Portugal Digital Nomad Visa

Let's start in the capital city of Portugal, Lisbon. It is well-known in digital nomad circles for being a beautiful, safe, and relatively low-cost destination to spend a month or two. Boasting a temperate climate all year round and top-tier cuisine, it is easy to see why Lisbon is one of the top digital nomad hotspots in Europe, if not the world.

Many digital nomads, particularly those from outside the European Union and Schengen area are curious about staying longer, in some cases for up to a year, and perhaps traveling a little more slowly, to spend more time in this beautiful city and enjoy its vibrant digital nomad community.

There are plenty of co-living options in Portugal, the majority of which are found in Lisbon. Which is the perfect location for when you want to be able to spend time with like-minded people, as well as change gear from nomad to “slowmad” for a while. Lisbon is a wonderful city to live life like a local in, and this is what co-living and co-working options offer to remote workers.

There are well-established digital nomad meets that happen every week and are listed on Meetup.com, with something new and exciting almost every day. If you are living on your own but craving connection with the local community, this is a great way for you to touch base whenever you want to.

The co-living options available in Lisbon are a mixture of some of the bigger brands in co-living such as “Outsite” and “Selina” and some of the smaller, independent offerings from newcomers to the co-living sector. We can’t recommend the co-living experience highly enough for the sense of community it engenders and the connections it creates.

This is a slightly complicated question to answer, but the short answer is yes.

The longer answer is that there are two different visa types that could fit the bill, we have the temporary stay visa, which is valid for a year, and the D7 “Digital Nomad” visa, which can eventually lead to residency.

This visa may suit many digital nomads better than the D7 Visa. It gives up to a year’s stay in Portugal, with the option of leaving and re-entering as required. This means that you can easily explore some of the other countries within Europe while being able to return to Portugal as you wish, to make the most of the temperate climate and beautiful scenery.

In order to qualify for the Temporary Stay Visa, you will need to be able to show that you earn more than €705 every month. It is a fairly low monthly amount to have to demonstrate in order to stay for a year in such an amazing country, and it may be enough to tempt many digital nomads.

The Portugal D7 Visa is often referred to as a “digital nomad visa” or a “Portugal passive income visa” and although it serves the same purpose, it wasn’t explicitly designed for digital nomads in mind. It was designed with older people in mind who may want to spend their retirement in Portugal. The requirements just so happen to be favourable to digital nomads as well.

There are several different requirements to be able to apply for the D7 Digital Nomad Visa, and we have broken these down into different sections below for ease of understanding.

If you wish to apply for a digital nomad visa for Portugal, it is necessary to be able to demonstrate that you are able to support yourself for a year without relying on the Portuguese state to help you out. This is a relatively easy requirement to fulfill.

The calculation of how much money you will need to demonstrate having access to is based on the relatively low minimum wage in Portugal. This means that if you can demonstrate that you have, or will earn €9,870 over the course of a year, you meet the financial requirement. If you have a spouse or dependent, you will need to be able to show another 50% for your spouse and €2 538 for each dependent child.

A NIF number is a number linked to taxation and would be the equivalent of an American Social Security number or a National Insurance number in the UK. It is possible to apply for this online fairly easily, so it shouldn’t be a major hurdle for most digital nomads.

This is the largest benefit that arises from having a Portuguese NIF number. You are unable to open a Portuguese bank account without one, and this will be a necessity during your stay for conducting any kind of financial activity within the country.

In order to successfully apply for the D7 digital nomad visa, you must be able to prove that you have secured adequate accommodation before you make the journey to Portugal. A long-term lease agreement for a minimum term of a year is a must, as Portuguese authorities are apparently reluctant to approve applications that contain shorter-term lets.

If you have bought a property for over €300,000, it may be better to apply for a “golden visa”. This is reserved for those who have invested at least that amount in the country.

Portugal does not want to encourage people who have prior criminal convictions to come and live there. You will have to disclose any criminal record that you have to the Portuguese authorities as part of the process, and they may run a background check to verify that what you are telling them is the truth. It is important to obtain a copy of your criminal record prior to the process in order to avoid disappointment.

In keeping with the earning requirement, which is designed to prevent you from having to use Portuguese state resources, you are also required to have purchased comprehensive health insurance for the duration of your stay. You will need to have comprehensive EU-wide insurance for each applicant, and it must cover each of you for a minimum of €30,000. 12 months of health insurance must have been paid for in advance before you begin the D7 application process.

The minimum stay requirement is really only relevant if you plan to obtain a residence visa. If this is the route that you wish to go down, you must stay in Portugal for 183 days every calendar year. This may seem like too much for some digital nomads who don’t feel like putting down roots to that extent and who are keen to be off traveling more often than that.