No capital contribution

Portugal D7 Visa

€920 a month of passive income. No investment, no donation, nothing to finance.

Residency in Portugal for someone whose income already arrives without them working for it. No investment, no donation, no fund subscription — but you have to actually live there, which is the part the golden visa lets you skip.

What it asks for

The gate is income, not capital. There is no sum to transfer and nothing to hold for a qualifying period.

Main applicant

€920 a month

Spouse or dependent parent

€460 a month, being 50% of the main applicant figure

Each dependent child

€276 a month per dependent child, being 30%

Savings. Roughly €11,040 for a single applicant — twelve months of the minimum — transferred to a Portuguese bank account before the application.

Indexed to the Portuguese national minimum wage, so it rises most Januaries. The 2026 figure follows the increase that took effect on 1 January 2026. Treat any figure older than the current calendar year as out of date.

What it actually costs

You have to live there. This is a residency visa, not a residency permit you visit.

Absence is capped at six consecutive months, or eight non-consecutive months, per permit period. In practice that means being in Portugal for the substantial majority of each year during the first five years.

The Portuguese golden visa asks for an average of seven days a year. That is the whole difference between these two routes, and it is worth more than the money to most people who choose the investment instead.

Income that counts

Pension income, state or private
Dividends from shareholdings
Rental income from property
Interest and income from financial investments
Royalties and intellectual property income
Income from transferable equity

Income that does not

Salary from employment inside Portugal — that is a different visa
Income that cannot be evidenced as regular and continuing
Capital you hold but which produces no recurring income

Where the income comes from

The D7 is described throughout as a visa for people whose income arrives from outside Portugal, but the qualifying criteria do not state a foreign-source rule and the guides disagree on whether a property let inside Portugal counts toward the threshold. Do not assume a Lisbon flat qualifies you. Confirm with AIMA or a Portuguese immigration lawyer before relying on it: this is the weakest point on the page, and it is weak because the published rule is silent, not because the research was thin.

How long it runs

Entry visa

4 months

Issued by the consulate, to travel on.

First residence permit

2 years

Applied for in Portugal after arrival.

Renewal

3 years

Permanent residency. Eligible after five years of legal residence.

Citizenship. Ten years of legal residence for most nationalities, with an A2 Portuguese language requirement. Shorter qualifying periods apply to nationals of CPLP countries. Portugal has been revising its nationality rules, so confirm the current period before relying on it — this is the figure most likely to have moved since this page was written.

Tax

Spending more than 183 days in Portugal makes you tax resident there, which is the ordinary consequence of a route that requires you to live in the country. Portuguese residents are taxed on worldwide income. Whether that is better or worse than your current position is a question for a tax adviser in both jurisdictions, and it is the single largest variable in whether this route makes sense.

Not for you if

You want residency without relocating — the stay requirement is the point of this visa, not a formality
Your wealth is in assets that produce no recurring income
You cannot evidence the income as regular and continuing over time
Becoming Portuguese tax resident would cost you more than the investment route
You need a second residency quickly while remaining tax resident elsewhere

Better than the investment route when

You intend to move to Portugal anyway
You have steady passive income but would rather not lock up capital
The sums involved in the golden visa are material relative to your net worth
You are retiring and the pension already clears the threshold

The other way into Portugal

€500,000 fund subscription, or €250,000 cultural donation, and roughly seven days a year of presence. It is the same country and a different price: capital instead of your time. Which of those you would rather pay is the whole decision.

Portugal Golden Visa

The same idea, in 4 other countries

Every one of these asks for income rather than capital, and none of them pays me anything to place it. What differs is how much income, how long you have to be there, and what you get at the end.

So who manages the money that qualifies you?

This visa does not ask you to invest anything. It asks you to prove €920 a month arriving, and to keep proving it — at every renewal, for five years, and then for five more if you want the passport. The capital behind that income has to survive a decade of markets while paying out the whole time, and it has to do it in a currency that may not be the one you are spending.

That is not an immigration question and your lawyer will not answer it. It is the question I am qualified to answer, and the one nobody in this market seems to ask before the application rather than after it.

What a million euros sustains for thirty years

S&P 500 Index€35,328 a year

Classic 60/40€35,575 a year

Fixed Income Plus€26,545 a year

The highest draw each shape sustains with under a one-in-ten chance of running out, after a 1% running cost, with the income rising 3% a year. The first two are within a rounding error of each other. The cautious one costs €9,030 a year, for life — because a portfolio you live on needs growth to replace what leaves, and safety is bought by giving up exactly that.

This route asks for €11,040 a year. On the strongest shape above, that implies capital of roughly €310,000 — comfortably inside what a million euros produces, which is why this test is rarely the binding constraint.

Simulated on returns from 2007 onward, drawing whole historical years at random. One regime, not a forecast — and two limits push the failure rate down, so read it as a floor on the risk rather than a bound.

There is nothing to finance on this route and nothing for me to sell you on the visa itself. If you are weighing it against the investment programme, or wondering whether the income behind it will still be there in year seven, that is what the assessment call is for — $100, 30 minutes, and you leave with a direction rather than a brochure.

Book an assessment call — $100

Figures checked 2026-09-21 against secondary sources and correct as published then. Thresholds indexed to a minimum wage change annually, and immigration rules change without notice — confirm against the relevant government body before you commit to anything.