Portugal asks for insurance twice on D7 and D8

News· 9 October 2026· by NomadYou News

Portugal's D7 and D8 routes are open. What secondary posts keep restating as a 2026 health-insurance rule is two older checklist lines: travel insurance for the consulate file, then health cover or SNS proof for AIMA. The ministry pages name the product. They do not name a euro floor.

What Foreign Affairs asks for first

Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps one English documentation page for national residency visas: Necessary documentation — Residency on vistos.mne.gov.pt.

Under general documentation — the list every residency applicant starts with — it requires:

Valid travel insurance, covering necessary medical expenses, including urgent medical assistance and possible repatriation.

A footnote says the travel-insurance line may be waived where a bilateral or international medical assistance agreement already covers the applicant, naming Brazil (PB4) and the United Kingdom (S1) as examples.

The page then adds purpose-specific papers. The heading For the exercise of a professional activity done remotely: digital nomads (the D8 ground) asks for work proof, three months’ average income at four times the monthly minimum guaranty remuneration, and fiscal residence. The heading Fixed residency for retirement purposes, religious purposes or people living from passive income (the route guides call the D7) sits on the same page as a separate purpose. Neither purpose heading adds a second insurance item. The travel-insurance line is the general one.

The dedicated national-visas Travel Insurance page on the same site carries the heading and little else. The residency list is where the wording actually lives.

What AIMA asks for later

After arrival, the residence permit is AIMA’s file. AIMA’s general checklist for a temporary residence permit under Article 77(1) of the foreigners law — Autorização de Residência (Regime e Requisitos Gerais) – Art.º 77.º, n.º 1 — ends its document list with:

Seguro de saúde ou comprovativo de que se encontra abrangido pelo Serviço Nacional de Saúde.

That is health insurance, or proof you are covered by Portugal’s National Health Service (SNS). The page does not say “travel insurance”, and it does not restate the consulate’s repatriation clause.

So the two stages use different words on purpose. A trip-length travel policy that satisfied a consular post is not what AIMA’s published line names. New arrivals are usually not yet in the SNS when they book the appointment, so the practical reading of that line is private health cover that is in force on the day — but that practical reading is not a sum, a duration, or a brand list on AIMA’s page.

What neither page writes

Neither the MNE residency list nor AIMA’s Article 77 checklist states a €30,000 minimum for these national residency visas. That figure is the familiar Schengen short-stay medical-insurance floor; it is not printed on the two pages above. If a particular consulate or VFS checklist adds an amount or a duration of its own, that is that post’s checklist — not a number the central residency documentation page publishes.

Neither page says how many months the policy must run. Gaps between visa issue and the AIMA appointment are a practical risk; they are not a duration rule on these two pages.

Income is a different question. The digital nomad heading’s four-times wage multiple sits on the MNE page and on our Portugal page. This post is only about the insurance lines.

Open, and which list to follow

Both routes are live. You can apply for a Portuguese residency visa through a consular post on the documents the MNE page lists, then convert to a residence permit with AIMA. The insurance ask does not change that status; it is paperwork at two gates.

Use the MNE residency page for the visa file, and AIMA’s Article 77 list for the residence-permit appointment. If a consulate checklist in your district adds a figure or a cover period the central pages do not carry, follow that checklist for that post — and tell us if you see an official central page that finally prints a euro floor we are missing.

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