

The Portuguese visa portal gives short stays a maximum of 90 days in any 180 day period, and the same allowance applies to visa exempt travellers. The word that matters is "any": there is no annual reset and no per country quota.

How to count. For the day you want to check, look back 179 days. Count every day you were inside the Schengen area in that window, arrival and departure days included, plus the day you are checking. The total must stay at 90 or below. Days come back one at a time as they age out of the window, which is why long stayers get their allowance back slowly rather than all at once.

A worked example. You land in Lisbon on 1 March and leave on 29 May: 90 days, allowance gone. On 28 August, 1 March has aged out of the window, so one day is free. The full 90 only comes back on 25 November, when the whole March to May block has left the window. Days in Spain, France or Italy come out of the same 90.

Since 10 April 2026 the counting is automatic. The EU Entry/Exit System started a progressive rollout on 12 October 2025 and became fully operational on 10 April 2026. It replaces passport stamping and detects overstayers automatically, so a missed stamp is no longer an argument.

Overstaying. We do not publish a euro figure for the fine because no official Portuguese table gives one. The lasting cost is the record, which follows you to every later crossing and application. Count your days with Leave By Check, read can I do a visa run from Portugal to reset my 90 days, and find the full counting method in our Schengen 90/180 guide for Portugal.

The D8 is the visa for people whose employer or clients are somewhere else. The official document list asks for "proof of average monthly income for the last three months with a minimum value equivalent to four monthly minimum guaranty remuneration", plus proof of the work and a document attesting fiscal residence.

Four times the minimum wage is 3,680 euros a month in 2026. The government raised the minimum wage from 870 to 920 euros for 2026, set by Decree-Law 139/2025 of 29 December. The tripartite agreement targets 970 euros in 2027 and 1,020 euros in 2028, which would move the D8 line to about 3,880 and then 4,080 euros. Only the wage in force on the day you apply counts.

Savings on top. Consulates expect a balance of about 11,040 euros for a single applicant, twelve months of the minimum wage. That is practice rather than a line in the regulation, but advisers report it consistently.

The two tracks. The temporary stay D8 is valid for the whole stay, under one year, with multiple entries, and can be extended once for a further year; it builds no residence history. The residence D8 is a four month, two entry visa whose job is to get you to AIMA; the permit that follows runs two years, then renews for three year periods, and counts toward permanent residence and citizenship. The D8 temporary stay versus residence answer is the short version.

Where the money comes from. The income has to originate outside Portugal. A file built mainly on Portuguese invoices belongs on the D2, and consulates read the invoices.

Family income is disputed. One reading adds 460 euros a month for a spouse and 276 per child, another applies the percentages to the 3,680 euro threshold. Our post on the D8 family add on sets out both, and what people get wrong about the D8 income test covers how the income is proved. Documents, costs, refusals and the stage by stage timeline are in the D8 guide. If you are paid in dollars or pounds, convert each month with Currency Check and keep a margin.

One route that no longer exists. The manifestação de interesse, which let people already in Portugal regularise from inside the country, was abolished on 3 June 2024 by Decree-Law 37-A/2024. You apply at the consulate covering your place of residence.

The D7 is the cheapest residence route to qualify for, provided your money arrives without you working for it. The document list asks retirees for a document certifying the amount of the pension, and everyone else for a document certifying "revenue from movable and immovable property; intellectual or financial assets".

What counts. Pensions, state or private. Rent from property you own, anywhere. Dividends. Interest. Royalties from books, music, patents or licensed software. What matters as much as the amount is that it looks durable: six years of dividends read differently from one good year.

What does not count. A salary from a remote job, freelance invoices, consulting retainers, or drawings from a business you work in every day. That income belongs in the D8, even though its threshold is four times higher.

The 2026 numbers. The visa portal's means of subsistence page weights each household member against the 920 euro minimum wage: 100 percent for the first adult, 50 percent for each further adult, 30 percent for each child. Its own example for two adults and two children totals 1,932 euros a month. Consulates also expect a Portuguese bank balance of about twelve months of the household figure, roughly 11,040 euros for a single applicant.

No age condition. The D7 is the visa retirees use, but nothing in it requires a minimum age. A thirty five year old living on rental income qualifies on the same test as a pensioner.

Work rights. You cannot use future Portuguese work to meet the income test, but advisers read the law as allowing a D7 holder to work in Portugal, as an employee or independent professional, once the residence permit is issued. If your plan depends on a Portuguese job in year one, put that question to a lawyer before you file.

The short versions are at what is the D7 passive income requirement and D7 vs D8: which one should a remote worker choose.

The D2 covers two profiles the other visas do not: the person setting up or moving a company to Portugal, and the independent professional who will be established here and invoice from here. The document list asks an entrepreneur for evidence of the investment operations and for "proof of financial means available in Portugal, including those obtained through a financial institution in Portugal", and a liberal professional for a contract or written service proposal plus, where the profession is regulated, proof of professional competence.

There is no legal minimum. No decree sets a euro figure for the D2. What consulates weigh is the business plan: the market, the numbers, the capital behind them and whether the project is real. Advisers report that about 11,040 euros of savings per adult is expected, and that capital of 50,000 to 100,000 euros reads as a serious company. A consular decision commonly takes two to three months, the fee is the same 110 euros as every national visa, and the permit that follows runs two years then renews for three.

D2 or D8 when you run your own online business. If your clients are abroad and your three month average clears 3,680 euros, the D8 is simpler: no business plan, no Portuguese company. Choose the D2 when you want to invoice Portuguese clients as a matter of course, when you want a Portuguese company for contracts or hiring, or when your income is real but lumpy and a three month average will not clear the D8 line.

What the file contains. Beyond the general residency documents, expect a written business plan, evidence of the company or the steps taken to register it, a Portuguese bank account holding the declared capital, a NIF, and often a lease or a registered address. Much of this has to exist before the consular appointment.

The caveat. The D2 is the most discretionary route on this page. Two applicants with identical numbers can get different answers because one plan was specific and one was a template. Read what is the D2 visa and does it work for freelancers before you decide it is the easy option.

You cannot buy a house in Portugal and get a golden visa, and you have not been able to since 7 October 2023, when Lei 56/2023, the Mais Habitação package, removed residential, commercial and rehabilitation property from the qualifying list. Many pages that rank for this question were written before that date.

What still qualifies.

1. A subscription of 500,000 euros in an investment fund that holds at least 60 percent of its investments in Portuguese companies and has a maturity of five years or more.
2. 500,000 euros of scientific research funding.
3. A 250,000 euro donation to arts and cultural heritage (one adviser source quotes a range from 200,000).
4. 500,000 euros of capital in a Portuguese company, with five jobs created.
5. The creation of ten jobs, with no minimum capital.

What AIMA charges. The AIMA fee table in force since 1 March 2026 lists 842.80 euros for the reception and analysis of a golden visa request and 8,418.90 euros for granting the permit, per applicant, with the same amounts for reunited family members. A renewal is 4,210.30 euros. The table's digital column is 25 percent lower. Some adviser pages still quote 533 and 2,905 euros; those figures do not match the current table, and the amount on your own DUC is the one that binds you.

What you get. A residence permit with a light presence requirement: advisers describe seven days in the first year and fourteen days in each later two year period. You are not required to live in Portugal, which is the whole appeal for someone whose life is elsewhere. Golden visa holders are also exempt from the two year sponsor wait for family reunification.

What it no longer gets you quickly. Reported processing varies widely: Jobbatical puts golden visa files at 12 to 18 months on average, Global Citizen Solutions at roughly two to three years, and GetWhereNext reported an average of 39.6 months from submission to card. Citizenship now takes ten years for most nationalities, counted from the date the permit is issued, so the old fast track passport pitch is gone.

Our reading for remote workers. If you intend to live and work in Portugal, the golden visa is the wrong instrument: the D8 costs 110 euros at the consulate and starts the same residence clock sooner. The golden visa suits people who want a European base without moving and can lock up the capital for years.

There are two ways to get a spouse, a partner or a child to Portugal, and the gap between them is now measured in years.

Route one: apply together. Consulates accept accompanying family members on the main applicant's national visa file. Everyone files at the same post at the same time, the main applicant proves enough income for the household, and each person pays the 110 euro fee, except children under six.

Route two: family reunification afterwards. Lei 61/2025, published on 22 October 2025 and in force the next day, rewrote this path. A sponsor normally needs two years on a valid residence permit before filing. Couples who documented more than eighteen months of life together before arrival wait fifteen months. Parents of minor children, holders of the D3 highly qualified permit and golden visa holders keep immediate access.

The order of operations. The sponsor files with AIMA in Portugal first. Only after a favourable decision does the family member apply for a D6 family reunification visa at the consulate abroad. AIMA has nine months to decide, extendable in complex cases but not where children are involved. Reunited family members are expected to take Portuguese language and civic training, and minors must attend school.

What this means in practice. If there is any realistic chance of your partner joining you, apply together. For unmarried couples, start documenting cohabitation now: a joint lease, joint bills and a registered partnership certificate are what fifteen months instead of twenty four is built on.

The exception. Non EU family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens fall under Lei 37/2006, not Lei 61/2025, and pay no Schengen visa fee. See how long do I wait before bringing my family to Portugal and the family section of the residence permit and citizenship guide.

If you hold an EU, EEA or Swiss passport, none of the visas above applies to you. You have a right of residence under Lei 37/2006, which transposes Directive 2004/38, and one obligation that many people only hear about when they need the paper.

The CRUE. The certificado de registo de cidadão da União Europeia is the registration certificate for stays over three months. You request it at the câmara municipal where you live, within thirty days after your first three months in the country, and it covers residence of up to five years. Bring your passport or national ID card, your NIF, proof of address, and proof that you work, study or can support yourself.

Cost and speed. The fee table AIMA publishes lists 15 euros through the digital channel and 18 euros at a counter for an adult over 25. Porto issues the certificate the same day for an in person request, or within about ten working days online; other municipalities set their own pace.

Why it matters later. The CRUE is your dated proof of when your residence began. Permanent residence comes after five years and naturalisation, for EU citizens, after seven years under the 2026 rules. The question at that point is not when you arrived but what you can prove, and registering is a legal obligation in any case.

NIF first. A Portuguese tax number is free and same day in person at a Finanças office. The full sequence is in our first month admin guide, and the short answers are at do EU citizens need a visa to live in Portugal and how do I get the CRUE certificate.

The published fees are small and the total cost is not.

At the consulate. A national visa, whether D2, D7 or D8, temporary stay or residence, costs 110 euros per applicant. A Schengen short stay visa, for nationalities that need one, costs 90 euros, 45 euros for children aged 6 to 12, and nothing under 6 or for family members of EU, EEA and Swiss nationals. Children under 6, descendants joining under family reunification, Portuguese study scholarship holders and highly qualified researchers are exempt from the national visa fee. An appeal against a refusal costs 75 euros, except in family reunification cases.

At AIMA. The AIMA fee table in force since 1 March 2026 puts a temporary residence permit, first grant or renewal, at 133.00 euros for reception and analysis plus 114.30 euros for the permit: 247.30 euros at a counter, or 185.60 euros through the digital channel. Adviser figures of about 440 euros circulate; the amount on your own DUC is the one you owe. The residence permit guide takes the table line by line.

The lines we will not price. Apostilles and certified translations vary by country and document too widely for a useful range, and visa centre service fees vary by country and appear at booking. Private health insurance for the visa starts around 30 to 60 euros a month on a basic Portuguese plan.

The costs that are not fees. About 11,040 euros parked in a Portuguese account for a single D7, D8 or D2 applicant, and a twelve month registered lease signed from abroad, which in Lisbon usually means a deposit plus advance rent months before you move in. The comparison for the two most used routes is at how much does a Portugal D7 or D8 visa cost in total.

Timelines. Global Citizen Solutions reported six to nine months from consular application to residence card for the D8 as of June 2026. AIMA's own report counts 337,880 new residence titles issued in 2025, 55 percent more than in 2024, plus 189,331 renewals, yet biometrics appointments still run one to three months out and up to six in busy periods. Since April 2025 AIMA refuses incomplete files outright. Our post on why AIMA files still wait covers the queue.

Read the table downwards: find the row whose money test matches yours, then check whether the stay and the citizenship column give you what you came for.

Three traps the table cannot show.

1. The temporary stay D8 is a dead end by design. One year, extendable once, and nothing about it counts toward permanent residence or citizenship. That suits a deliberate trial year and fails anyone who thought they were building a residence history.
2. The citizenship clock changed on 19 May 2026. Lei Orgânica 1/2026 set naturalisation at ten years of legal residence for most nationalities and seven for EU and CPLP nationals, counted from the date the residence permit is issued. Applications submitted on or before 18 May 2026 keep the old five year rule. Permanent residence stayed at five years, with A2 Portuguese. Our post on permanent residence at five years while citizenship moved to ten works through it.
3. A residence permit is not a travel pass. A temporary permit can be cancelled after more than six consecutive months, or more than eight months in total, outside Portugal during its validity. The arithmetic is in how much travel a permit allows.

Our tie breakers. Passive income above 920 euros a month: D7. Remote salary or foreign client income above 3,680 euros a month and a card in view: residence D8. The same income but one year without AIMA: temporary stay D8. A company, Portuguese clients or lumpy income: D2. Capital to place and no plan to live here: golden visa. An EU passport: none of the above, just the CRUE.

A visa decides whether you may live in Portugal. It decides nothing about what you pay there.

No visa is a tax deal. Portugal makes you a tax resident on its own tests: more than 183 days in the country in any twelve month period starting or ending in the tax year, or a home kept in conditions that suggest habitual residence. A D8 permit does not trigger that by itself, and holding no permit does not protect you from it. The rules are in our income tax guide.

No visa qualifies you for IFICI. NHR closed to new residents from 2024. Its replacement, IFICI, taxes qualifying employment and self employment income at a flat 20 percent for ten consecutive years, and it is granted by activity rather than by visa: every route runs through a Portuguese employer, a certification or a research institution. A remote employee of a foreign company with no Portuguese entity usually fails every route, whatever visa they hold. The route by route check is in our IFICI guide.

No visa shortens the citizenship clock. Ten years for most nationalities, seven for EU and CPLP nationals, counted from the permit issue date, and a golden visa buys no exception. Filed in May 2026 and unsure which rule applies? Read how the 10 year rule treats applications filed in May 2026.

No visa registers you anywhere else. The NIF, the bank account, the NISS and the SNS number are separate queues that run in a particular order, and the first month admin guide sequences them.