Portugal Nomad Visa: €3,680 a Month

Portugal’s digital nomad visa requires average remote-work income of at least €3,680 a month over the three months before you apply. That bar is four times the 2026 guaranteed minimum wage of €920, and money already sitting in savings does not replace those three months of pay.

The consular charge for the national visa is €110. If the residence visa is granted, you get four months and two entries to turn it into a residence card. AIMA then issues a temporary residence permit valid for two years from the card’s issue date, renewable in three-year stretches. A weak middle month can pull the average under €3,680 even when the other two months look fine.

The same style of monthly test appears on the Greece nomad visa, under a different statute and a different number. If the cash is a pension, rent, or investment income rather than remote work for someone outside Portugal, the Portugal D7 passive-income visa is the file that matches that money. Income bars for other countries are listed with the nomad visa guides.

What income does the Portugal digital nomad visa require?

You need proof that average monthly income from remote employment or independent work, over the last three months, is at least four Portuguese minimum wages. As of October 2026, the national guaranteed minimum monthly wage is €920 from 1 January 2026, so four times that wage is €3,680.

DGERT, the labour ministry’s working-conditions directorate, records that figure under Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025. The government had announced the change on 17 December 2025 as a €50 rise from the prior €870. The visa regulation does not print “€3,680.” It prints a multiple of the wage, so the euro amount moves when the wage moves, usually at the start of a year.

The three-month average, not each month

Decreto Regulamentar n.º 4/2022 added the remote-work rules to the foreigners regulation. For the residence visa, article 31.º-A asks for average monthly income earned in subordinate or independent professional activity during the last three months, at a minimum equal to four guaranteed minimum monthly wages, plus a document that attests your current tax residence. Article 18.º-B uses that same income sentence for the temporary-stay version.

The activity has to be the remote work. A one-off sale of a car, a gift from a parent, or a brokerage transfer does not become “income from professional activity” because it landed in the same account. Match the payer name on the bank credit to the employer or the client on the contract.

Path	Stay this path covers	Income rule	Decision deadline in the statute
Residence visa for remote work (article 61.º-B)	Four months and two entries, then a residence card	Three-month average of at least four minimum wages (€3,680 at the 2026 wage)	60 days
Temporary-stay visa for the same remote work (article 54.º, n.º 1, i)	Under one year, multiple entries, for the length of the stay	Same four-wage, three-month average	30 days from a complete application
Household means scale (Portaria n.º 1563/2007)	Used for family means, not as a second copy of the four-wage test	100% of one minimum wage for the first adult, 50% for each further adult, 30% for each child	Checked with the visa, not a separate clock

Data note: wage and fee figures were checked on 12 October 2026. The €3,680 result is 4 × €920. Confirm the consulate checklist on the day you file.

Should you take four months or a stay under one year?

Take the residence visa if you want the two-year card. Take the temporary-stay visa only if you truly want less than a year and you do not need that card.

Article 58.º of the foreigners law says a residence visa exists so you can enter and request a residence permit. It is valid for two entries and a stay of four months. The decision deadline is 60 days, unless a shorter deadline applies to that visa type. When it is granted, the state issues a pre-authorization that includes provisional tax, social-security, and National Health Service numbers. That is the practical prize of this route: you are not starting the number hunt from zero after you land.

What those four months are for

The four months are the window to appear at AIMA with the remote-work residence visa still valid. AIMA’s page for this permit says the card runs two years from the issue date and then renews for successive periods of three years. The temporary-stay visa, under article 54.º, is a different product. It covers a stay shorter than one year, it allows multiple entries, and it is issued for the length of the stay you asked for. The statute gives the consulate 30 days to decide once the application is in order. It does not, by itself, become the two-year card.

Opinions from AIMA and the border unit sit inside that clock. For these visas the opinions are due in 20 days, and silence counts as a favorable opinion. A negative opinion binds the consulate. Statutory days are not a promise that your local post will hit the calendar, so leave spare days around flights and a lease start date.

Which papers prove the work is outside Portugal?

The client or employer has to sit outside Portugal. Article 61.º-B grants the residence visa to employees and independent professionals whose work is performed remotely for a person or company with a domicile or headquarters outside the country. A Portuguese employer, or a client you are serving inside Portugal, is a different visa.

For the residence file, employees bring an employment contract or an employer declaration that proves the link. Independent workers bring a company contract, a services contract, or a document showing services already provided to one or more entities, plus the three-month income proof and the tax-residence document. The temporary-stay list is a notch wider: it also accepts a promise of an employment contract, and, for freelancers, a written proposal of a services contract. A promise is not the same as three months of paid invoices. You still need the average.

What to assemble before the appointment

1. Pull bank records for the last three months and mark only the credits that match the remote employer or client.
2. Divide that income by three. If the result is under €3,680, stop and wait for a better window.
3. Collect the contract or employer letter. Freelancers should line up the services contract, or proof of work already delivered, with the same names as the deposits.
4. Add a document that shows where you are a tax resident today, a valid passport, travel insurance, and a criminal-record certificate from the country of nationality or the country where you lived for more than a year.
5. Prepare accommodation evidence you can actually use after entry: a lease, a host letter, or ownership papers. AIMA will ask how you hold the address.
6. Pay the national-visa emolument of €110. If a visa center handles the appointment, its service fee is extra and is set by that center, not by the €110 decree.

Article 52.º also refuses a residence or temporary-stay visa when the applicant was convicted of a crime that, in Portugal, is punishable by more than one year in prison, even if the sentence was never served or was suspended. Travel insurance and a valid travel document are part of the general conditions, not optional extras.

Adding a spouse or a child

The four-wage test is the worker’s remote income. It is not multiplied again for each person. Family means sit on a different scale. AIMA’s subsistence page, citing Portaria n.º 1563/2007, uses 100 percent of the minimum wage for the first adult, 50 percent for each additional adult, and 30 percent for each child under 18 and each dependent adult child.

On 12 October 2026 that page still described the 2025 wage of €870. The wage in force is €920. Applied to €920, the published percentages are €460 for a second adult and €276 for a child. The ordinance also says the reference looks at income net of social-security contributions. AIMA’s public page states the percentages of the minimum wage and does not print a netted 2026 euro figure, so ask the consulate which reading it wants. A worker who already shows €3,680 of remote pay is above a household built from one minimum wage plus those add-ons. The binding test remains the three-month remote average, not a second copy of it.

Article 58.º allows family members, in the sense of the family-reunification article, to apply for accompanying residence visas at the same time. Bring the relationship documents with the main file rather than discovering the gap at the window.

Do you owe tax in Portugal, and still in the United States?

You can. The visa does not decide your tax residence, and it does not switch off a US return.

Under article 16.º of the personal income tax code, you are a Portuguese tax resident if you stay more than 183 days, in a row or split up, in any 12-month period that starts or ends in the year in question. Any day that includes a night in Portugal counts, even if you arrived in the evening. With a shorter stay, you can still be resident if, on any day of that period, you have housing in conditions that show you currently mean to keep and occupy it as your habitual home. Residence generally begins on the first day of that stay. A lease you sign for the AIMA address is a fact a tax office can read against that housing test, so do not assume a “nomad” label keeps the year foreign.

The US return does not close

The IRS taxes US citizens and resident aliens on worldwide income no matter where they live, and the filing rules are generally the same abroad as at home. Benefits such as the foreign earned income exclusion exist only if you file. The walk-through of who still has to send a return is in whether you pay US tax while living abroad. Portugal’s old non-habitual resident paragraphs in article 16.º, numbers 8 through 12, were revoked by Lei n.º 82/2023 of 29 December. Do not budget this move as if that older regime were still open to a new arrival.

How do you file, then collect the card?

File at the Portuguese consulate or visa center that serves the place where you legally reside, not after you have already entered as a tourist hoping to switch status at the counter.

1. Confirm the three-month average still clears €3,680 on the statements you will actually upload.
2. Book the national-visa appointment and pay the €110 emolument, plus any center fee that post charges.
3. Submit the remote-work contract set, the tax-residence document, insurance, the criminal record, and accommodation evidence. Employees and freelancers use the lists above, not a generic “proof of funds” letter.
4. If the residence visa is issued, enter on it, within its four months and two entries, and book AIMA with the passport, the visa, the sworn statement from the foreign employer or client, and the address declaration with proof of your right to use the home.
5. At the residence stage, also have health insurance or proof you are covered by the National Health Service. Keep a copy of the pre-authorization numbers for tax, social security, and the health service.
6. Once the card is issued, diary the two-year end date. Renewal is a new fee and a new showing that the remote work still exists, not an automatic extension.

AIMA’s contact center, listed on the same permit page, answers at (+351) 217 115 000, Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 20:00, at the cost of a normal call. Use it to confirm which office has your appointment. Do not use it as a substitute for the document list.

Sources checked

• DGERT — 2026 guaranteed minimum wage of €920 from 1 January 2026, Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025.
• Portuguese Government — announcement of the rise from €870 to €920.
• Decreto Regulamentar n.º 4/2022 — articles 18.º-B and 31.º-A, the three-month average of four minimum wages.
• Lei n.º 23/2007 — articles 54.º, 58.º, and 61.º-B on the temporary stay, the four-month residence visa, and remote work outside Portugal.
• AIMA — two-year remote-work residence permit, renewable for three years, and the documents at the card appointment.
• Portaria n.º 91/2025/1 — €110 administrative charge for a national visa.
• Tax Authority, IRS Code article 16.º — the 183-day and housing tests, and the revocation of the non-habitual resident paragraphs.
• IRS — worldwide income and filing for US citizens abroad (Publication 54, revised December 2025).

What to do before you pay the fee

Run the three-month average on the statements you will submit, in euros, and keep the result. If it is €3,680 or more and the payer is outside Portugal, the residence visa is the route that leads to the two-year card. If the average misses by a small amount, wait. If the money is not remote work, stop and look at the passive-income visa instead of forcing this file.

After the visa is in your passport, use the four months to finish the AIMA appointment with the address proof and the foreign employer’s sworn statement. Diary the 60-day absence limit while that visa is still the document you are traveling on, and diary the card’s two-year end date once it is printed.