POSTERN

Portugal

D7 passive-income visa. A residence visa for anyone with steady passive income — pension, rent, dividends — pegged to the Portuguese minimum wage.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

D7 passive-income visa

A one-year residence visa converted into a two-year residence permit on arrival, renewable for further three-year periods.

Who qualifies

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

1

Does it fit your family?

3 questions, from the program’s own rules.

Steady monthly income, from any source?

Not legal advice.

2

What it takes.

Income
Steady income each month, rising with each person who moves.
Just you$1,012
2 people$1,265
4 people$1,771
Time
6–12 months for the visa and first residence permit.
Cost
About $600–1,200: visa fee, AIMA residence-permit fee, and certified translations.
The hard part
Documenting stable, recurring passive income a consulate will accept — a single large deposit does not count.

Dollar figures are converted from the local currency at the rate the program’s research used; the official figure is in the local currency.

3

Citizens by 2038.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    2 years, renewable for 3 years at a time.

  2. 2029
    Renew the permit

    Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 3 years.

  3. 2032
    Permanent residence

    Five years on temporary residence permits, basic Portuguese (A2: a CAPLE test such as CIPLE, a Portuguese school certificate or a Português Língua de Acolhimento course), and no prison sentence over one year in those five years.

  4. 2037
    Apply for citizenship

    With a language test and a civics test.

  5. 2038
    Citizenship
Language
Proof by test or certificate of enough Portuguese. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries are presumed to know the language unless they plainly do not. The law sets no level; the old rules asked for A2 (CIPLE), and the new regulation is still awaited.
Civics
New in 2026: a test or certificate showing knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols, plus the rights and duties of citizens and how the state is organised, and a solemn declaration of adherence to the rule of law. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries still have to show the culture and civics part.
Time away
Years of legal residence under any permit are added up, whether continuous or broken, as long as they all fall within a 12-year window (9 years for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals). The clock now starts when the first residence permit is issued, not when it was applied for. Separately, a temporary permit can be cancelled after more than 6 months away in a row or 8 months in total during its validity.
Two passports
Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.
  • The visa becomes a two-year permit, then three-year renewals; permanence after five years, citizenship after ten (seven for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals).
  • The government had 90 days from 18 May 2026 to update the Nationality Regulation with the new test; I did not find the published regulation, so the language level and the form of the culture and civics test are not confirmed.
  • No official decision-time figure found; the registry (IRN) backlog has run to years, but I could not source a range.
  • Whether 'Portuguese-speaking countries' includes Equatorial Guinea (a CPLP member with Portuguese as one official language) is not settled in the text; it is left off the 7-year list.
  • The 6-months-in-a-row / 8-months-total absence rule for keeping a temporary permit comes from the earlier research pass (Lei 23/2007 art. 85), not re-read today.
  • Applications pending on 19 May 2026 stay under the old 5-year law; how years already built up by people who had not filed will be treated awaits AIMA and IRN guidance.
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
The law behind these dates
4

Living there.

Time you must spend there
No fixed day count for the visa itself, but you must not be absent more than 6 consecutive months or 8 months total in any 2-year period, to keep the residence permit.
Tax
Portuguese tax residence follows from spending 183+ days/year or having a habitual home there; the old NHR regime is closed to new entrants but its successor, IFICI (the tax incentive for scientific research and innovation), only applies to qualifying employment or professional income, not passive income, so most D7 holders pay ordinary Portuguese tax on worldwide income.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

5

Start today.

  1. Apply for the D7 visa at the Portuguese consulate for your address.Open gov.pt ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • Proof of steady income: at least $1,012 a month
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health cover for the move
    • A lease or other proof of where you’ll live in Portugal
    • Get the NIF (Portuguese tax number)
6

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

19 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 5 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
7
ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

Cover