The 2026 Income Threshold: €3,680/Month and What It Actually Means
Portugal raised its national minimum wage to €920 per month on January 1, 2026. Because the D8 digital nomad visa income requirement is set by regulation at four times the minimum wage, the 2026 threshold for a single applicant is €3,680 gross per month. This is the figure you need to demonstrate to AIMA — not as a one-time snapshot, but as a recurring income that has been arriving consistently for the period covered by your supporting documents.
The threshold is a gross income figure: it is assessed before Portuguese tax or social security deductions are applied. If you are employed abroad, you can use your gross monthly salary as stated in your employment letter. If you are self-employed or freelance, income is assessed based on what you actually receive into your account (net of your foreign tax obligations, since you have not yet established Portuguese fiscal residency at the application stage). The income does not need to originate in Portugal or be held in a Portuguese bank — foreign bank accounts with foreign-currency deposits are acceptable. What AIMA requires is that the money exists, arrives regularly, and can be traced to a legitimate source. AIMA's 'complete application' rule, introduced in April 2025, makes it critical that every element of the income proof pack is present and internally consistent at the time of submission — a gap between the bank statement credits and the employer letter's stated salary figure is a common rejection trigger.
Employed Applicants: What AIMA Expects From Your Employer
If you are a salaried employee of a foreign company working remotely, the core income document is an employer letter. This letter must be on company letterhead, signed by an authorised signatory (a manager, HR director, or company officer), and must include: your full legal name matching your passport, your job title, the date your employment started, whether your contract is permanent or fixed-term (and if fixed-term, its current end date), your monthly gross salary in the original currency, and a statement that the role is performed remotely. The last element matters specifically for the D8: AIMA is verifying that this is genuine remote work, not a cover for local employment that would require a different work permit category.
The employer letter must be accompanied by the three most recent payslips. Payslips should show the employer's name, your name, the pay period, gross pay, and net pay after deductions. If your employer issues electronic pay advice (PDFs rather than physical slips), these are acceptable — print them clearly. If your salary includes variable components such as bonuses, commissions, or profit shares, AIMA's reviewers typically focus on the base salary line in the letter and on the consistent monthly deposits in your bank statements. Do not rely on a large bonus month to meet the €3,680 threshold if your base salary is below it — the income must be demonstrably recurrent.
An employment contract is useful supplementary evidence but is not a substitute for the employer letter: many employment contracts do not specify current salary (salary review provisions make them silent on the current figure) or are in a language that requires certified translation. If your contract is clear on current salary and in Portuguese or English, include it. If it is in another language, do not include it without a certified translation — an untranslated contract in your application pack may trigger questions under the complete application rule.
Freelancers and Self-Employed: Invoices, Contracts, and Tax Returns
For freelancers and independent contractors, the income proof pack is more involved than for employed applicants but follows a clear structure. The three components AIMA expects are: a record of invoices issued in the three to six months before application, the corresponding bank statements showing payment receipts that match the invoices, and evidence of ongoing client relationships. Invoices should ideally be in Portuguese (recibos verdes for Portugal-based clients) or clearly formatted with client details, service description, amounts, and payment dates for foreign clients.
Ongoing client relationships can be evidenced by active service contracts, client reference letters confirming the working relationship, or a combination of invoices showing repeat payments from the same client over multiple months. A pattern of one-time invoices to many different clients with no contractual anchor is a weaker income proof scenario than a stable relationship with one or two regular clients — AIMA's reviewers are assessing income sustainability, not just total receipts. If you have long-term client contracts, include them even if they are in English or another language — though a certified Portuguese translation will strengthen the pack. If you are registered as a trabalhador independente in Portugal, a copy of your tax registration certificate (the declaração de início de atividade) is a useful supplementary document demonstrating that your freelance activity is officially recognised.
Tax returns — either a Portuguese declaration or your home-country equivalent — are supplementary rather than primary documents for the D8. AIMA is not primarily assessing your tax compliance at this stage; it is assessing your income level. However, if your most recent tax return confirms the income level you are claiming, include it. Foreign tax returns need a certified translation if they are not in Portuguese or English.
Foreign Income: Proving Non-Portuguese Earnings to AIMA
The D8 visa is explicitly designed for people earning income from outside Portugal, so AIMA has no objection to income sourced in the US, UK, Brazil, EU countries, or anywhere else. The documentation approach is the same regardless of income origin: employer letters or client contracts plus bank statements showing receipt. The currency difference introduces one practical consideration: AIMA converts foreign-currency income to euros at the exchange rate current at the time of application assessment, not at the time you submitted.
For income in US dollars, this means that an income of US$4,000 per month, which converts to approximately €3,680 at a USD/EUR rate of 0.92, is at the lower boundary of eligibility — exchange rate movement against you could push you below the threshold. A margin of safety is advisable: if your income in foreign currency is exactly at the converted threshold, consider whether you can demonstrate slightly higher income in the months covered by your statements or include savings documentation to reinforce the application. For income in British pounds, Brazilian reais, or other currencies, apply the same logic: calculate what the AIMA threshold of €3,680 represents in your income currency at current exchange rates and ensure your documented income exceeds it by a comfortable buffer.
If your income comes from multiple foreign sources — for example, two part-time remote clients in different countries — document each source separately with its own income letter or client letter and corresponding bank entries. AIMA will add the sources together to reach a total. Ensure that the bank statements clearly show separate credit entries for each income source, ideally with reference details that allow a reviewer to match them to the corresponding invoice or client letter.
Bank Statements: How Many Months, What Balance, What Format
Bank statements are the backbone of the D8 income proof. The standard requirement is three months of statements showing consistent income deposits at or above the required level. The statements must identify you as the account holder, display the account number, show a complete transaction history with dates, descriptions, and amounts, and come from a recognised bank (online banks such as Revolut, Wise, or N26 are generally acceptable, though if you use these as your primary income account rather than a traditional bank, pairing them with a supporting letter from the platform confirming the account is in active use adds credibility).
The minimum savings balance expected alongside the monthly income figure is not formally legislated for the D8 but is applied in practice by AIMA's consular network. The working figure, drawn from AIMA practice and immigration lawyer guidance, is approximately €11,040 for a single applicant — 12 times the monthly threshold of €920 (the minimum wage), or equivalently about three months of the D8 threshold itself. This savings figure serves as evidence of financial resilience: it demonstrates you can support yourself even through a month with no income. If your balance regularly falls to near-zero between deposits, consider delaying the application until you have built a buffer. A bank statement that shows recurring large deposits followed by immediate near-zero balances raises questions about whether the income is truly available to support your residency.
Bank statement format: AIMA accepts PDFs downloaded from online banking. The document must be legible, must show the bank's name or logo, and must cover complete calendar months (not partial months). If your statements are in a foreign language, a certified translation is technically required, but many AIMA offices accept English-language statements without translation — verify this with the specific consulate or AIMA delegation handling your application. Statements in other languages should be translated.
Dependents: How the Calculation Changes When You Bring Family
If you are applying for a D8 visa and intend to bring a spouse or civil partner and/or dependent children, the income threshold increases above the single-applicant €3,680 figure. The calculation adds 50% of the minimum wage (€460) for each additional adult and 30% of the minimum wage (€276) for each dependent child. A couple with two children would need to demonstrate €3,680 + €460 + (2 × €276) = €4,692 per month. A couple with no children needs €3,680 + €460 = €4,140.
Family members can be included in the same D8 application or can join via family reunification later — but for D8 purposes, AIMA assesses the combined income requirement at the time of the principal applicant's application if family members are being included. All dependents included in the application require their own documentation (passports, relationship proof such as marriage certificate or birth certificate with apostille and translation) and contribute to the income threshold. If your income is close to the boundary, consider whether applying as a single applicant first and bringing family via reunification later might be administratively simpler. For the detailed income calculations with dependents across different family configurations, see the D8 dependents income calculation guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
See the Q&A section above for direct answers on the 2026 income threshold, how many months of bank statements AIMA requires, how irregular freelance income is assessed, what documents foreign-employed applicants need, and how AIMA's complete application rule affects income documentation.