A long-favored visa program may be on the chopping block in Portugal, and the country’s president is warning hopeful citizenship applicants to get cracking right now.
The program at risk is the venerable Golden Visa, a citizenship European countries like Portugal, Greece, and Ireland have used to attract business and cash to the EU over the past decade.
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Portugal has been a frontrunner in attracting high net worth foreigners to the country’s pristine beaches, beautiful architecture, and quaint small towns. In 2022, for example, Portugal recorded an inflow of 1,300 millionaires, Henley & Partners and New World Wealth reported.
Yet criticism has bubbled up over the Golden Visa program, with advocacy groups pointing to rising residential real estate programs stemming from the influx of new wealth. Now, those critics say, Portuguese natives increasingly cannot afford to buy a home.
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Other countries have joined the critics chorus, noting that a Portuguese Golden Visa not only gives rich foreign nationals citizenship in that country, but also allows ex-Pats to establish legal residencies in France, Italy, and other EU countries.
Now Portugal’s parliament has voted to end its Golden Via program and only a veto from Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is keeping a lifeline going on the program. Now the clock is ticking and there's only a short timeline for ex-Pats to still qualify before the Golden Visa is clipped for good.
The Portuguese legislature is planning to reintroduce the legislation with a potentially veto-proof majority in September or October, at the latest.
Since the Golden Visa application takes a week or so to process, anyone who gets their paperwork in the next few weeks stands a good chance of being greenlit for the program, just before its likely end date.
To a well-off foreigner looking for a nice landing spot, Portugal’s Golden Visa is something of a golden goose.
Qualified ex-pats only need to stay in the country for 14 days to meet residency requirements and invest about $300,000 into the country to meet the program’s investment requirement.
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