Portugal D7 vs D8 vs Golden Visa vs IFICI 2026
The D7 fits Americans living on pension or portfolio income, the D8 fits remote workers, the Golden Visa is the only route that does not require real residence, and IFICI is a tax regime that excludes retirees
The D7 fits Americans living on pension or portfolio income and requires EUR 11,040 a year for one person in 2026. The D8 fits remote workers and requires EUR 3,680 a month. The Golden Visa is the only route that does not require real residence. IFICI is a tax regime rather than a visa, and it excludes retirees.
Every Portuguese route is priced off one number. The national minimum wage rose to EUR 920 a month on 1 January 2026 under Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025, and both the D7 and the D8 income tests are multiples of it. Any figure taken from a 2025 source is now wrong by roughly six per cent.
Two other things changed recently and change the arithmetic more than the thresholds do. The property route to the Golden Visa closed in October 2023. And in May 2026 the residence period required for naturalisation went from five years to ten for Americans. What follows is where each route stands now.
| Route | What it requires in 2026 | Presence demanded | US tax consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| D7 | EUR 11,040 a year for one adult, EUR 16,560 for a couple, from pension, property, intellectual property or investments; funds in a Portuguese bank account; accommodation | Genuine residence | Unearned income, so the foreign earned income exclusion does not reach it; the foreign tax credit is the instrument |
| D8 | Average monthly income over the last three months of at least four times the minimum wage — EUR 3,680, or EUR 44,160 a year — from a non-resident employer or client | Genuine residence; a temporary-stay variant exists for under a year | Earned income, so the exclusion is available up to $132,900 for 2026, but electing it forfeits the credit on the same income |
| Golden Visa | EUR 500,000 into non-property funds or research, EUR 250,000 cultural, or ten jobs created; held five years | 7 days in year one, 14 days per subsequent two-year period | None from the visa itself where the holder never becomes tax resident in Portugal |
| IFICI | Not a visa. Portuguese tax residence, no Portuguese residence in the previous five years, an eligible activity, registration by 15 January | Portuguese tax residence each year | A 20 per cent Portuguese rate can sit below the US marginal rate, leaving residual US tax after the credit |
The D7, and one claim to disregard
The D7 is not a bespoke category in the statute. The means test lives in article 5(6) of Portaria n.º 1563/2007, which requires means assured for a period of not less than twelve months, proved for retirees by evidence of the pension and its availability in Portugal, and for people living on income from movable or immovable property, intellectual property or financial investments by evidence of that income and its availability in Portugal. The residence permit that follows is granted under the general regime in article 77(1).
The per-capita scale is set by the same Portaria: 100 per cent of the minimum wage for the first adult, 50 per cent for each further adult, and 30 per cent for each child. At 2026 rates that is EUR 11,040 for one person, EUR 16,560 for a couple, EUR 19,872 with one child and EUR 23,184 with two.
Two operational points are missed more often than the thresholds. The Consulate-General in Porto Alegre requires the twelve months of minimum wage to be held in a Portuguese bank account and evidenced by a recent statement, which means opening a Portuguese account before the visa appointment. And accommodation must be shown at the visa stage, by a lease with notarised signatures, proof of purchase, or a booking of at least a week.
One widely repeated claim does not survive contact with the text. The rule allowing the means requirement to be halved where accommodation is secured, or reduced by up to 90 per cent where board is also provided, appears in paragraphs 4, 5 and 7 of article 5 — students, interns, volunteers and ministers of religion. It does not appear in paragraph 6, which is the retiree and own-income paragraph. Consular checklists print the sentence next to the retiree block, which is probably how it spread.
The D8, in two shapes
The D8 comes in two forms, and the difference is structural rather than cosmetic. The temporary-stay visa covers a stay of less than a year, is valid for the whole stay, and produces no residence permit at all. The residence visa gives two entries over four months, during which the holder applies to AIMA for a permit under article 88(1).
The income test is the same for both: average monthly income over the last three months of at least four times the minimum wage, which is EUR 3,680 in 2026, together with a tax residence certificate. Employees show a contract or an employer declaration; the self-employed show articles of association, a service contract, or proof of services rendered. The permit runs for two years and renews for successive three-year periods.
For a self-employed American this route has a specific trap and a specific fix. The Social Security Administration states that self-employed workers resident in Portugal are assigned Portuguese coverage under the totalization agreement. The exemption from US self-employment tax depends on holding the certificate of coverage and attaching a copy to the return each year. Without it the tax is assessed, and the foreign earned income exclusion does not reduce it.
The Golden Visa after October 2023
Lei n.º 56/2023 came into force on 7 October 2023 and revoked three of the investment routes outright: the EUR 1.5 million capital transfer, the EUR 500,000 property purchase and the EUR 350,000 rehabilitation option. It also rewrote the fund route to require units in collective investment undertakings that are expressly non-property, and added a rule that the remaining investment activities may not be directed, directly or indirectly, at real estate investment.
What remains, in AIMA’s own listing: creating at least ten jobs, reduced to eight in low-density territory; EUR 500,000 into research within the national science and technology system, reduced to EUR 400,000 in low-density territory; EUR 250,000 into artistic production or cultural heritage, which AIMA states is reduced to EUR 220,000 in low-density territory; EUR 500,000 into non-property collective investment undertakings with a maturity of at least five years and at least 60 per cent invested in companies headquartered in Portugal; or EUR 500,000 to incorporate a Portuguese company together with five permanent jobs, or to increase the capital of an existing one with five permanent jobs, or maintaining ten jobs of which at least five are permanent, for at least three years.
Low-density territories are those defined in Portaria n.º 208/2017, with fewer than 100 inhabitants per square kilometre or GDP per capita below 75 per cent of the national average.
The presence requirement is what the route is bought for: seven days in the first year and fourteen days in each subsequent two-year period. AIMA’s own pages are inconsistent here — the main investment page says fourteen days in subsequent years, while the FAQ and the statute both say per two-year period.
One advantage survives the 2023 cuts and is rarely noticed. Lei n.º 61/2025 now generally requires a sponsor to hold a residence permit for two years before applying for family reunification, but article 98(3)(c) exempts holders of investment permits. Golden Visa families skip that wait; D7 and D8 families do not.
Citizenship: the number that changed in May 2026
Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 took effect on 19 May 2026 and replaced the five-year residence requirement with seven years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and EU member states, and ten years for everyone else — Americans included. Knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols was added to the language requirement, along with knowledge of fundamental rights and the political organisation of the State, and a declaration of adherence to the principles of the democratic rule of law.
The counting rules tightened at the same time. Periods are aggregated within a maximum window of twelve years for non-EU nationals, and the provision under which time could run from the date a residence application was filed was repealed, so residence counts only while a valid title is actually held. Procedures already pending on 19 May 2026 continue under the previous law — the single most consequential sentence in the statute for anyone who filed before that date.
The practical effect is that the Golden Visa’s presence discount no longer shortens the naturalisation clock in the way it once appeared to. Ten years of held titles is ten years on every route.
IFICI, and the pension problem
IFICI sits in article 58.º-A of the Estatuto dos Benefícios Fiscais, not in the personal income tax code, and it is orthogonal to the visa question. It keys off tax residence, prior non-residence and the nature of the work, so no visa qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Eligibility requires becoming tax resident, not having been resident in Portugal in any of the previous five years, never having benefited from the old non-habitual resident regime, and carrying on one of the listed activities: higher education teaching and scientific research, qualified roles in companies with contractual productive investment benefits, highly qualified professions in companies benefiting from RFAI or in industrial and services companies exporting at least half of turnover, roles in entities recognised by AICEP or IAPMEI, research and development staff qualifying under SIFIDE, and roles in certified startups. The benefit is a 20 per cent rate on net employment and self-employment income from those activities for ten consecutive years.
The registration deadline is 15 January of the year following the year of becoming resident, under article 2(1) of Portaria n.º 352/2024/1. Late registration is not fatal but is expensive: the regime then starts in the year of registration and runs only for the remainder of the ten years. Years are lost rather than deferred.
The point most likely to surprise an American retiree is what IFICI does not cover. Article 81(4) of the personal income tax code applies the exemption method to foreign income of categories A, B, E, F and G. Category H — pensions — is absent from that list, and the tax authority’s own FAQ states the position directly: foreign income is generally exempt except for category H. A foreign pension is therefore taxed in Portugal at ordinary progressive rates. Under the old non-habitual resident regime it was taxed at a flat ten per cent. The group most drawn to Portugal by the tax reputation is the group the successor regime excludes.
Where the US overlay bites
None of this changes US filing. A US citizen is taxed on worldwide income wherever resident, with the automatic extension to 15 June and the FBAR due 15 April.
The interaction with IFICI is worth stating carefully, because it runs in three directions. Portuguese tax held down to 20 per cent on employment income generates less foreign tax credit than is needed to absorb a higher US marginal rate, so part of the Portuguese incentive is collected by the US Treasury. Foreign income that Portugal exempts under article 81(4) generates no Portuguese tax and therefore no credit at all, so it is taxed by the US at full rates. And foreign pensions, which IFICI does not exempt, attract Portuguese tax high enough that the credit will usually absorb the US liability — the reverse of the employment position.
The treaty does not change the visa choice, but it makes the credit workable. The saving clause in the Protocol preserves the United States’ right to tax its citizens as though the treaty had not come into effect, with a short list of carve-outs. One of them is article 25(2), which deems income taxed by the United States solely by reason of citizenship to arise in Portugal to the extent necessary to avoid double taxation. Without that resourcing rule the credit limitation would bite far harder than it does.
Sources
- Diário da República — Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025, de 29 de dezembro, minimum wage for 2026 — https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2025/12/24900/0001400016.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros — Meios de subsistência, vistos nacionais — https://vistos.mne.gov.pt/pt/vistos-nacionais/documentacao-instrutoria/meios-de-subsistencia — checked 2026-09-01
- Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros — Portaria n.º 1563/2007, de 11 de dezembro — https://vistos.mne.gov.pt/images/schengen/portaria1563_2007_meios_de_subsist.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Consulado-Geral de Portugal em Porto Alegre — Visto de residência para reformados e pessoas que vivam de rendimentos — https://portoalegre.consuladoportugal.mne.gov.pt/images/d7_visto_aposentados_e_rend_setembro_25.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Embaixada de Portugal em Tóquio — Residency Visa for Remote Work, Digital Nomads — https://toquio.embaixadaportugal.mne.gov.pt/images/vistos/checklists/en/residencia/residency_visa_for_remote_work_-_digital_nomads.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- AIMA — Autorização de residência para atividade profissional prestada de forma remota, artigo 88.º n.º 1 — https://aima.gov.pt/pt/trabalhar/autorizacao-de-residencia-para-o-exercicio-de-atividade-profissional-prestada-de-forma-remota-com-visto-de-residencia-para-o-exe — checked 2026-09-01
- AIMA — Autorização de residência para investimento, artigo 90.º-A — https://aima.gov.pt/pt/viver/autorizacao-de-residencia-para-investimento-art-90-o-a — checked 2026-09-01
- Diário da República — Lei n.º 56/2023, de 6 de outubro — https://data.dre.pt/eli/lei/56/2023/10/06/p/dre/pt/pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Diário da República — Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio — https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2026/05/09500/0000200020.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Autoridade Tributária — EBF artigo 58.º-A, Incentivo fiscal à investigação científica e inovação — https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/informacao_fiscal/codigos_tributarios/bf_rep/Pages/EBF58A.aspx — checked 2026-09-01
- Diário da República — Portaria n.º 352/2024/1, de 23 de dezembro — https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2024/12/24800/0004000045.pdf — checked 2026-09-01
- Autoridade Tributária — CIRS artigo 81.º, eliminação da dupla tributação internacional — https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/informacao_fiscal/codigos_tributarios/cirs_rep/Pages/irs81.aspx — checked 2026-09-01
Common questions
- What is the D7 income requirement in 2026?
- EUR 11,040 a year for a single applicant — twelve times the EUR 920 monthly minimum wage set by Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025. A couple needs EUR 16,560, since the second adult counts at 50 per cent, and each child under 18 adds 30 per cent. The income must be passive: pension, property, intellectual property or financial investments.
- Does securing accommodation halve the D7 income requirement?
- No. That reduction appears in paragraphs 4, 5 and 7 of article 5 of Portaria n.º 1563/2007, which cover students, interns, volunteers and ministers of religion. Paragraph 6, the retiree and own-income paragraph, contains no such provision. Consular checklists print the sentence adjacent to the retiree block, which is a likely source of the confusion.
- Must the money sit in a Portuguese bank account?
- Consular practice says yes. The Consulate-General in Porto Alegre requires twelve months of the Portuguese minimum wage to be available in an account at a Portuguese bank, evidenced by a recent statement, citing article 5(6) and 5(7) of the Portaria. In practice that means opening a Portuguese account before the visa appointment rather than after arrival.
- What does the D8 require?
- Average monthly income over the last three months of at least four times the minimum wage — EUR 3,680 in 2026, or EUR 44,160 a year — earned from an employer or clients outside Portugal, together with a tax residence certificate. Employees show a contract or employer declaration; the self-employed show articles of association or proof of services rendered.
- What is the difference between the two D8 variants?
- The temporary-stay visa covers a stay of less than a year, is valid for the whole stay, and produces no residence permit. The residence visa gives two entries over four months, within which the holder applies to AIMA for a permit under article 88(1). The income test is identical for both variants.
- Can a Golden Visa still be obtained by buying property?
- No. Lei n.º 56/2023 came into force on 7 October 2023 and revoked the property purchase, the rehabilitation option and the EUR 1.5 million capital transfer. It also barred the remaining routes from being directed, directly or indirectly, at real estate investment, which closed the property-linked fund workaround at the same time.
- How many days a year does the Golden Visa require?
- Seven days in the first year and fourteen days in each subsequent two-year period, per the statute and AIMA’s own FAQ. AIMA’s main investment page says fourteen days in subsequent years rather than per two-year period, so the two official sources are inconsistent. The statutory formulation is the two-year one.
- How long is the path to Portuguese citizenship now?
- Ten years of legal residence for Americans, since Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 took effect on 19 May 2026 — up from five. Time counts only while a valid residence title is held, aggregated within a twelve-year window. Procedures already pending on 19 May 2026 continue under the previous law.
- Does IFICI exempt a US pension?
- No. Article 81(4) of the personal income tax code applies the exemption method to foreign income of categories A, B, E, F and G. Pensions are category H and are absent from that list, so they are taxed in Portugal at ordinary progressive rates. The tax authority’s FAQ states the exception explicitly. The old regime taxed foreign pensions at a flat ten per cent.
- When must IFICI be registered?
- By 15 January of the year following the year of becoming tax resident, under article 2(1) of Portaria n.º 352/2024/1. Filing goes to a different body depending on the activity — the science foundation, AICEP, the tax authority, IAPMEI, ANI or Startup Portugal. Late registration starts the regime in the year of registration and shortens the ten years accordingly.
- Does a Portuguese visa reduce US filing obligations?
- No. A US citizen is taxed on worldwide income regardless of residence, with an automatic extension to 15 June and the FBAR due 15 April. What the visa changes is the Portuguese side of the arithmetic, and therefore how much foreign tax credit or exclusion is available against the US liability.
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