D8 Digital Nomad Visa Statistics: 4,472 Visas by Mid-2024, Nothing Official Since and No Count of Where They Live

What the D8 is and what it takes to qualify

Lei 18/2022 of 25 August 2022 amended the foreigners' law (Lei 23/2007) and created the remote-work route, in force from 26 August. The implementing rules took effect on 30 October 2022, the date from which visas could be issued (Portugal.gov.pt, 30 September 2022). Law-firm notes from Abreu Advogados and PLMJ describe two variants. A temporary-stay visa lasts up to one year and is renewable for an equal period. A residence visa gives four months to enter and apply to AIMA for a permit, valid for at least two years and then renewable in three-year steps. The applicant is an employee or self-employed worker with a contract or service relationship with an entity outside Portugal.

The income test is the one hard number in the rule. The government's description says applicants must show average monthly income over the previous three months equal to or above four times the guaranteed monthly minimum wage, known as the RMMG. Because the minimum wage rises each January, the threshold has risen with it, from €2,820 when the visa opened to €3,680 in 2026. That is an increase of 30.5% in four years (derived).

Two features of the rule matter for reading the statistics. The test is on recent income, so the pool of eligible people shifts each January with the minimum wage, while the number of remote workers earning more than €3,680 a month is measured by nobody. The savings requirement, 12 months of minimum wage with supplements for a spouse and children, is quoted by relocation firms, but the consular one-pager from VFS Global does not mention it. Treat it as adviser practice and ask the consulate.

The visa sits inside a foreigners' regime that changed twice in two years. Decree-Law 37-A/2024 ended the manifestação de interesse route in June 2024, and Lei 61/2025 followed in October 2025. Remote Work Europe reported on 3 May 2026 that the D8 framework itself was unchanged, and we found no bill in 2025 or 2026 aimed at limiting it. A Chega proposal rejected in March 2026 concerned access to social benefits and did not mention the D8. Cuatrecasas' summary of Lei 61/2025 describes a two-year residence requirement for family reunification and does not list the D8 among exceptions; we did not confirm the text.

The only official count: 4,472 visas and a collapse

Every official D8 figure comes from replies by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to journalists. There is no published dataset. Observador reported about 200 visas in the first two and a half months on 19 January 2023. ECO reported about 550 by 10 March 2023. Público reported 2,600 in the first twelve months, relayed by Observador on 3 November 2023. On 8 June 2024 Observador published the ministry's cumulative total of 4,472 with three monthly values: 381 in March 2023, the peak, 292 in May 2023 and 18 in May 2024, the lowest. The cut-off date of the 4,472 is not stated. We treat it as about early June 2024.

The series does not reconcile cleanly. The first twelve months average about 217 visas a month (2,600 divided by 12, derived). Between the 2,600 of early November 2023 and the 4,472 of early June 2024 the average is about 267 a month (1,872 over seven months, derived). May 2024 was 18. If the 4,472 and the 18 describe the same counting basis, the other six months must have averaged about 309 (1,854 divided by six, derived), close to the March 2023 peak of 381, before falling to 18. That is possible but hard to square with the ministry's own description of March 2023 as the peak and with the sector's reporting of a steady decline. The more likely explanation is that a cut-off is earlier than it looks, or that May 2024 was a partial month. Only the ministry can say.

Observador's headline attributed the fall to the end of the non-habitual resident tax regime, the cost of accommodation and Portugal's external image. Those explanations come from advisers quoted in the article and were not tested against data here. Gonçalo Hall of Startup Madeira told the same newspaper that nomad arrivals in Madeira fell 15 to 20% in 2024 against 2023 and that the average stay was about two months. That is an organiser's estimate, not a published statistic.

The visa total also leaves out most short-stay remote workers. Citizens of visa-exempt countries can enter for up to 90 days in any 180, and Observador's sources describe those short-stay nomads as the majority. Nobody counts them. For scale, the minister said consulates issued about 70,000 work visas in 2025, up from 14,000 in 2022, excluding the D7 and D8 (RTP/Lusa, 11 February 2026). The 4,472 D8 visas are roughly the volume of the golden visa, which AIMA granted 2,081 times in 2024 and 2,685 in 2025 (see our golden visa statistics). Against 1,585,854 foreign residents at the end of 2025 they equal 0.28% (derived, and a visa count set against a stock of residents, so indicative only).

The 7,664 that nobody can trace

The figure most used in 2026 is 9,322 applications and 7,664 approvals to September 2025. Staywise, a relocation app, published it on 5 July 2026 and credited Immigrant Invest. Immigrant Invest's Portuguese blog says that by September 2025 Portugal had received 9,322 requests with 7,664 approvals, and footnotes a Conta-Lá article titled "Nómadas digitais: pedidos de visto e autorizações em queda". That page returned a maintenance error on every attempt, so we could not read which agency supplied the numbers or whether "pedidos" means visa applications or residence-permit requests. Its metadata shows an original date of 21 May 2023 and a last-modified date of September 2026, so it has been edited since it was first published. We found the figures in no ECO, Público, Observador, Lusa or idealista report and in no parliamentary answer.

The arithmetic raises a second problem. Between the ministry's 4,472 of mid-2024 and the 7,664 of September 2025 lie roughly 16 months and 3,192 visas, about 200 a month (derived). The Conta-Lá headline says authorisations were falling, and the ministry's last monthly figure was 18. The two series may count different stages, for example visas issued against permits approved, in which case they cannot be joined. The 82.2% ratio of approvals to applications that Staywise reports is its own division, and the 1,658 gap between the two numbers mixes refusals, withdrawals and pending cases. It is not a refusal rate.

A third set of numbers comes from Visas.pt, an adviser whose 2026 report covers its own clients from October 2022 to June 2026. It gives 41 nationalities, a 9% first-application rejection rate, 6.8 months of average processing and consulate medians from 4.8 months in London to 9.1 in San Francisco. It states no sample size, and it contradicts itself on the share of tech workers, 67% in one place and 41% in another. It is client data from one adviser and not a population statistic.

Who is applying: ranks, and a proxy that mixes everything

The ministry has published an order of nationalities and never a count. Americans, Britons and Brazilians led the early 2023 replies. By November 2023 the order was Americans, Brazilians, Britons, with Jornal Económico adding that the visas were issued outside the European space. The claim that Americans were 22.4% of D8 visas in 2023 appears on a recruiter's blog that links Público. We could not find it in the article text or in idealista's summary, which says only that Americans applied more than any other nationality in 2023 and 2024, so we do not use the percentage. The age and household composition of applicants are not published. The wider American picture, including the July 2026 dip, is in our American tourists analysis.

The nearest official proxy is Eurostat's table of first residence permits. Portugal's "other reasons" category holds the D8 alongside the D7, golden visas and humanitarian grants, so the D8 cannot be isolated. The bucket grew 5.8 times in four years, from 5,711 in 2021 to 33,292 in 2025 (derived). Its share of all first permits peaked at 16.8% in 2024 and fell to 10.7% in 2025, because the 2025 total jumped to 310,639 and Eurostat flags a series break there.

The citizenship split shows why the bucket cannot stand in for the D8. Brazilians rose from 838 in 2021 to 6,560 in 2025, 30.0% of the bucket in 2024 and 19.7% in 2025 (derived). The D8's own monthly count peaked in March 2023 while the Brazilian line kept rising, which suggests other routes drive it. That is our inference, and the bucket's definition is the only thing that would settle it. Americans are the steadier line, at 1,276, 1,475, 2,426, 2,845 and 2,600, a fall of 8.6% in 2025 (derived). British permits fell 21.6% in 2025 (derived). Indian and Canadian permits peaked in 2024.

Where they live: registrations, check-ins and district totals

Madeira's Ponta do Sol village launched on 1 February 2021 and is the best-documented hub, which shows how thin the documentation is. Idealista reported on 26 February 2021 that about 75 nomads were physically in Ponta do Sol, against more than 4,000 who had expressed interest. The 2,600 that circulated in headlines was the count of applications at the end of January 2021. The same number, 2,600, is the ministry's D8 total for the first twelve months nationally. The two are unrelated, though the match invites confusion.

Startup Madeira, the project's organiser, claims that more than 10,000 people have officially used its free co-working space since the project began, with no method stated. A 2023 paper in the Journal of Entrepreneurial Researchers, co-authored by Startup Madeira staff, profiles 14,960 people who registered between November 2020 and December 2022: 208 in 2020, 10,121 in 2021 and 4,631 in 2022, a 54% fall in registrations from 2021 to 2022 (derived). Europeans were 58.7% of registrants, North Americans 16.5% and Latin Americans 11.5%. People aged 31 to 40 were 39.7% and those aged 21 to 30 were 38.5%. The most common planned stay was one to two months, and 76.2% planned to base themselves in Ponta do Sol. These are intentions stated on a form, the sample is non-probabilistic, and the paper does not say how many registrants came. Wired reported about 200 remote workers renting in Ponta do Sol in February 2022, a claim we could not verify. Madeira's wider visitor statistics, including the alojamento local nights INE does not count, are in our Madeira tourism statistics.

The ranking sites fill the gap with extrapolations. Nomads.com, the successor to Nomad List, ranks Madeira 14th with a score of 4.09 from 539 reviews and says 1,200 remote workers are there now, with monthly estimates between 2,870 in July and 5,550 in May. Ericeira ranks second, 4.34 from 245 reviews, with "about 4,200 remote workers now" and a claim that 56% of residents are nomads, while the same page says the town has limited gyms and coworking spaces. Those figures derive from trips logged by members, and the site publishes no method for scaling them to a population. Lisbon is 66th, 3.85 from 3,793 reviews, and its page says 1% of people there are nomads. Nomads.com also reports Lisbon check-ins up 24% in 2026 to date, after falls of 13% in 2025, 18% in 2024 and 34% in 2023.

Observador reported in June 2024 that Lisbon had dropped on the same ranking from first to 13th, Madeira from seventh to 81st, with Ericeira at 74th. Ericeira's move to second place in two years shows how far a small number of check-ins can move a rank. Ranks from different periods and scoring versions are not comparable, and none of them counts residents.

The only official location data covers all foreign residents. AIMA's stock at the end of 2025 was 605,895 in Lisboa district, 173,885 in Setúbal, 167,498 in Porto and 166,124 in Faro, together about 70% of 1,585,854 (derived). The 2024 annex puts Madeira at 18,944, or 1.23%, and the Azores at 8,197, or 0.53%. None of it separates D8 holders from workers, families and retirees, and the municipal annex does not cover Ponta do Sol or Mafra, so neither Ponta do Sol nor Ericeira can be measured. AIMA's 2025 report was blocked to automated readers, so any D7 or D8 breakdown inside it is unchecked. The stock, its definitions and its restated history are in our foreign residents analysis.

The claim that nomads push up rents is common and untested. A May 2024 Euronews piece, labelled as branded content, put Lisbon rents up about 30% over five years, citing a property-firm blog, and offered no data linking nomad numbers to rents. Wired reported that Ponta do Sol had the island's highest density of alojamento local and house prices up about 30% in a year, which is reporting and not a dataset. Nothing we found separates nomads from tourists, students, investors and other foreign residents as a source of rental demand. With 4,472 visas against more than 1.58 million foreign residents, the visa holders are a small share of the total (derived and indicative).

Tax and the citizenship clock

The D8 requires proof of tax residence, according to Portugal.gov.pt. A holder who becomes a Portuguese tax resident is generally taxed under the ordinary IRS rules on worldwide income, and we did not verify the tax code text for this article. Tax advice is needed before relying on any treaty or regime.

IFICI, known as NHR 2.0, is the preferential regime many applicants assume applies. The tax authority's FAQ describes a 20% rate on qualifying employment and self-employment income for ten years. It is open to people not tax resident in Portugal in the previous five years and not previous NHR or IFICI beneficiaries, who perform listed activities. Those are teaching and research, qualified posts in technology and innovation centres, highly qualified professions listed in Portaria 352/2024/1, R&D under SIFIDE II and certified startups. The FAQ says a posto de trabalho requires an employment contract and that service-contract work does not qualify. Remote work is not a category, so a D8 holder qualifies only if the actual job matches a listed activity. No registration count has been published. Press reported a first wave approved at the end of March 2026 with no number.

The citizenship clock changed after most of the D8 cohort arrived. Lei Orgânica 1/2026, published on 18 May 2026 and in force from 19 May, requires 10 years of legal residence for naturalisation, or 7 for EU and CPLP nationals, counted from the issue of the residence title so that the wait for a permit does not count. The rule is set out in our nationality law analysis. Applications pending on 19 May keep the old five-year rule. The D8 began on 30 October 2022, so nobody who entered through it could have completed five years before the law changed, apart from people with earlier residence on other titles (derived). The first D8 cohort reaches 10 years around 2033, or about 2030 for CPLP citizens such as Brazilians (derived, from permits issued in early 2023). A D8 residence permit is a residence title, so we infer that time on it counts. Neither the law's text nor the secondary sources we read says so explicitly.

How Portugal compares

Spain publishes the better statistic. The Observatorio Permanente de la Inmigración counted 27,875 remote-work residence authorisations granted to the end of 2024, of which 14,255 went to holders and 13,620 to family members. That compares with 9,568 at the end of 2023 and 5,619 in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone (The Local, 25 June 2025). Non-EU Europe supplied 16,846, about 60%, and Central and South America 4,669. Croatia counted valid permits of 710 at the end of 2023, 598 at the end of 2024 and 514 in February 2026, according to its Interior Ministry via Lider Media. Greece reported 2,918 applications and 1,693 approvals up to October 2021 (Business Daily), and we found no later official count.

The bases differ. Portugal's counts are visas issued, Spain's are permits granted including family, Croatia's are permits valid on a date and Greece's are applications. A single chart across the four would mislead. The comparison that holds is within Portugal, where the D8 and the golden visa run at a similar annual scale.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers. Most remote workers who stay in Portugal for a few weeks use the 90-day visa-free allowance and never appear in D8 data. Whether working remotely on that status is permitted is a legal question we have not answered, and the D8 exists for longer stays. In Madeira the Ponta do Sol co-working space is listed as free and open from 09:00 to 18:00 at the John dos Passos cultural centre (Startup Madeira, August 2026), although one blog quotes €80 to €150 a month, so confirm before you go. Use the ranking sites for reviews and not for crowding, because their counts are extrapolations. If you plan to base yourself on the island, our Madeira travel guide covers where to stay.

Tourism businesses and investors. The D8 market is smaller than its reputation. The only official monthly series ends at 18 visas in May 2024, and the "other reasons" permit bucket is dominated by other routes. Customers who qualify earn at least €3,680 a month, which suggests mid-market rent and coworking demand, but no official source counts coworking spaces, and the Ericeira directory claim of 153 conflicts with the site's own reviews. Underwriting on nomad rankings would be a mistake. The thresholds that would change the assessment are a ministry dataset after June 2024, a D8 breakdown inside AIMA's 2025 report, IFICI registration counts, and the first cohort's citizenship decisions from about 2030.

Journalists and analysts. The safe figures are the D8's start on 30 October 2022 under Lei 18/2022, the 4× RMMG test and its yearly thresholds (€2,820, €3,040, €3,280, €3,480 and €3,680), the ministry's 2,600 visas in the first twelve months and 4,472 cumulative to about June 2024 with 381 in March 2023 and 18 in May 2024, Eurostat's 33,292 "other reasons" first permits in 2025, and about 75 people on site in Ponta do Sol on 26 February 2021. Do not repeat 9,322 and 7,664, the 22.4% American share, Ericeira's 4,200 remote workers and 56% of residents, 2,600 nomads arriving in Madeira, 14,960 nomads in Madeira, the claim that nomads price out locals, or the claim that remote workers get NHR 2.0. This article adds a pattern to the series on residence routes: the producer publishes totals and stops publishing breakdowns, and the number that survives is a secondary figure with an unreadable source. A request to the ministry for D8 visas by month, nationality, consulate and outcome would settle most of the gaps listed here.