# Portugal D8: Digital Nomad Visa (Residence and Temporary Stay) > Full 2026 D8 guide: €3,680/month income, €11,040 savings, temporary stay vs residence, AIMA delays and ação de intimação, IFICI, social security, and the new 10-year citizenship clock. Author: Алёна Дунаева — юрист, Family Office (https://wiki.private.law/authors/dunaeva) Last modified: 2026-07-14T09:31:00.000Z Canonical: https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-d8 Topics: migration Jurisdictions: portugal Semantic tags: digital-nomad-visa, permanent-residence, residence-permit --- ## Context Portugal was among the first in Europe to bet on remote workers: the 2022 amendments to the foreigners' law (Lei 18/2022) created the D8 visa — a dedicated channel for people working for foreign employers or clients while living in the country. Where the [golden visa](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-golden-visa) asks for an investment, the D8 asks for verified income from abroad: Portugal admits a solvent person who earns outside and spends inside, without touching the local labour market. The bet paid off: by autumn 2025, per aggregated data, roughly 9,300 applications had been filed and about 7,700 approved (approximately 82%; AIMA publishes no official per-visa statistics); the largest applicant groups are Americans, Brazilians and Britons. But 2026 changed the calculus twice: the migration agency AIMA never climbed out of its queues, and the May citizenship reform doubled the path to a passport. The D8 remains a strong visa — it is simply planned on a different horizon now. ## Legal Basis: Two Different D8s The visa lives in Lei 23/2007 (the foreigners' law) and Decreto Regulamentar 84/2007, both amended in September–October 2022. There are two variants, and confusing them is costly. **The Temporary Stay Visa** (art. 54(1)(i) of the law, art. 18-B of the regulation) — a temporary-stay visa for up to one year, multiple entry, extendable in-country. It carries no residence title: time on it counts toward neither permanent residence nor naturalisation. The format for living out a season or a year without commitments. **The Residence Visa** (art. 61-B of the law, art. 31-A of the regulation) — the "real" route: a 4-month, two-entry visa during which you pass biometrics at AIMA and receive a residence permit — the first for two years, renewed for three. This is the road to permanent residence and citizenship. The big migration reform of autumn 2025 (Lei 61/2025, in force 23 October 2025) left the D8 channel itself intact but tightened family reunification considerably — more below. > ⚙️ Choosing the variant means choosing the horizon. Temporary stay is lighter on commitments but "burns" without a trace; the residence route is longer and more bureaucratic, but every month after the card is issued works toward permanent status. Since 2026 that difference costs more: the passport now takes ten years, and losing years on a status that builds no clock has become expensive. ## Money: the 2026 Thresholds The income requirement is pegged to the minimum wage (SMN): average income over the last three months of at least four times the minimum. In 2026 the SMN is €920 a month (DL 139/2025), so the D8 bar is **€3,680 per month**; the government's trajectory takes the minimum to €970 in 2027 and €1,020 in 2028, so the bar will keep rising. On top of income, consulates expect savings of roughly twelve minimum wages — **€11,040** in an account. De facto this must be a Portuguese bank account: Wise or Revolut statements are routinely rejected. Family raises the bars: savings grow by 50% for a second adult (€5,520) and 30% per child (€3,312). Count with a margin: Portuguese salaries are paid fourteen times a year, so annual figures in statements do not always match a simple twelve-month multiplication, and large fresh deposits on the eve of filing look bad and invite source-of-funds questions. ## Process: the Consulate, Then AIMA You file at the Portuguese consulate or VFS centre of your place of legal residence. By law a national-visa decision takes 60 days; in reality the consular stage runs one to four months depending on the post. The fees are moderate: about €90 for the visa (plus a VFS service fee of ~€30–40) and around €170–185 for the residence card at the AIMA stage. The good news of 2025–2026: the residence visa now comes with a pre-booked AIMA biometrics appointment — no more hunting for slots. The card arrives 2–12 weeks after biometrics. The bad news is AIMA itself. The agency that inherited SEF's queues remains the bottleneck: 1,847 complaints were filed against it in January–November 2025 (+6.5% year-on-year), its satisfaction index sits at 18 out of 100, and in June 2026 nine law firms lodged a collective complaint with the Ombudsman on behalf of 1,260 clients. Door-to-card in a calm scenario: 4–9 months. > ⚙️ The working tool against a stalled AIMA is the ação de intimação: an administrative court orders the agency to decide. The claim is filed within a year of the agency missing its statutory deadline and became mass practice in 2025–2026. Watch the other storyline too: on 11 June 2026 parliament passed, at first reading, the abolition of deferimento tácito — "tacit approval" upon deadline expiry; if enacted, AIMA's delays will stop working in the applicant's favour. ## Documents The core file: passport, proof of remote work (an employment contract with the employer's remote-work statement — or client contracts and proof of services rendered for freelancers), proof of income for three months, bank statements for three to six months (post-dependent), health insurance for the visa period, criminal record certificates from the country of citizenship and countries of residence over a year — apostilled, translated and no older than 90 days, consent to a Portuguese records check, and accommodation for **twelve months**: a lease registered with Finanças, a title deed, or an invitation. Two items are handled in advance, before filing. The **NIF** — the Portuguese tax number — can be obtained remotely through a fiscal representative and is needed for everything: bank, lease, insurance. The **Portuguese bank account** — the savings must sit in it; it is opened with the NIF, and many banks allow remote onboarding. > 💡 The sequence "NIF → account → lease → filing" is the skeleton of the whole application. The most common formal refusals: savings not in a Portuguese bank, a lease shorter than twelve months or unregistered, an expired [apostille](https://wiki.private.law/en/apostille) on the criminal record certificate. ## Taxes: Residency, IFICI and Social Security The D8 grants the right to live in the country; tax status is a separate calculation. After [183 days](https://wiki.private.law/en/tax-residency-basics) — or once you have a permanent home — you become a Portuguese tax resident and, as a general rule, pay on worldwide income at progressive rates up to 48%, plus the solidarity surcharge of 2.5% (above €80,000) and 5% (above €250,000). The old NHR regime closed in 2024. Its heir, [IFICI](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-ifici) ("NHR 2.0"), offers a flat 20% for ten years and an exemption for most foreign income — but the entrance is narrow: certified startups, exporters (>50% of revenue), R&D entities and the professions of Portaria 352/2024 (directors, science and engineering, ICT specialists), with an EQF-6 degree plus three years' experience or a PhD, and registration by 15 January of the following year. **The typical D8 holder — an employee of a foreign company or a freelancer with foreign clients — usually does not qualify** and stays on the general scale. An extra plot twist: in May 2026 the Constitutional Court struck down the "professions by portaria" mechanism in the old NHR, and lawyers are testing the same objection against IFICI — watch the practice. A separate line — social contributions, the item D8 plans forget most often. A freelancer gets a twelve-month holiday, then pays 21.4% on 70% of relevant income with quarterly declarations. For an employee of a foreign company physically working from Portugal, the employer is by default required to register with Segurança Social (23.75% employer + 11% employee) — unless there is an A1 certificate (EU) or a totalization agreement (the US one works, capped at five years; Russia has none). On the pleasant side: crypto held over 365 days is not taxed at all (short holds — 28%), and crypto-to-crypto swaps are not a taxable event. ## Permanent Residence and Citizenship: the New 2026 Math The permanent residence permit is available after five years of legal residence (art. 80 Lei 23/2007) — unchanged. What changed is citizenship. > 🧭 Organic Law 1/2026 (published 18 May, in force 19 May 2026) raised naturalisation from five years to **ten** (seven for EU and CPLP nationals) and reset the clock: time now runs **from the issuance of the first residence permit**, not from the application date as the 2024 reform allowed. A language exam and a history, culture and civics test were added. Citizenship applications filed by 18 May 2026 are processed under the old five-year rule. The practical arithmetic for a 2026 arrival: the visa plus the AIMA wait do not count; card issued in 2027 — passport around 2037 (2034 for CPLP). For the temporary-stay variant none of this exists: it builds no residence clock at all. ## Family: the Rules Tightened The Lei 61/2025 reform reset family reunification: the sponsor must hold a residence permit for **two years** before applying (15 months if 18+ months of pre-arrival cohabitation is documented). Exceptions: minor and dependent children, the golden visa, and Blue Card/highly-qualified holders; the transitional 180-day window closed on 22 April 2026. Reunification decisions take up to nine months. The practical takeaway: families used to filing "as a train" in one package now more often give each adult their own visa — a second D8, a D7 or a student visa; consular practice in the transition is unsettled. A spouse arriving through reunification receives full work rights; a spouse on their own D8 — remote work for foreign clients only. New residents also acquired an integration condition: mandatory language and civic modules tied to permit validity. ## Typical Mistakes 1. **Large fresh deposits** on the eve of filing — the consulate reads them as painted-on savings and asks for source of funds. 2. **Savings not in a Portuguese bank.** Wise/Revolut is the most common reason a file gets sent back. 3. **A lease shorter than 12 months or unregistered** with Finanças; an Airbnb booking works as an address for the first weeks, not as proof of accommodation. 4. **Expired apostilles and certificates**: 90 days is a hard bar, and the FBI check for Americans itself takes 6–8 weeks. 5. **Mixing up D7 and D8**: passive income (rent, dividends, pensions) is the D7 at 1× SMN (€920); active remote work is the D8 at 4× SMN — misclassification sinks the file. 6. **Betting on "file and wait"** with a stalled AIMA — instead of the ação de intimação, which resolves it through court. 7. **Expecting NHR benefits by inertia**: IFICI is not NHR; the ordinary remote worker usually faces the general scale up to 48%, and that is worth knowing before the move, not after. 8. **Forgotten social security**: the foreign employer's registration with Segurança Social, or A1/totalization — the question that surfaces after relocation and costs real money. 9. **The wrong horizon**: the "five years to a passport" plan expired on 19 May 2026; count ten from the card. ## Portugal Against the Alternatives Against its neighbours the D8 remains the most "residence-like" of the nomad visas: [Croatia](https://wiki.private.law/en/croatia-nomad-visa) gives up to 18 months with a statutory tax zero but no path to permanent residence; [Spain](https://wiki.private.law/en/digital-nomad) takes a lower threshold (~€2,850) and offers the [Beckham regime](https://wiki.private.law/en/beckham-law) but demands the social security question be solved at the door; [Italy](https://wiki.private.law/en/italy-nomad-visa) filters by qualification and gives the typical remote worker no tax break; [Greece and Cyprus](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-cyprus-nomad) play with tax regimes (the 50% relief, non-dom) at comparable thresholds. Portugal wins on English-friendly infrastructure, climate and the ladder to permanent status — and loses on AIMA's bureaucracy and the new ten-year citizenship horizon. ## Where the D8 Sits in the Flags > 🔗 **Related** > [Portugal IFICI (NHR 2.0)](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-ifici) · [Portugal Golden Visa](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-golden-visa) · [Italy digital nomad visa](https://wiki.private.law/en/italy-nomad-visa) · [Greece and Cyprus](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-cyprus-nomad) · [Croatia](https://wiki.private.law/en/croatia-nomad-visa) · [Routes to EU citizenship](https://wiki.private.law/en/eu-citizenship-routes) · [Tax residency: basics](https://wiki.private.law/en/tax-residency-basics) · [Exit taxes](https://wiki.private.law/en/exit-taxes-overview) · [Five Flags theory](https://wiki.private.law/en/five-flags) The D8 closes Flag 5 — the place where you physically live — and does not solve Flag 2, tax residency. The working combination has three parts: the D8 itself (in the residence variant, if the horizon is long), a deliberately chosen tax regime — IFICI for those who pass the professional gate, or an honest reckoning with the general scale — and a clean break with the previous tax nexus, including a possible [exit tax](https://wiki.private.law/en/exit-taxes-overview). For those aiming at an EU passport, the D8 remains one of the few nomad statuses where that is possible at all — just on a ten-year horizon now. ## Primary Sources > 🔗 [Decreto Regulamentar 4/2022](https://www.sef.pt/en/Documents/Decreto%20Regulamentar%20%204-2022%20of%2030%20September%20-%20INGLES.pdf) (arts. 18-B, 31-A — both D8 variants) · [Vistos MNE: deadlines and procedure](https://vistos.mne.gov.pt/en/national-visas/general-information/deadlines) · [DGERT: SMN 2026 = €920](https://www.dgert.gov.pt/retribuicao-minima-mensal-garantida-para-2026) · [Organic Law 1/2026 — citizenship reform](https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/lei-organica/1-2026-1123539996) · [PwC: IRS rates](https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/portugal/individual/taxes-on-personal-income) · [Cuatrecasas: IFICI](https://www.cuatrecasas.com/resources/lf-ifici-eng-677ba0011b479873899005.pdf) > 🍓 The D8 is the right to live in Portugal on income from €3,680 a month (4× the 2026 SMN) and savings from €11,040 in a Portuguese bank, with a choice between temporary stay and the residence route. The visa and the tax regime are separate decisions: IFICI reaches few, and social contributions are calculated before the move. And the passport, since May 2026, means ten years from the first card — plan accordingly. *This material is analytical reference, not individual legal advice. Thresholds, fees and timelines change — verify the rules in force on your filing date.* --- --- ## Factual claims - The visa lives in Lei 23/2007 (the foreigners' law) and Decreto Regulamentar 84/2007, both amended in September–October 2022. - The big migration reform of autumn 2025 (Lei 61/2025, in force 23 October 2025) left the D8 channel itself intact but tightened family reunification considerably — more below. - On top of income, consulates expect savings of roughly twelve minimum wages — €11,040 in an account. - The good news of 2025–2026: the residence visa now comes with a pre-booked AIMA biometrics appointment — no more hunting for slots. - The D8 grants the right to live in the country; tax status is a separate calculation. - The old NHR regime closed in 2024. - A separate line — social contributions, the item D8 plans forget most often. - On the pleasant side: crypto held over 365 days is not taxed at all (short holds — 28%), and crypto-to-crypto swaps are not a taxable event.