Most guides to the D8 stop at the income threshold and call it done. That leaves out the part that actually determines whether a family’s move works on the timeline they expect: what happens when the visa holder wants to bring a spouse or children after arrival, not at the same time. A law that took effect in October 2025 changed that timeline for a large share of applicants, and it still isn’t showing up in most content published on the topic.

Here’s what the D8 requires in 2026, how it differs from the D7, and what that family reunification change actually means in practice.

The short version

The D8 is for people whose income comes from active remote work, a foreign employer, freelance clients, or a business based outside Portugal, not from pensions or investments. The 2026 threshold sits at €3,680 a month, four times Portugal’s national minimum wage of €920. The visa itself hasn’t changed shape this year. What has changed is the law governing family reunification: since October 2025, a sponsor generally needs two years of valid residence before requesting to bring family members who didn’t apply alongside them, with meaningful exceptions for spouses and for parents with minor children.

Who the D8 is for, and who it isn’t

The D8 requires foreign sourced income from ongoing work: a salary from an employer abroad, invoices from international clients, or self employment income earned outside Portugal. It does not cover pension or investment income, which falls under the D7 instead, and it does not cover salaried employment with a Portuguese company, which requires a D3 or standard work visa.

That distinction matters more than it might seem, because the two visas ask for very different proof. A D7 applicant demonstrates stable passive income already in hand. A D8 applicant demonstrates an active income stream that will keep arriving from abroad once they’re living in Portugal, typically through contracts, invoices, and six to twelve  four months of consistent bank statements.

Income requirements in 2026

Portugal’s minimum wage rose to €920 a month at the start of 2026, under Portaria 139/2025, which automatically pushed the D8 threshold to four times that figure. For the main applicant, that means €3,680 a month, or roughly €44,160 a year, in gross foreign income.

Applicants should plan around whichever minimum wage figure is current at the moment they file, since consulates apply the rate in force on the submission date rather than the rate quoted in older articles.

D8 versus D7: which one actually fits

The confusion between these two visas is understandable, since both lead to the same residence permit and eventually the same path to permanent residency. The real distinction is the source of income, not the amount.

The D7 suits retirees and anyone living on pensions, rental income, dividends, or investment returns, with a lower income floor tied to one times the minimum wage for the main applicant. The D8 suits people still actively earning from remote work, with a higher floor because that income needs to demonstrate ongoing stability from an employer or client base outside Portugal. Someone drawing a pension while also freelancing on the side may technically qualify under either route, and the right choice usually comes down to which income stream is larger and easier to document consistently.

The family reunification change that changes the planning

This is the part of the D8 conversation that most current guidance still gets wrong or leaves out entirely.

Portugal’s Lei n.º 61/2025, in force since 23 October 2025, rewrote the rules governing regrouping familiar, the process of bringing family members to join someone already resident in Portugal. Under the new law, a sponsor generally needs a residence permit valid for at least two years before requesting to bring family members who are joining later rather than applying at the same time.

There are exceptions that matter for most D8 families. A spouse or de facto partner can typically be reunited after fifteen months rather than two years, provided the relationship and cohabitation predate the sponsor’s arrival in Portugal. Couples who already have minor or dependent children together face no waiting period at all for reuniting with those children. Both the sponsor and a spouse being reunited must also be at least 18 years old at the time of the request, a detail the previous law didn’t specify.

None of this affects a family applying together from the outset. Family members included in the original D8 application, whether a spouse, partner, or children, still travel and receive their residence permits alongside the main applicant with no separate waiting period. The two year and fifteen month clocks only start running for someone who arrives on the D8 alone and wants to sponsor family afterward.

For a family weighing whether to apply together now or have one partner establish residency first and bring the rest later, this is the single detail most likely to change the decision, and it’s the detail most existing D8 content, written before October 2025, simply doesn’t reflect.

Applying for the D8

The D8 has two stages. The first is the residence visa application, which is not always filed at a Portuguese consulate, since the right channel depends on the applicant’s situation and country of residence. The second is the conversion to a residence permit through AIMA once the applicant is in Portugal.

What this means if you’re weighing the D8

The income threshold gets most of the attention, and it’s a real number worth planning around carefully. But the reunification timeline is the piece with the sharpest consequences if it’s missed: a family that assumes they can send one spouse ahead and sort out the rest later may be looking at a two year gap they didn’t plan for, unless they fall within one of the narrower exceptions. Given how much rides on getting the sequencing right, working through the income documentation and the family timeline together with someone who tracks these rules closely is worth doing before an application goes in, not after a request for reunification comes back with an unexpected wait attached.