D7 Passive Income Visa

What the D7 is

A Portuguese residence visa for people with stable passive income — pensions, rental income, dividends, royalties, interest. It is not a work visa and it is not an investment visa. You are demonstrating that you can support yourself without working in Portugal.

What you have to show

Regular, documented, ongoing income at or above the Portuguese minimum wage as a baseline, with more required for accompanying family members. The income must be passive and it must be evidenced over time — a lump sum in an account is not the same thing and is treated differently.

You will also need accommodation in Portugal, a Portuguese tax number, proof of health cover and a clean criminal record.

The route to permanent residence

The D7 grants temporary residence, renewed in stages. Permanent residence becomes available after five years of temporary residence for third-country nationals, which includes Indian applicants.

The change that matters more than any of this

Portugal was, for years, the fastest route to an EU passport. That is no longer true.

Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 doubled the citizenship qualifying period to ten years for nationals of countries outside the EU and the CPLP — India among them. It came into force on 19 May 2026, added a mandatory test covering language, culture, history and civics, and abolished the route based on Sephardic descent.

Residence at five years and citizenship at ten are different clocks. Anyone quoting Portugal as a five-year passport is describing a law that has been repealed. If that promise is the reason Portugal is on your list, the arithmetic has changed and it is worth reconsidering before you commit.

Who it still suits

Someone with genuine passive income who wants to live in Portugal, and for whom residence — not a passport in five years — is the objective. On those terms it remains one of the more accessible residence routes in Europe.

What the D7 is not

It is not a passive investment product, and it is not a golden visa. You are expected to live in Portugal: absences beyond the permitted limits break the residence chain, and the chain is what the five-year clock is counting.

People who buy this as a document rather than a move are the ones who discover at renewal that the requirement was residence all along.

Before you commit

Establish how your income will be taxed in Portugal, and get that advice from somebody Portuguese. The regime that made this route attractive to retirees has been narrowed, and the tax position is now the largest variable in whether the move makes financial sense.