Portugal D2 visa Ā· entrepreneurs and freelancers
Your Portugal D2 visa ā no big investment, no guesswork, a partner lawyer on your side.
The Portugal visa most people skip because they think “entrepreneur visa” means big money. It doesn’t. ā¬11,040 in savings, a viable business idea (or a Portuguese client), and you’re in. We handle the NIF, the company, the bank, and the visa dossier so you can focus on the business itself.
- ā¬11,040 in savings is the only financial bar. No monthly income required.
- Three ways to qualify: form a company, contract with a Portuguese client, or join a certified incubator.
- NIF, company, bank, lawyer, accountant. All in one place.
- Novomove Premium ā¬1,199 or ā¬320/month Ć 4.
ā¬1,199
full visa support
ā¬11,040
savings bar, no monthly income needed
6ā8 months
NIF to landing, in the right order
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Every D2 we've supported: approved
ā 7,200+ expats helped
ā Every D2 we've supported so far: approved
You went through Portugal’s visa list and nothing fit. The D7 wants passive income you don’t have. The D8 wants ā¬3,680 a month from abroad. So you closed the tab and assumed Portugal wasn’t for you. Nobody mentioned the visa designed for people who’d rather earn their living here: a viable idea, ā¬11,040 in savings, and a plan a reviewer can believe.
Three ways in
The D2 has three paths. One of them is probably yours.
The D2 is for people who will actively earn in Portugal. It comes with a 2-year residence permit, renewable for another 3.
Path 1 Ā· Company
Start a Portuguese business
You register a Portuguese company (an LDA or Unipessoal) and run it from Portugal. A restaurant, an e-commerce brand, a consultancy, a service business. There's no minimum investment, and the bar is lower than people expect. What carries the file is the business plan.
Path 2 Ā· Freelance
Work for a Portuguese client
You're a designer, developer, consultant or specialist with a services agreement (prestaĆ§Ć£o de serviƧos) of at least a year with a business in Portugal. No company needed, and no freelancer registration before the visa: the contract carries the file, and you open your activity after you arrive. In practice this is the simplest D2 path, and the one accepted with the least friction.
Path 3 Ā· Startup
Join an IAPMEI incubator
You have a tech or innovation project and get accepted by an IAPMEI-certified incubator. Up to five co-founders can be included in one application, and no existing company is needed.
All three paths share the same financial bar
ā¬11,040 in a Portuguese bank account (12 times the ā¬920 minimum wage). Add 50% per adult dependent and 30% per child, so a family of three needs around ā¬19,872. There's no fixed monthly income requirement, and that's the big difference from the D7 and the D8. If you have the ā¬11,040 and a viable idea or a Portuguese client, the D2 could be your fastest route in.
The rejection trap
D2 or D8: get this wrong and nothing else matters
The rule is short. D2 is for income earned inside Portugal: Portuguese clients, a Portuguese company you run, a contract with a Portuguese business. D8 is for income earned outside Portugal: remote work for a foreign employer, foreign freelance clients. Mixing them up is the most common reason D2 applications get sent back.
A real case from our partner lawyer’s files: a client opened a Portuguese company, wrote a strong business plan, and applied for the D2. His stated income came from foreign clients. Rejected. The company was real and the plan was good; the income source made it a D8 file wearing D2 paperwork.
So before anything gets drafted, the path gets settled. If your business will earn from Portuguese clients or a Portuguese-facing market, the D2 fits. If your income will come from abroad, apply for the D8 instead, and form the Portuguese company once you’re a resident. The free 15-minute call exists to answer exactly this question before you spend anything.
The document your file lives on
On the company route, the business plan is the whole game
In our partner lawyers’ experience, nearly every D2 rejection traces back to the business plan, and the rejection letter won’t tell you why. It can be a single line, something like “business plan is not credible enough”, with no detail and one appeal allowed.
The reassuring part: authorities have approved everything from consultancies to hot dog stands. It doesn’t need to be 50 pages and it isn’t judged like an investor deck. It needs to be viable, honest, specific to your actual idea, and show your economic contribution to Portugal. That contribution can be indirect, foreign customers, tourism, inbound investment, as long as it’s spelled out: vague contribution is what gets questioned, not indirect contribution itself. What gets files rejected is a thin template with no real person behind it, ambition the founder’s background can’t back, and lately, text that reads AI-generated.
You can write yours yourself, and if you’re on one of our packages the partner immigration lawyer reviews it before it enters the dossier either way. Or you can have it built properly.
D2 add-on
Business plan by a partner certified accountant, ā¬499
A 45-minute consultation to shape your idea, then a 10 to 15 page plan grounded in real Portuguese market data, with two revision rounds included. Built around the four sections AIMA reads most closely.
How it works
The D2 has hard dependencies. Order is everything.
The bank won’t open an account until the company exists. The company’s activity codes are locked at incorporation. Criminal records expire while you wait. Run the steps in the right order and the whole thing takes 6 to 8 months; run them in the wrong order and you pay for it twice.
NIFunlocks everything
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Companyneeds the NIF
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Bankneeds the registered company + plan
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Consulateneeds all of it
ā Visa package runs alongside, from company formation to decision
The setup chain, in dependency order
Your visa package: the partner lawyer working alongside it
Start here
1
Free 15-minute call day 0
We confirm which of the three paths fits. Complex cases (foreign clients in the mix, family questions, IFICI) get pointed to a paid consultation with the partner lawyer first.
The setup chain
2
NIF 5ā7 business days
You e-sign a Power of Attorney and your NIF certificate lands in your dashboard. The NIF is the prerequisite for everything that follows.
3
Visa package starts here
Company formation, with the codes chosen deliberately 3ā5 weeks
Handled by a licensed Portuguese partner: name certificate, articles, commercial registry, RCBE (about 1 week with the express add-on). Your activity codes matter to AIMA and are expensive to change later, which is why the visa package starts now: the partner lawyer assesses how AIMA will read your business before the codes are locked in. On the freelance path, this step is simply your signed services agreement; freelancer registration itself waits until after you arrive.
4
Bank account and the ā¬11,040 3ā4 weeks
Opened remotely through our partner bank, though not fully digitally: you print, sign and mail documents to our partner law firm in Portugal for signature certification. On the company route the bank needs your registered company documents and the business plan together, plus your NIF, your ā¬11,040+ in savings and the usual identity documents. On the freelance route, your 1-year service contract takes the company's place.
The application
5
Dossier build and lawyer review runs alongside steps 2ā4
Criminal records (apostilled, dated within 90 days of submission), accommodation proof, insurance, cover letter, business plan, financials. You get a checklist and timeline, and the partner lawyer reviews every document and flags fixes before anything goes in.
6
Consulate appointment and submission in person Ā· ā¬90āā¬110 fee
You apply at the Portuguese consulate in your country of residence. We guide you to the right booking system, timing, and centre; only the applicant can book the slot. Book roughly three months out, once the real bottlenecks are underway, and never before you're ready; a held appointment also doubles as the proof of appointment the bank asks for. Which VFS centre you book matters more than most applicants realise: we've watched agents at the same centre give three different answers to the same jurisdiction question in one week, and part of our job is making sure you never find out how inconsistent it can be.
7
Package runs to the decision
Decision, then the 120-day clock 60ā90 days
Your passport comes back with the D2 visa and you have 120 days to enter Portugal.
After you land
8
Land, set up, AIMA 120-day window
First weeks in Portugal: activate the business, register for NISS, move into your accommodation and register the lease (Modelo 2), update your NIF address. On the freelance path, once your NIF sits on a Portuguese address and you're a tax resident, we can open your freelance activity for you. Then the AIMA appointment, where your residence permit is processed. The visa package ends at visa approval; AIMA appointment support is its own service (below).
Packages
Check-Up or the full package
The Check-Up validates a dossier you’ve built yourself. Novomove Premium comes with a dedicated case manager, full dossier review by the partner immigration lawyer, and unlimited chat support with same-day replies on business days.
Check-Up
ā¬530one-time
For a dossier you've gathered yourself and want checked before you apply
ā Written expert feedback with comments on every document
ā 45-minute call to walk through the feedback and answer your questions
ā Second review round after you've made corrections
Add an extra review round ā ā¬60 Ā· Add a 45-min consultation ā ā¬60
Novomove Premium
ā¬320/month Ć 4
or ā¬1,199 (Save ā¬81)
ā 2 lawyer consultations: case analysis and Q&A on your D2 path
ā Visa appointment scheduling guidance
ā Motivation letter editing
ā Full dossier review by the partner lawyer
ā Unlimited chat support with your case manager
ā 1 tax consultation with a Portuguese tax expert
ā Lease review by the partner lawyer (normally ā¬100)
ā NIF address update (normally ā¬79)
Then assemble the rest of your D2
These sit around the visa package, not inside it. On the company route most people add the first three; add company formation and the plan only on Path 1.
š¦
NIF + bank account
ā¬359The Solo Package bundles both at ā¬20 less than apart; Couple (ā¬428) covers two. Not inside the visa package.
See the bundle āšļø
Path 1 essentialCompany formation
from ā¬970A licensed partner registers your LDA or Unipessoal and sets the AIMA-critical activity codes. Start it alongside the package, so the codes are right first time.
See company formation āš
Business plan
ā¬499The company-route add-on: a 45-minute consultation with a partner certified accountant, then the full 10 to 15 page plan with two revision rounds.
See the plan service āGovernment fees, translations and apostilles, booking the consulate appointment (only the applicant can) and attending AIMA appointments all sit outside these too. AIMA appointment support is its own service, taken after you land.
The buying order
What to buy first, and the one thing that runs in parallel
The order you buy in and the order things get delivered in are two different things. Delivery is fixed by the dependencies above: NIF, then company, then bank, because each one needs the last. Buying is more flexible, with one rule that surprises people.
The visa package isn’t the last thing you add. It starts alongside company formation, because your company is registered with specific activity codes (CAE), those codes are hard to change later, and the partner immigration lawyer should assess how AIMA will read your business before they’re locked in. Form the company first and that’s one less thing anyone can fix in your application. If you’re not ready for a full package yet, the minimum sensible step is the same lawyer’s ā¬80 consultation before you incorporate.
So on the company route, most clients buy the Solo Package (NIF + bank, ā¬359, ā¬20 less than separately) or the Couple Package (ā¬428) together with their visa package, then add company formation once the path is confirmed on the free call. Neither the NIF nor the bank account is inside the visa package itself; they’re a separate order, and the bank half waits until your company is registered and your business plan is ready (on the freelance route, until your service contract is signed), which is exactly how it should work. And if you’d rather buy one service at a time as you go, that’s fine too; the sequence holds either way.
The honest total, before you ask
NIF + bank account (Solo Package)ā¬359
Company formationfrom ā¬970
Virtual office, if you need a registered address (6 months)ā¬210
Visa package (Novomove Premium)ā¬1,199
Business plan, if you'd rather not write it yourselfā¬499
Typical Path 1 totalā¬2,500 to ā¬3,240
Government fees, apostilles and translations are separate, as is your ā¬11,040+ in savings, which stays yours. On the freelance path, drop the company formation and virtual office lines.
Not ready for a full package?
45 minutes one-on-one with the partner immigration lawyer, ā¬80
Useful when your case has a wrinkle: foreign clients in the mix, a past refusal, family timing, or you simply want a professional read on your plan before committing to anything. It's a working session with the lawyer, and there's no sales pitch attached. The lawyer doesn't sell packages; that's not her job.
We credit the ā¬80 toward a visa package if you order within two weeks.
Book the consultation, ā¬80 āPlanning warning Ā· updated 2026
If you have a family, apply together
Until recently, “I’ll apply alone and my spouse and kids will follow on family reunification” was a reasonable plan. Portugal’s reunification rules under Article 98 have changed, and it’s now the most expensive mistake we see people make on the D2.
To reunify a spouse from abroad, the main holder now needs at least 2 years of valid residence in Portugal first. That drops to 15 months if you can show 18 or more months of cohabitation before entering. The waiting period is waived for dependent minor children, and for a spouse who is jointly the parent of a dependent minor with the holder.
In practice: Leaving your spouse in the original application can cost 15 to 24 months apart. If you’re a single applicant, none of this applies to you. If you have a family, apply together.
Before you book anything
Is the D2 actually your visa?
D2 fits if
You'll earn inside Portugal: a business you'll run here, Portuguese clients, or a services contract with a Portuguese company. You have the ā¬11,040 in savings and a viable, honest idea.
D8 fits instead if
Your income comes from abroad: a foreign employer or foreign freelance clients at ā¬3,680+ a month. Applying D2 with foreign income is the classic rejection. Start with our D8 page.
D7 fits instead if
You live on passive income: pensions, rentals, dividends of ā¬920+ a month. No business required. Start with our D7 page.
Genuinely unsure? That’s what the free 15-minute call settles, before you spend a euro.
Who does the work
A case manager you can message, a lawyer whose feedback is in writing
Novomove is a coordination platform. Licensed Portuguese partners perform the regulated work: the partner immigration lawyer reviews your dossier and consults on your case, licensed partners handle company formation, and a partner law firm certifies your bank signature. Your case manager keeps all of it moving.
Everything runs through one dashboard: documents uploaded once and used everywhere, status tracking across NIF, company, bank, visa and AIMA, and unlimited chat with same-day replies on business days.Ā
After the visa
The visa package ends at approval. Here's what comes next.
You land with 120 days on the clock and one big appointment ahead: AIMA, where the residence permit is processed. We cover that stretch too.
Separate service Ā· not in the visa packages
AIMA appointment support, from ā¬399
Document review by a partner lawyer, a correction round, and a 45-minute prep call. Full Support (ā¬499) adds help requesting the appointment; Prep-Only (ā¬399) if you've already booked.
NIF address update, ā¬79
Moves your NIF to your Portuguese address and registers you as a tax resident. Included in Premium. It's also the switch that unlocks the next card.
Freelance activity registration, ā¬249
Went the self-employed route? A certified accountant opens your activity (abertura de atividade) on Portal das FinanƧas so you can invoice legally. Available once you're a Portuguese tax resident, meaning your NIF sits on a Portuguese address. It doesn't apply to non-residents, so this one waits until after you land.
Tax consultation, ā¬99
45 minutes with an OCC-certified accountant. Especially worth it for D2 holders weighing IFICI eligibility, ideally before your activity codes are locked in.
Finding a place to live from abroad is one of the harder parts of the move. Tell your case manager what you need and we'll connect you with our partner agencies in Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve, Madeira and smaller cities. Inventory typically starts around ā¬1,000 a month, and the agency works with you directly through the lease.
On-demand webinar
Moving to Portugal in 2026?
Our on-demand webinar series covers the move end to end, and the D2 deep dive is the session to start with: 60 minutes with our partner immigration lawyer on the three D2 paths, the D2-versus-D8 line, what a credible business plan contains, and the new family reunification rules. Watch it before your free call and you’ll arrive with better questions.
What clients say
Straight from the people we’ve moved.
★★★★★
The visa process explained properly
“They set out the process and what they'd be doing at each point. The technical and legal parts were explained in a way that made sense. Good experience, happy to recommend.”
Kerem Yilmaz
– Verified client · Visa
★★★★★
They handled a complicated case well
“Our circumstances were unusual and we had questions that didn't have obvious answers. The team worked through all of them and never fobbed us off on the tricky details. Replies came quickly. We got our visa. Very grateful.”
Deniz Aydin
– Verified client · Visa
★★★★★
Best consultation I've had on this
“Booked a D7 session with Mariana and it was the opposite of stiff. Felt like a conversation, but I came away with pages of notes. She worked through every question I brought and didn't hand-wave the awkward ones. A couple of edge cases she couldn't answer on the spot, so she's checking and coming back to me. That's more than I got from two other firms.”
Martin R
– Verified client · D7 visa consultation
★★★★★
Hard to fault
“For a NIF, a visa, or anything else on their list, Philip and his team are the ones to call. They're approachable, they pay attention to what you actually need, and they turn genuinely awkward bureaucratic processes into something manageable. My wife and I got to Portugal with far less pain than we'd braced for.”
Peter Crowhurst
– Verified client · NIF & visa
Collected directly from our clients after their service is complete. Read all reviews →
FAQ
Portugal D2 visa questions
Ideally 6 to 9 months before your planned move. The D2 has more steps than the D7 or D8 because of the company formation and bank account dependencies, and starting early means you’re never racing criminal record expiry or appointment slots.
Booking your consulate or VFS appointment (we guide you, but only the applicant can book), government fees, apostilles and translations, and attending AIMA appointments. Your NIF and bank account are also not in the visa packages: they’re ordered separately, usually as the Solo (ā¬359) or Couple (ā¬428) package, which bundles both. Company formation is a separate service too, and the business plan (ā¬499) is an optional add-on.
No. You apply at the Portuguese consulate in your country of residence.
Not all of them. A few consulates only process the D7 and turn away work-related visas, the D2 and D8 included, with no alternative published. If yours is one of them, the route is to apply from another country where you hold legal residence. We check the accepted-visa list for your specific consulate on the free call, before you commit to anything, so you never buy a package you can’t use.
Yes. You can write it yourself, use our business plan service (ā¬499), or any qualified writer. The consulate doesn’t care who wrote it. It cares that the plan is viable, makes sense for Portugal, and shows economic contribution. Within our packages, the partner lawyer reviews it before it enters the dossier whoever wrote it.
It’s not an automatic problem. Our partner lawyer puts it plainly: business equals risk, and the authorities know that. What you can’t do is shut the company down immediately after getting the residence permit, because that reads as a company that only existed for the visa. Keep it active and operating through renewal.
Yes. The D2 doesn’t restrict you from other work. Some people consult on the side, some take part-time roles. What matters at renewal is that your business stays active.
Yes, at the application stage. Which is why the order matters: NIF first, then the company and the plan, then the bank account. On the company route the bank wants your registered company documents and the business plan together; on the freelance route, your 1-year service contract.
No. The bank has internal restrictions on certain nationalities for remote opening, and we tell you upfront on the free call. If your nationality isn’t accepted, we’ll say so plainly: you can open an account through another route yourself, and we’ll adjust the plan around it.
Rejections arrive without detailed reasons, which is exactly why the pre-submission review matters so much: the business plan check, the activity code validation and the dossier review all exist to catch problems before the consulate sees them. If a rejection happens anyway, you’re entitled to one appeal. The partner immigration lawyer drafts it, scoped and quoted at the time based on what the rejection says. The most likely rejection ground on the D2 is the business plan, in which case the rework becomes part of that appeal’s scope.
It can differ by step, and small name differences between the two can ripple through your whole file. Your NIF can often run on one passport and your visa on the other, but the names must match and your proof of address must stay consistent from the NIF through to the bank. We map which passport carries which step before anything is submitted, so a mismatch never surprises you mid-process.
A long-term lease, typically a 12-month registered lease. Short-term bookings like Airbnb or hotels have recently been refused as D2 accommodation proof, so don’t build your file on one; we confirm the current requirement for your specific consulate before you sign anything. Your lease timing keys off your appointment date, because your intended arrival date goes on the application form, so booking the appointment is what makes every other date plannable. Your case manager can connect you with our partner agencies to find the place, and Premium includes a lease review by the partner lawyer before you commit.
No. On the freelance route, the service contract with your Portuguese client is what carries the visa file. You open your freelance activity (abertura de atividade) after you arrive, at the residence-permit stage, and we have a service for exactly that step. Full explainer: do you need to register as a freelancer before the D2 visa?
D2 is income earned inside Portugal (Portuguese clients, a Portuguese company you run, a contract with a Portuguese business). D8 is income earned outside Portugal (a foreign employer or foreign freelance clients). Mixing them up is the most common reason D2 applications get sent back.
Yes, either spouse can. The other comes as a dependent and doesn’t need to declare work plans. Once you both hold residence permits, either of you can work, start businesses, or not.
Yes, and it’s different from the family case. Two partners who aren’t a couple can both apply for a D2 off the same Portuguese company, each holding a share. The company has to be an LDA (a Unipessoal is single-member only), each partner files their own dossier, and each meets the ā¬11,040 savings bar on their own rather than splitting it. The business plan then has to justify two active founders with real roles, not one founder and a passenger.
No. Portuguese law allows an LDA with ā¬1 of share capital. For visa purposes, around ā¬5,000 in business capital strengthens the file, but it isn’t legally required.
Sometimes, and this is where the D2 has a real edge. A Portuguese company with qualifying activity codes and 50%+ export revenue can pay you a salary taxed at the flat 20% IFICI rate. The structure decides it, and codes are easiest to set at incorporation, so raise IFICI in a tax consultation before the company papers are locked.
Yes, it’s law. Parliament passed the new nationality law in early 2026, the President signed it, and it’s been published. Citizenship eligibility went from 5 to 10 years of legal residence (7 for EU and CPLP nationals). It affects the citizenship timeline only; your D2 residence rights and renewals are unchanged.
The same minimum-stay rules as the D7 and D8: around 16 months in Portugal during the first 2-year permit period.
To date, every D2 application we’ve supported has been approved. We can’t promise any specific outcome, since approval is the consulate’s call, but the track record reflects how seriously the partner lawyer reviews dossiers before they go in. If something looks weak, you hear about it before submission, never after.
Your D2 doesn't start with a form. It starts with 15 minutes.
You came here to build something in Portugal. On the free call we’ll tell you honestly which path fits, what it costs, and what to do first. Then go build the thing; we’ll keep the paperwork moving.
Not ready this month? Fine. Most of our clients hit a blocker somewhere: a passport renewal, a job transition, a lease. Tell us, and we’ll tell you what can safely wait and what expires.