(+351) 932 224 792 
info@luznurcapital.com Our Trusted Partner
D7 — Passive Income Visa
Portugal's D7: residency on income you already hold.
The D7 grants residence to non-EU nationals whose recurring passive income — pension, rents, dividends, interest — is sufficient to support them in Portugal. The 2026 threshold is €11,040 a year for a single applicant.
It is the most accessible residence route Portugal offers, and the one most often misunderstood. The threshold is modest; the physical presence obligation is not, and the tax position has changed materially since most published guidance was written.
What the D7 Is
The simplest route, and the most misread.
The D7 has no investment requirement, no business plan, and no incubator. It asks one question: can you support yourself here without drawing on the Portuguese state. If your income is recurring, documented, and clears the threshold, the file is straightforward — and refusal rates are the lowest of the residence visas.
Two things are routinely misread. The first is presence. The D7 is a relocation visa: you are expected to be present at least sixteen months in every twenty-four-month permit period. It is not a standby residency for people who visit occasionally, and applications structured on that assumption tend to unravel at renewal rather than at grant.
The second is tax, and it is the more expensive misreading. A great deal of published material still describes Portugal as offering a ten per cent flat rate on foreign pensions. That regime is closed, its replacement does not cover pension income at all, and a retiree arriving in 2026 will be taxed on pensions at ordinary progressive rates. Anyone who moved on the strength of the old figure has a materially different outcome than the one they modeled.
The D7 remains an excellent route to Portugal. It is no longer a tax route to Portugal. Those are different propositions, and the difference should be established before anything is filed.
Qualifying Income
What actually counts as passive.
Income must be recurring, predictable, and evidenced — not merely present at the moment of application. Consulates assess stability as closely as amount, and a single large payment does not establish either.
Pensions
State, occupational, and private pensions, including drawdown arrangements and SIPPs. The clearest form of qualifying income, since the payment record is documentary and the stream is by definition durable.
Rental income
Rents from property held anywhere, supported by leases and a payment history. Gross rent is not the measure — a consulate will look at what actually reaches you after financing and costs.
Dividends and interest
Distributions from securities, funds, and private holdings, together with deposit and bond interest. A distribution history of some years carries far more weight than a portfolio valuation.
Royalties and intellectual property
Licensing income, royalties, and receipts from intellectual property, where the underlying agreements are in place and the stream is established rather than projected.
What does not qualify
Salary. Consulates are increasingly refusing D7 files where the income is active employment, however it is presented. Remote employment belongs on the D8; Portuguese commercial activity belongs on the D2.
Savings alongside income
Most consulates expect twelve months of the applicable threshold held in a Portuguese account at submission — €11,040 for a single applicant. Capital does not substitute for income, but its absence weakens an otherwise sound file.
The threshold is a floor, not a target. Files at or barely above the minimum attract scrutiny; comfortable headroom, evidenced over several years, is what makes an application unremarkable.
The Parameters
The terms, as they stand in 2026.
Thresholds are tied to the national minimum wage and are reassessed annually. They are applied as at the date of the appointment, not the date the file was opened — so a case opened in late 2026 with an appointment in 2027 will be measured against the new figure.
Eligibility
Non-EU, non-EEA, non-Swiss nationals, aged 18 or over, with a clean criminal record, a Portuguese tax number, and a Portuguese bank account.
Income threshold
€920 per month, €11,040 per year, for a single applicant — one hundred per cent of the national minimum wage. Add 50% for a spouse or partner (€5,520) and 30% for each dependent child (€3,312).
Worked example
A couple with one dependent child requires €11,040 + €5,520 + €3,312 = €19,872 a year, or €1,656 a month, in evidenced recurring passive income.
Savings
No statutory minimum, but twelve months of the applicable threshold in a Portuguese account is the working expectation at submission. Practice varies between consulates.
Accommodation
Evidence of somewhere to live in Portugal — a lease of at least twelve months, a deed of purchase, or a formal accommodation undertaking.
Entry visa
Four months, two entries, issued by the Portuguese consulate with jurisdiction over your legal residence.
Residence permit
Two years initially, renewable for three-year periods on evidence that the income and the presence obligations continue to be met.
Physical presence
Presence of at least sixteen months within each twenty-four-month permit period, and no single absence exceeding six consecutive months. This is the heaviest presence obligation of the routes on this site.
Work rights
Permitted. D7 holders may take employment or work self-employed in Portugal. The passive income is what qualifies you; it does not restrict you afterwards.
Family
Spouse or registered partner, minor children, dependent adult children in full-time education, and dependent parents, concurrently or by later reunification. Other dependants may qualify in defined circumstances.
Government fees
Consular visa in the region of €90; AIMA residence permit approximately €155 per applicant. Health insurance, translation, apostille, and legal costs sit outside this.
Indicative timeline
Commonly six to twelve months end to end — faster than the D2, since there is no business plan to assess. Consular scheduling and AIMA biometric availability remain the principal variables.
Permanent residence
Eligible after five years of legal residence.
Naturalization
Ten years of legal residence for most nationalities; seven for nationals of CPLP member states and the European Union, under Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026. A2 Portuguese required.
The Tax Position
The change most retirees still miss.
Meeting the D7 presence obligation will make you Portuguese tax resident, and Portuguese tax residents are taxed on worldwide income. For a retiree, that is the defining financial consequence of the move — larger, usually, than every other cost combined.
The Non-Habitual Resident regime, which applied a flat ten per cent to foreign pension income, is closed to new entrants and its transition window has passed. Anyone already registered continues on the old terms for the balance of their ten years. Nobody arriving now can access it.
Its successor, IFICI, is a narrow incentive aimed at scientific research, innovation, and defined highly qualified activities. It does not cover pension income, and passive income generally — pensions, dividends, rents — falls outside it. The typical D7 applicant does not qualify, and should plan on that basis rather than hope otherwise.
Pension income is therefore taxed at ordinary progressive IRS rates, which run from roughly 13% at the bottom of the scale to 48% at the top, after a pension-specific deduction. A moderate pension commonly produces an effective rate in the high teens to low twenties — reasonable by European standards, but a long way from ten per cent, and not what most published guidance still implies.
Where you are taxed depends on the agreement
Portugal has double taxation agreements with more than seventy countries, and they allocate taxing rights by income type rather than uniformly. Government and state pensions are frequently reserved to the paying country, while private and occupational pensions typically fall to the country of residence. Two retirees with identical gross income can face materially different outcomes depending on nationality and pension type.
Most of the cost is decided before you arrive
The expensive mistakes are made in the months before residency begins — realizing gains in the wrong year, taking a lump sum on the wrong side of the move, leaving a structure in place that Portugal treats differently from your home jurisdiction. Once tax residence starts, most of those options have closed.
We are not tax advisers, and this page is not tax advice. What we do is make sure the modelling happens with qualified counsel before the file is opened, rather than in the first Portuguese tax year — when it is too late to change anything.
The Sequence
From first document to residence card.
The D7 is procedurally simple, which is precisely why files fail on sequence rather than on substance. Several steps depend on an earlier one having completed.
Route and tax review
Confirm the D7 is correct for your income type, and model the Portuguese tax outcome against your current position before anything is filed. This is the step most applicants skip and most regret skipping.
NIF and bank account
A Portuguese tax number first — non-residents outside the EU require a fiscal representative — then a Portuguese bank account, which must hold the evidenced savings before submission.
Income evidence assembled
Pension statements, lease agreements, dividend records, and at least six months of bank statements showing the income actually arriving. Consistency across documents matters more than any single figure.
Accommodation secured
A twelve-month lease or a purchase. Worth treating as a housing decision rather than a documentary one — this is the address you will register, and moving later creates avoidable administration.
Dossier completed
Criminal record certificates covering every country of residence over the preceding year, health insurance valid in Portugal, passport, and the financial evidence. Documents require apostille and certified translation.
Consular submission
Filed at the Portuguese consulate or VFS centre with jurisdiction over your legal residence. Decisions commonly issue within sixty days where the file is complete.
Entry and AIMA biometrics
The visa permits entry for four months, within which biometrics must be completed. Appointment availability is the dominant variable and should be pursued the moment a travel date is fixed.
Permit, renewal, consolidation
A two-year card conferring full residence and work rights, access to the public health and education systems, and Schengen travel. Renewal at year two for three further years, permanent residence at year five.
The Alternatives
The right instrument, not the nearest one.
The category is determined by how you earn, not by what you would prefer. Choosing wrongly is the most expensive error in Portuguese immigration, because it usually surfaces after documents have been apostilled.
D7 — Passive income
Retirees and the financially independent. €920 per month in recurring passive income. Heavy presence obligation. No access to IFICI in most cases.
D8 — Digital nomad
Remote employees and freelancers with non-Portuguese clients. Approximately €3,680 per month, four times the minimum wage. May open the door to IFICI where the occupation qualifies — a materially different tax outcome from the D7 on the same income.
D2 — Entrepreneur
Founders, business acquirers, and independent professionals with Portuguese activity. No fixed investment, but a credible business plan and genuine economic activity here.
Golden Visa
Investors who want residence without relocating. A qualifying investment, most commonly €500,000 into a regulated fund. Real estate no longer qualifies. Presence of roughly seven days a year — and, critically, no automatic Portuguese tax residence.
For someone whose objective is a European base rather than a European life, the comparison that matters is not cost. It is that the D7 makes you tax resident and the Golden Visa, on its seven-day requirement, generally does not.
A Candid View
When the D7 is the wrong instrument.
We would rather decline an engagement than take a client through a route that will not hold. Four situations recur.
The move is built on the old tax regime
If the arithmetic only works at ten per cent on pensions, it does not work. That regime is closed. Model the move at ordinary progressive rates and see whether it still holds — many do, but the ones that do not should find out now.
You do not intend to live here
Sixteen months in twenty-four is a real obligation, and it is checked at renewal. If the honest plan is a season a year, the Golden Visa exists for exactly that and carries a different tax consequence besides.
The income is really a salary
Presenting employment income as passive is a refusal waiting to happen, and consulates have become notably less tolerant of it. The D8 is the correct route, and on many occupations the better tax outcome.
The income clears the floor and nothing more
Meeting €920 exactly is technically sufficient and practically fragile. Portuguese living costs are lower than most of Western Europe but they are not nominal, and a file with no headroom invites questions it need not invite.
Set against that, for someone genuinely relocating with durable income, the D7 remains the most straightforward path into the European Union that exists. Low threshold, no investment, full work rights, the whole family, and permanent residence at five years.
Our Role
We coordinate the mandate; they advise.
Luznur Capital is not an immigration firm. The filings are executed by the licensed legal partners we work alongside, who carry professional responsibility for their opinions. What we contribute is the property and financial architecture around the move — which, on a D7, is most of what determines whether it works.
Route and tax coordination
An honest view on whether the D7 fits your income and your intentions, and introduction to tax counsel so the position is modeled against your treaty and pension type before residence begins rather than after.
Where to live, and on what terms
The lease or purchase that satisfies the consular requirement, sourced as a housing decision rather than a document. Lisbon, Cascais, the Algarve, Porto, Comporta, Madeira — assessed on climate, healthcare access, community, and cost, not only on price.
Acquisition and settlement
Most D7 clients rent first and buy once they know the district. We handle the acquisition when it comes, including off-market, and coordinate banking, private healthcare, and the practical apparatus of relocation through our concierge partners.
Engagements involving prominent families, public figures, or multi-jurisdictional structures are held to the same standards of discretion that govern all of our work. Confidentiality is the precondition, not a feature.
Questions
The points most often misunderstood.
How much income do I need?
€920 per month, €11,040 per year, for a single applicant in 2026 — one hundred per cent of the national minimum wage. Add 50% for a spouse and 30% for each dependent child. A couple with one child therefore needs €19,872 a year. These are floors; comfortable headroom evidenced over several years makes for a much stronger file.
Is Portugal still a low-tax destination for retirees?
Not in the way it was. The NHR regime's flat ten per cent on foreign pensions is closed to new entrants. Its successor, IFICI, does not cover pension income, and most D7 applicants do not qualify for it on any basis. Pension income is taxed at ordinary progressive IRS rates, from roughly 13% to 48%, after a pension-specific deduction. A moderate pension commonly lands in the high teens to low twenties effectively — competitive within Europe, but not the figure much older guidance still quotes.
How much time must I spend in Portugal?
At least sixteen months within each twenty-four-month permit period, with no single absence longer than six consecutive months. This is a genuine relocation obligation and is checked at renewal. It is also, in practice, what makes you Portuguese tax resident.
Can I work on a D7 visa?
Yes. D7 holders have full work rights and may take employment or work self-employed in Portugal. The passive income is what qualifies you for the visa; it does not restrict what you do once you hold the permit. What it cannot be is the other way round — you cannot qualify on salary and call it passive.
Does remote work income qualify?
No. Remote employment is active income and belongs on the D8, which requires approximately €3,680 per month. Consulates have become notably less tolerant of D7 files built on salaried income however it is characterized. On many occupations the D8 is also the better tax outcome, since it can open access to IFICI where the D7 cannot.
Do I need savings as well as income?
There is no statutory savings requirement, but most consulates expect to see twelve months of the applicable threshold held in a Portuguese bank account at submission — €11,040 for a single applicant. Capital does not substitute for recurring income, but its absence weakens an otherwise sound file, and practice varies between posts.
Can I bring my family?
Yes. Spouse or registered partner, minor children, dependent adult children in full-time education, and dependent parents may be included, either concurrently or through family reunification. Each addition raises the income you must evidence. Other dependants may qualify in defined circumstances and should be raised early rather than late.
When can I apply for citizenship?
Permanent residence is available after five years. Naturalization requires ten years of legal residence for most nationalities, or seven for nationals of CPLP member states and the European Union, under Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026. An A2 level of Portuguese and a clean criminal record are also required. The treatment of residency accrued before the reform remains unresolved and should be reviewed with counsel on the specific facts.
Do I need to buy property?
No. A twelve-month lease satisfies the accommodation requirement, and most of our D7 clients rent first and buy once they have lived in a district long enough to choose properly. Portugal places no restriction on foreign ownership, and no residence permit is required in order to buy. Note that property no longer qualifies for the Golden Visa, so a purchase carries no immigration benefit in itself.
How long does the D7 take?
Commonly six to twelve months end to end, which is faster than the D2 because there is no business plan to assess. The consular decision itself often issues within sixty days of a complete submission. The variability sits in consular scheduling and AIMA biometric availability after arrival; AIMA's backlog is being actively worked down and timelines have improved through 2026.
A Conversation
Model the move before you commit to it.
The D7 applicants who are happiest three years in are the ones who understood the tax position and the presence obligation before they filed. If you are weighing Portugal — for yourself, for a client, or for a family you advise — the first step is a confidential discussion, under no obligation, to establish whether the route fits the life you actually intend to live.
We will say so plainly if it does not.
Transparency · Confidentiality · Execution
Luznur Capital is the commercial name of Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda., a licensed real estate brokerage holding AMI 22354. Immigration, legal, and tax matters are handled by our regulated partner firms, who take professional responsibility for their advice. Nothing on this page constitutes legal, tax, or immigration advice, and no advisory relationship arises from reading it.
Figures reflect the position as at July 2026. Income thresholds are tied to the national minimum wage and change annually. Tax outcomes depend on nationality, income type, and the applicable double taxation agreement, and vary materially between individuals; the ranges given here are illustrative only. Immigration and nationality law in Portugal remains subject to ongoing amendment.
Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda. · AMI 22354 · info@luznurcapital.com
Portuguese Visa
Are you applying for a D7 Visa?
We are proud of working with the best experts – contact us!