How to choose a visa for moving to Portugal
This guide is for people who are still choosing their route: passive income, remote work, a job contract, business, study, family or investment. By the end you will know which type of visa to look at first and which practical limits to check before you apply.
First rule out the options that no longer work
Do not plan your move around entering as a tourist and then simply regularising your status inside the country. Manifestação de Interesse (an expression of interest in getting a residence permit) was closed to new applications in 2024, and in 2026 the authorities are also pushing a reform to shut off regularisation through vocational training after entering as a tourist: they want to make a consular visa compulsory. The old advice to ‘come in, register an atividade and apply from inside’ is now risky to use as a plan.
A Schengen tourist visa (type C) is fine for a trip, a scouting visit, volunteering or a short stay, but not for a proper move with a residence permit. To move, people usually choose a national type D visa or the ARI investment route.
If your money comes in passively, look at the D7
Visto D7 (the D7 visa for people with passive income) is usually chosen by pensioners, people living off their capital, and those with income from rent, dividends, interest, royalties and other regular passive sources. It is not a visa for remote work under an employment contract or for active freelancing — the D8 is usually the better fit for that.
The financial threshold is linked to the Retribuição Mínima Mensal Garantida, RMMG (the Portuguese minimum wage). For 2026 the RMMG is €920 a month: for the main applicant the benchmark is at least 100% of the RMMG, a second adult is usually counted at 50% and a child at 30%. The consulate also often wants to see savings in a bank account, usually at least a year’s minimum for the family.
If you work remotely, compare it with the D8
Visto D8 / Digital Nomad (the digital nomad visa) is for people who work remotely for a foreign employer or provide services to clients outside Portugal. What matters here is active remote income: an employment contract, service contracts, invoices, bank statements, and proof that the work is not tied to a Portuguese employer.
The threshold for the D8 is higher than for the D7: it is linked to 4 × RMMG. For 2026 that is 4 × €920, or an average income of €3,680 a month, usually over the last 3 months. If your income is active but you try to apply for a D7, the consulate may be confused or doubt that you have chosen the right type of visa.
If you have a job, a business or a place to study, choose the matching visa
If you have a Portuguese employer, look at Visto D1 (the work visa based on an employment contract). If the job is highly qualified, look at Visto D3 (the visa for highly qualified work), where the position, your qualifications and the salary threshold set by law all matter. If you are coming to build a business or work as an entrepreneur, look at Visto D2 (the entrepreneur visa): you will need a business plan, proof of funds, contracts, and a registered company or atividade where applicable.
For study, people look at Visto D4 (the student visa): you need a place at an educational institution and money to live on. In 2026 it is especially important not to count on the ‘come as a tourist and regularise through courses’ scheme — the rules are being tightened in that direction.
If you are joining family, check the D6 or Reagrupamento Familiar
If the main applicant is already getting or already has a residence permit, the family can go through Visto D6 (the family reunification visa) or through Reagrupamento Familiar (family reunification) with AIMA, if the law and the current booking system allow it. The rules differ for spouses, children and parents; adult children usually need additional grounds, such as study and dependency.
Inside Portugal the route depends on who is in the family. Families with children can use the Reagrupamento portal, but it often works unreliably. For cases without minor children, people in 2026 discussed submitting a request through the AIMA contact form under Article 98(2); in that case it usually matters that the resident has already held a residence permit for 2 years, or is a highly qualified applicant. If the family is moving together, check in advance exactly how your consulate accepts applications and which route is actually open right now.
If you have a large sum to invest, look at the ARI, but carefully
Autorização de Residência para Investimento, ARI (the residence permit for investment, the ‘golden visa’) still exists, but buying property is no longer a standard basis for a new golden visa. These days people mostly talk about investment funds, creating jobs, investing in companies, science or culture.
The sums for the ARI are large, and the process is long and bureaucratic. From 1 March 2026 AIMA fees went up: the figures quoted were €8,418.90 for getting a ‘golden visa’ residence permit and €4,210.30 for renewing it. Do not give a lawyer or an intermediary access to your bank accounts ‘to speed things up’ — there have been criminal cases where money was stolen from clients applying for golden visas.
Check the AIMA fees before you set your budget
On top of the consulate’s visa fees, set aside money for the AIMA stage after you arrive. From 1 March 2026 AIMA raised its administrative fees by up to 33%: for family reunification, work, study, internships, research and volunteering the fee quoted was €133, and for the ARI the sums are much higher.
If you apply through the AIMA portal, keep an eye on paying the DUC. In 2026 AIMA issued a separate warning: if the Reagrupamento fee was only partly paid, you have to pay the rest using the same DUC through a different bank, and if there are problems write to geral@aima.gov.pt with the subject line Portal de Reagrupamento (problemas com DUC).
From 1 March 2026 AIMA raised its fees, and in June 2026 separate guidance appeared on partial payment of the DUC on the family reunification portal.
Check where you are allowed to apply
You normally apply for a national type D visa in your country of citizenship or in a country where you have legal residence. If there is no Portuguese consulate in the country where you hold residence, you can sometimes apply through a neighbouring country, but you need to check this with the specific consulate or visa centre.
Processing times and appointment availability vary a lot. In one place you can wait months just for the application to start being processed; in another it is quicker, but with requests for extra documents. So the choice of country to apply in sometimes matters as much as the choice of visa type.
Before you apply, sort out a bank, NIF and housing
For the D7, D8 and often the D2, consulates want to see a NIF (Portuguese tax number), a bank account or clear proof of funds, and housing in Portugal. With a Russian passport it can be hard to open an account without a residence permit: some banks refuse, others take a long time to check documents; a residence permit from another country, an employment contract, a tax return and a rental contract sometimes help.
With housing, too, do not just book anything for the sake of it. For a residence visa it is safer to have a long-term rental contract; a short contract or a booking may raise questions or only count as temporary proof of address.
Allow for the AIMA stage after you arrive
A national type D visa is usually not the end but the way into the process: after you arrive you have to submit documents to AIMA for an Autorização de Residência (residence permit). Sometimes the appointment is already printed in the visa, sometimes it is not and you have to write to AIMA, phone or wait to be given one.
After 5 years of legal residence you can usually start thinking about citizenship or long-term status, but do not assume that time spent waiting under the old Manifestação de Interesse will count. In recent cases people were given a certificate in which their time was counted strictly from the date the residence permit was issued; in 2026 people also discussed IRN refusing citizenship applications where the Manifestação de Interesse period was one of the reasons.
What it costs, according to community conversations
| savings for the D7 | The figures quoted were €9,120 a year for the first adult, €4,560 for a second adult and €2,736 per child; for 2024 the figures quoted were €9,840, €4,920 and €3,289 respectively. | source |
| income for the D8 | The figures quoted were €3,040 a month with a minimum wage of €760 in 2023 and €3,280 a month with a minimum wage of €820 in 2024. For 2026 the 4 × RMMG formula gives €3,680 a month. | source |
| D7, first adult per year | €9,120 a year | source |
| D7, additional adult | €4,560 a year | source |
| D7, dependant | €2,736 a year | source |
| ARI, venture capital fund | more than €500,000 | source |
| ARI, company capital | €500,000 | source |
What changed
- 28 August 2026 — added a link to the guide on getting into university
- 26 August 2026 — added readers' stories
What to bring
- Passport with plenty of validity left
- Residence permit or other proof of legal residence in the country where you apply, if it is not your country of citizenship
- NIF (Portuguese tax number)
- Proof of income: pension, rent, dividends, employment contract, service contracts, invoices, bank statements
- Bank statement and proof of where the money came from
- Rental contract, invitation or other proof of housing in Portugal
- Criminal record certificate with an apostille or legalisation, if required for your country
- Health insurance for the period of the visa
- Marriage certificate and children’s birth certificates with an apostille/legalisation for the family
- For the D1/D3: an employment contract or a promessa de contrato de trabalho (promise of an employment contract)
- For the D2: business plan, company or atividade registration, contracts, proof of funds for the project
- For the D4: carta de aceitação (letter of acceptance) from the educational institution
- For the D8: remote employment contract or contracts with clients, proof that the work is done remotely
- For the ARI: investment documents, proof of the transfer of funds and a check of how the investment is structured
- For the AIMA or Reagrupamento stage: appointment confirmation, questionnaire/form, DUC and receipts for paid fees
Where people most often trip up
- Manifestação de Interesse has been closed to new applicants: do not carry old schemes for regularising from inside over to 2026
- In 2026 a separate bill is shutting off regularisation through vocational training after entering as a tourist
- People often mix up the D7 and the D8: passive income means the D7, active remote work means the D8
- Income thresholds change with the RMMG minimum wage, so check the figures for the year you apply
- With a Russian passport, a bank may take a long time to check your documents or refuse you without a residence permit
- A short let or a housing booking may not be enough for a residence visa
- Families should work out in advance: accompanying visas, the D6 or applying for reunification once in Portugal
- For family reunification, check AIMA’s current channel: the portal, the contact form, whether there are children, how long the main applicant has held a residence permit, and the DUC payment
- The golden visa is no longer about simply buying property
- Do not give intermediaries access to your bank accounts and do not believe promises to ‘speed up AIMA’
- From 1 March 2026 AIMA fees went up, especially for the ARI
- After a D visa, an AIMA appointment may be missing or given with a delay
- Do not count the time towards citizenship/permanent residence from a tourist entry or from waiting on an old application without checking your documents
How it went for people
Digital nomad visa approved after two refusals
A family applied in Moscow for a digital nomad visa in November, proving their income with the turnover of a sole-trader business selling on an online marketplace. In May 2025 they were refused because the visa type did not match an employment contract, and after an appeal in early July the consulate repeated the same preliminary refusal. When the consulate refused to consider additional documents, supposedly because a deadline had been missed, a lawyer sent a complaint on 25 July setting out the procedure, the deadlines and case law. Two weeks later the visas were approved, and the visa stickers were scheduled for 22 August.
An AIMA appointment won by writing every day
A married couple received D visas in Moscow on 16 May, but there was no AIMA appointment in them. Checking on the SEF website and by phone confirmed there were no slots. For a week and a half they wrote to AIMA every day, changing the subject line each time and asking for an appointment for a first application. In the end both were given an appointment on 3 November in Braga.
Booked for a D7, but applied for a digital nomad visa
A couple had an appointment for a D7 visa in Moscow, but applied for a digital nomad visa instead: the husband’s official income did not meet its requirements, so the wife became the main applicant and the husband was made an accompanying family member — the visa type on his form was corrected just before the application. They could not book appointments for their children, aged six and nine; the consulate said that, as an exception, they could be seen without a separate slot, and the family brought all the documents to one appointment on 9 March. On 2 April everyone’s status changed to ‘analyzed’, and the morning after they emailed the consulate, the reply came that the visa had been approved.
A one-year lease is needed for a D2, but four months is enough for a digital nomad visa
A couple searched for housing all over Portugal and found that it was landlords choosing them, not the other way round: you show the owner proof of income, it helps if you have a NIF, and one tenant is picked from seven or eight candidates. They were turned down almost everywhere, but got lucky with a flat in Porto. You need money for at least three months’ rent in advance plus a deposit, and renting for a year through holiday-let services is expensive. A contract is essential, though: without a one-year lease you will not get a D2 visa, which is what they were applying for, while for a digital nomad visa, as far as they knew, four months is enough.
Retold in our own words from messages in open chats. The link leads to the full original message.