is a payment method now mandatory for all newly provisioned E5 Instant Sandboxes?

You have a qualifying Visual Studio Professional subscription linked to the Developer Program, but sandbox provisioning requests a billing account and payment card. Microsoft’s published Visual Studio steps describe linking the standard Professional or Enterprise benefit, selecting a sandbox, entering region and administrator details, and verifying a phone number; they do not document a mandatory card or card-free alternative. The payment screen therefore cannot be confirmed as a universal E5 sandbox requirement. Start from the Microsoft 365 Developer Subscription tile in the Visual Studio subscriber portal. Verify the subscription is standard—not monthly—and that the same Microsoft account is linked on the Developer Program dashboard. If billing still appears, do not add payment information merely to test it. Capture the page, time, tenant, and correlation ID, then open both a Visual Studio subscription support case and a Developer Program support case for provisioning clarification.