POSTERN

Portugal

D8 digital-nomad visa. A residence visa for remote workers and freelancers earning at least four times the Portuguese minimum wage from outside Portugal.

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

D8 digital-nomad visa

A one-year residence visa converted into a two-year residence permit, renewable for further three-year periods; a short-stay (under one year) temporary-stay visa is also available for those not seeking residence.

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$4,048
2 people$5,262
4 people$7,690
Time
3–6 months for the visa, longer for the residence-permit appointment given AIMA backlogs.
Cost
About $700–1,300: visa fee, residence-permit fee, health insurance and translations.
The hard part
Proving remote income is genuinely foreign-sourced and stable enough to satisfy the consulate.

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.
  • Same road as the D7: a two-year permit, three-year renewals, permanence after five years.
  • 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 permit itself, but you must not be absent more than 6 consecutive months or 8 months total in any 2-year period.
Tax
Makes you Portuguese tax resident once you pass 183 days/year or keep a habitual home there; freelance and remote-employment income may qualify for IFICI (Portugal's post-NHR tax incentive) only if the work itself falls in a qualifying scientific, technological or innovation activity — most D8 holders otherwise pay ordinary progressive Portuguese tax.

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

5

Start today.

  1. Apply for the D8 visa at the Portuguese consulate for your address.Open gov.pt ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • Proof of steady income: at least $4,048 a month
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health insurance that meets the program’s rules
    • 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

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