D7 Visa vs Golden Visa: Which Portugal Visa Is Right for You

The D7 and the Golden Visa are the two routes most internationals consider when planning a move to Portugal, but they are built for genuinely different situations, different budgets, and different amounts of time actually spent living in the country. There is also a third option worth knowing about, the D8 digital nomad visa, for people whose income comes from remote work rather than pensions or investments.

D7 visa

The D7 visa is designed for people with a stable passive income, such as a pension, rental income, dividends, or investment returns, who intend to actually live in Portugal. It requires proving regular income above a minimum threshold, generally tied to the Portuguese minimum wage, and it means spending most of the year in the country, since it is a genuine residency route rather than a way to simply hold a second passport option. Family members can typically be included through family reunification, and it opens a path to permanent residency and eventually citizenship after the standard qualifying period.

Golden Visa

The Golden Visa is an investment-based residency route with minimal stay requirements, often just a matter of days per year, popular with people who want the option of Portuguese and, eventually, EU residency without relocating full-time. Qualifying investment routes have narrowed in recent years, with the direct real estate route largely phased out in favor of investment funds and other regulated options, so it is worth getting current, specific advice rather than relying on older summaries of how the program works.

D8 digital nomad visa

For people who work remotely, whether employed by a foreign company or self-employed, the D8 visa is often a better fit than either the D7 or the Golden Visa. It is built around proof of remote income rather than passive income or a large investment, and it also leads to residency for people who genuinely plan to base themselves in Portugal while keeping clients or an employer elsewhere.

What they have in common

All three routes require a NIF before you can open the Portuguese bank account and complete the other steps each application depends on, and all three benefit from having your documents organized well in advance rather than assembled under time pressure. If your plan includes settling down for real, such as buying instead of renting, it is also worth looking into buying property in Portugal early, since financing and purchase timelines often run in parallel with the visa process rather than after it.