D8 with kids: income, schools and the family-reunification catch
A remote worker in an expat group asked the practical version of the question every relocating parent has: "D8, two kids — how much income do I actually need, and where do the children go to school?" It is a fair question, and the answers are more specific than most glossy guides admit, especially once you factor in the family income top-ups and one genuinely awkward new rule.
The income maths with a family
The D8 base threshold is about four times the Portuguese minimum wage. Every family member you bring adds to it, so the number grows quickly for a household.
Main applicant: ≈ €3,680/month (4 × €920).
Each extra adult (e.g. spouse): +50% of the minimum wage = +€460/month, the legal per-person scale (Portaria 1563/2007).
Each child: +30% of the minimum wage = +€276/month.
Safe target (our suggestion, not a legal rule): +50% / +30% of the D8 figure, i.e. +€1,840 per adult and +€1,104 per child, because the law does not say how consulates weigh dependants' means on a D8.
Savings: the official D8 requirements set no fixed savings amount. A cushion helps, but check what your consulate asks for before you build your file.
Schools, and the reunification caveat
- Residence-permit holders get free state schooling and public university. International schools are the paid alternative, typically from ~€5,000/year and concentrated in Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve.
- State enrolment (matrículas) is done online through the Portal das Matrículas, listing up to five schools by preference — and the enrolment windows are tight, roughly spring for younger years and mid-summer for older ones.
- Language integration is the honest hard part for older children; state schools offer PLNM (Portuguese as a non-native language) support, and parents describe the first months as the toughest.
- The catch: under Lei 61/2025, some family-reunification applications may now require the main applicant to hold 2 years of residency before sponsoring relatives — verify exactly how it applies to your case.
For most families the schooling news is genuinely reassuring: state education is free and open to residence-permit holders, and the north in particular has good public schools without the international-school price tag. The realistic caveats are timing and language. Miss the matrículas window and you are chasing places at capacity; underestimate the language adjustment and you are surprised by a hard first term. Both are manageable if you plan around them rather than assume them away.
The reunification rule is the one to check carefully, because it can quietly split a move in two. A family that assumed everyone would land together, only to learn the sponsor needs a period of residency first, has to rethink the whole sequence — who comes on the main visa, who follows, and when. Far better to model that at the start, on paper, than to discover it after tickets are booked and a school year is looming.
Details in the D8 visa and family reunification, with schooling covered in enrolling a child in a Portuguese school. Model the income requirement for your household on the cost calculator.
Re-locant.com is a free, independent guide.
Guidance, not legal or tax advice — verify your case with official sources.