The route most families take
The visa is the one Portugal calls a residence visa “for retirement purposes, religious purposes or for people living from passive income”, widely known as the D7. The application fee is EUR 110 per applicant (Ministry of Foreign Affairs national visa portal, checked 2026-08-26). Children under 6 pay nothing. The Consulate General of Portugal in San Francisco lists it as $125.69 on its August 2026 fee table.
The income test is not a fixed D7 number. Portugal builds it from the national minimum monthly salary, EUR 920 in 2026 under Regulatory Decree n.º 139/2025, net of social security deductions. The first adult counts for 100 percent of it, a second adult for 50 percent, and each child under 18 for 30 percent. For two adults and two children that is EUR 920 plus EUR 460 plus two lots of EUR 276.
Your spouse and children apply at the same consulate at the same time, under the residence visa for an accompanying family member, and you show stable and regular means covering everyone for the period of stay or twelve months, whichever is shorter, under article 2(2) of Ordinance n.º 1563/2007. If a parent keeps a US employer or US clients instead, the remote work route asks for average monthly income over the last three months of EUR 3,680, which is four times the same minimum salary.
The visa itself is not the permit. A residence visa allows two entries and is valid for four months, during which the holder must apply to AIMA for the residence permit (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, type of visa, checked 2026-08-26). That permit costs EUR 85.80 to EUR 114.30 per applicant, the lower figure being the published EUR 114.30 with the 25 percent reduction AIMA applies to digital filings. It is valid for two years and renews for three-year periods.
Schooling
State schools teach in Portuguese. That is the decision the rest of your budget hangs on.
Access is not the obstacle. Schooling is compulsory for every child in Portugal between 6 and 18, and schools enrol them whether or not the equivalence of their foreign school record is finished and whether or not their residence status is regularised (Directorate-General for Education, Inclusion of Migrant Students in Education, checked 2026-08-26). Public education is free, with no enrolment fees and no charge for activities tied to attendance or for issuing certificates, and textbooks are free for pupils in compulsory education at state schools (European Commission, Eurydice, checked 2026-08-26).
A child who arrives without Portuguese is given a sociolinguistic diagnosis and placed into Portuguese as a Non-Native Language, which sits in the curriculum under article 12 of Portaria n.º 223-A/2018 and Portaria n.º 86/2025/1. Beginners and children placed at level zero are taught in groups of eight.
The enrolment window is set each year by a separate ministerial order under article 6 of Despacho Normativo n.º 6/2018, so check the current year’s order rather than a date you read somewhere. Arriving mid-year is provided for: enrolment runs conditionally while the equivalence decision is pending, under article 8(5) of Decree-Law n.º 227/2005.
If you want English-language schooling, three Lisbon-area schools publish 2026-2027 annual tuition on their own fee pages, all checked 2026-08-26, and the spread runs from EUR 11,778 to EUR 23,532 per child per year: Carlucci American International School of Lisbon EUR 12,128 to EUR 23,532, St. Dominic’s International School EUR 11,778 to EUR 23,166, Oeiras International School EUR 13,980 to EUR 22,406. First enrolment adds a one-time non-refundable charge of EUR 600 to EUR 5,250 per child depending on the school.
Healthcare for the family
For the visa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires valid travel insurance covering medical expenses, urgent medical assistance and possible repatriation. That is a visa document, not your long-term arrangement.
Once you are here, any national or foreign citizen who uses the national health service is entitled to a Numero Nacional de Utente. You register in person at any SNS primary care or hospital unit. AIMA’s residence permit document is what proves your address; a lease or a water, electricity or gas bill is accepted in its place (Administracao Central do Sistema de Saude, Registo Nacional de Utentes, checked 2026-08-26).
Get the record complete. A complete record carries the SNS condition, so the SNS bears the cost of your care. A record left without its mandatory data for 180 days switches to third-party payer: you pay for SNS care and lose the state subsidy on prescriptions. Registering with a specific primary care unit is separate and optional, and family health teams are allocated by priority, with families with children up to 12 among the priority groups.
We could not verify a family private premium at an insurer’s own published rate, so no figure appears here.
What the first year costs
Work the lines you can price. For two adults and two children on the passive income route, visa fees are EUR 110 per applicant, so EUR 440, or EUR 330 if one child is under 6. Residence permits after arrival add EUR 85.80 to EUR 114.30 per person. A cat or dog costs EUR 42.25 at the border check, or EUR 84.50 for two or more animals.
Schooling is the swing. State schooling is free. International schooling is EUR 11,778 to EUR 23,532 per child per year plus a one-time EUR 600 to EUR 5,250.
Two lines work differently. There is no official source for what an international move costs, so this site publishes no mover figure; you get that as a quote. Rent we can only give you per square metre. In the municipality of Lisbon, the median rent on new leases signed in the twelve months to the first quarter of 2026 was EUR 17.22 per square metre per month, or EUR 17.07 for a T2 and EUR 15.85 for a T3, a T2 being two bedrooms and a T3 three (Statistics Portugal, checked 2026-08-26). Statistics Portugal publishes no floor area for those dwellings, so we will not multiply the rate by an assumed size and call it a monthly rent. Measure the flat you are looking at and do that multiplication yourself. The monthly figure stays out until we can verify one, which is why this destination is gated.
For converting anything above, the euro reference rate on 2026-08-26 was 1.1669 dollars to the euro (European Central Bank).
What surprises families
Equivalence paperwork is heavier than the enrolment. Every foreign certificate needs documents naming the years and cycle completed, the final grades and the grading scale with its pass mark, an official translation into Portuguese, and either consular legalisation or the Hague Apostille. It is free, and the reference deadline is 30 days from a complete file (Directorate-General for Education equivalence FAQ, checked 2026-08-26). Start it before you fly.
The consulate wants a Portuguese tax number and a home already lined up. The San Francisco consulate asks applicants to include a Numero de Identificacao Fiscal, a twelve-month lease with a registered landlord or proof of purchase, and a bank account summary from the start.
Your pet’s dates have to line up in order: microchip first, the rabies shot at twelve weeks or older and never before the microchip date, then 21 days of waiting. The health certificate comes from an official government service, not your own vet, and only the owner’s name goes on it. You, not the airline, must contact the Travellers’ Point of Entry at least 48 hours before arrival.
The permit clock is short. The residence visa is valid for four months and allows two entries, and the AIMA application has to happen inside it.
Who should not move here
Do not do this if your children need to be taught in English and you cannot carry international tuition for every year until they finish school. At EUR 11,778 to EUR 23,532 per child per year, two children can cost more than the income the visa asks you to prove.
Do not do this on the passive income route if your income depends on you working. That route is for income that arrives whether or not you get out of bed.
And do not budget for Lisbon off a listings-site rent figure without checking the floor area it refers to.