Greetings. So I have been reviewing alternatives to the Portuguese GV and during my research I have stumbled upon a couple of accounts of people being outright refused citizenship after living the necessary number of years holding the Golden residence permit and meeting all the other conditions set out in the law. The reason for this was usually some vague excuse of not having enough ties or needing more than the minimum number of years required by the law. These were cases of golden visa in Cyprus, Greece and the permanent residence permit they sell in Malta for a certain donation. Mind you, the people had lived in those countries permanently. Not like in Portugal where you have to visit for 7 days per year. And they still were refused despite meeting all the conditions. The Maltese situation is especially bizarre. Apparently people there have to have lived for some 15-18 years on the island before being approved for citizenship. This just got me thinking. If some government employee can refuse you citizenship on such outrageous discretionary basis in other EU countries, can’t this happen in Portugal too? After all, the Portuguese law states that the citizenship “may be granted” which IMO implies discretionary basis.
Anything can happen but please don’t give them ideas
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Malta is notorious for not granting naturalization according to their official timeline. The law says 7 years but people say in practice you need 15.
BUT they do grant it happily in 1-3 years to people who pay for citizenship through Malta’s “Fast Track” naturalization program!
What Malta doesn’t want is people cheaping out by paying the lower amount for permanent residence and then getting citizenship “for free”.
On the other hand Portugal has no such reputation - several people on this forum have reported getting citizenship through GV. Portugal does have endless delays, but no outright refusal like Malta.
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That’s why Portugal is such an amazing option. Seriously.