You do not need a Portuguese employer to apply. Freelancers, remote employees and owners of a company outside Portugal may all qualify. What matters is where the income comes from and how well the documents evidence it.
Income, main applicant
€3,680 / month gross
Four times the national minimum wage of €920. See every change since 2023
The short answer
This route is built for people who can keep working remotely after they move.
Savings, our advice
Neither the regulation nor the Pakistan checklist sets a savings figure for this route. We advise €11,040, a year of the minimum wage, in the account your statements come from.
Documents
A freelancer, a remote employee and a company owner do not file the same documents. Working out which set is yours is the part we handle.
Not every line applies to every applicant, and two steps people treat as one are separate. An apostille proves a document is genuine. A certified translation makes it readable to the Embassy. A document can need one, both, or neither, and which is which depends on who issued it.
Several foreign clients
Invoices matched line by line to credits, and an explanation wherever a platform released several jobs in one payout.
One foreign employer
A contract in force, a letter permitting work from Portugal, and matching payslips.
Your own business, outside Portugal
Ownership evidence, then the route money takes from the business to you.
Important for Pakistani documents: supporting documents must be in Portuguese or English. Download the current checklist for your visa category before submitting. Read the official Pakistan checklist.
Accompanying family
Each person raises the figure, and the increase is a share of the minimum wage rather than a share of your own threshold.
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Indicative family income estimate
€3,680 / month gross
Where these come from: Portugal sets means of subsistence as a share of the national minimum wage. 100 percent for the first adult, 50 percent for a second, and 30 percent for each child under 18. The rule is Portaria n.º 1563/2007, Article 2, and at €920 it gives the figures above.
Treat the result as an estimate. These percentages are the general means-of-subsistence rule, and family members join through the accompanying-family procedure, so confirm the requirement for your family before you file. This tool compares income with a threshold; it does not assess eligibility.
Conversions are approximate, at 1 EUR = 1.1592 USD = 0.8581 GBP, the European Central Bank reference rate for 2026-09-11.
From experience
Rarely anything dramatic. Usually a small inconsistency that makes real income hard to verify.
01
One invoice can arrive as several platform payouts, and the bank shows the platform's name rather than the client's. The total is right and the trail still looks broken.
How we handle itA payment map that connects each invoice to its payout and to the credit on the statement.
02
The contract says monthly, but the transfers arrive irregularly or from an unknown name.
How we handle itThe variation is explained and evidenced in the file, rather than left for the reviewer to guess at.
03
A company's sales are not automatically the owner's monthly earnings, and the two are easy to blur when one person signs for both.
How we handle itThe route the money takes from the business to you is shown, and the two sets of statements are kept apart.
04
Even a visit visa refused years ago elsewhere is on record, and far harder to answer once it is raised.
How we handle itIt is disclosed, with the application built around it from the start.
Working with us
Three stages, and the first is free because it decides whether the other two happen.
Stage 1
Three months of income, checked against the threshold and against itself. If it does not hold, we say how long to wait.
Stage 2
Apostille chain, translations, contracts and statements, assembled in the order the consulate expects.
Stage 3
The VFS booking, the checklist you take with you, and what happens between the visa and the AIMA appointment.
Questions
An average of €3,680 a month gross over your last three months: four times the national minimum wage of €920. It moves whenever the wage does.
Not as a published rule. Neither Portugal nor the Pakistan checklist sets a savings figure for this route. Our advice is roughly €11,040, a year of the minimum wage, in the account your statements come from.
Three. The regulation and the Pakistan checklist both measure income over the last three months. The Embassy can still ask for more records if something needs explaining, so three months is the measure, not a cap.
No. Once you are tax resident in Portugal, Portuguese tax applies to your worldwide income, and the old NHR regime is closed to new applicants. We do not give tax advice, so speak to a Portuguese accountant before you move.
Yes. The Embassy of Portugal in Islamabad publishes two checklists for remote work: a temporary stay visa for under a year, and a residence visa that leads to a residence card and renewal. Both use the same income test, so choose by how long you intend to stay.
Yes, if the clients are outside Portugal and your contracts, invoices and bank statements reconcile. Platform payouts that batch several jobs into one credit need a short explanation, nothing more.
Pakistani civil documents such as a degree, marriage certificate or police certificate need a single apostille from MOFA, which has replaced the old legalisation chain since Pakistan joined the Apostille Convention on 9 March 2023. A certified translation is a separate step, needed only where a document is not already in English or Portuguese.
Through VFS Global, which handles submission and biometrics for Portugal here. The Embassy makes the decision. Once you are in Portugal, the residence card is issued by AIMA, the agency that replaced SEF in October 2023.
Yes. As an indication, a spouse adds €460 a month and each child €276, on top of your own €3,680. The family calculator above shows where those figures come from.
The residence version counts towards both, but neither is automatic. Permanent residence becomes possible after five years of legal residence, and citizenship after ten, following the 2026 change to the nationality law. Each is a separate application with its own conditions.
Months rather than weeks. The VFS appointment, the Embassy assessment and the decision each take their own time, and a request for more documents adds to it. After you arrive, AIMA issues the residence card at a separate appointment. Do not book a flight before the decision.
Send your last three months of income and we will tell you where you stand against the €3,680 threshold, which documents your profile actually needs, and what to fix before you spend anything. The first read costs nothing.