From what I was able to unearth, Mais Habitação put a clear end to property-based investment permits in Portugal. For those with existing permits about to expire, it provided the option to obtain entrepreneurial permits instead. At this time, the official tabela (which derives from legislature - Portaria n.º 307/2023) specifies the fee for non-investment permits. The application fee is €99,80 and the issuance fee is 85,80€, both adding up to 185,60€. This is exactly the fee the new portal generated for my relative’s permit.
The legislative changes (the former government’s Mais Habitação, as well as the current government’s subsequent alterations) did not include any provisions for the fee to be any different from the one prescribed for that type of permit in the tabela. Surely what’s not written could always be imagined - and it seems some lawyers prefer to give fictional information -, but in law no higher fee for that type of permit exists.
I suppose you are right, it is a law after all, as the fee must be charged according to the new card being issued as listed in the Portaria, and not according to the old card that already expired.
And despite Mais Habitacao providing a ‘special condition’ for the newly converted ‘enterpreneurial’ permits, there is only one line for them on the Portaria, hence the same fee.
You seem very confident in your analysis. In that case please can you explain what fee is charged for real estate funds? This is a category banned under the Mais Habitação law, but because it was a late change in the drafting, as a result there was no clear alternative. At the time people were worried that it would technically be impossible to renew for an investment in that category, however that has not transpired. Before the renewals portal was introduced, reports of those invested in this category included some paying the lower and some the higher fee. My own lawyer was pretty confident that the lower fee should apply as it’s a banned investment category. But it will now depend if the renewal portal has been set-up in that way. Do you know the position here?
For real estate funds the situation is different. They’ve just been “erased” from the wording of the law, without any regard for those already invested in them. The foreigners law article 3.d.vii has changed to read as if real estate funds never existed. There are no provisions about conversion or renewals of permit holders who invested in such funds.
You and your lawyer are in a Kafkaesque situation.
Yes that’s what I thought. However it did appear to be a drafting oversight at the time and indeed investors in real estate funds have continued to renew since then with no issue other than inconsistency in fees…
Hello Boris
I’d also like your opinion on my renewal fee too please - I’m not a real estate investor or a fund investor. I applied under the little used Capital Transfer route (which required a deposit of >€1m in a Portuguese bank) since eliminated.
Is there a provision for these to be converted or extinguished?
Thank you
The Capital Transfer route was eliminated together with the property route in the same sentence of the Mais Habitação law (article 42, paragraph 1) and benefits from exactly the same right to be exchanged for an entrepreneur permit (as per Mas Habitação article 42, paragraph 5).
Hello Boris,
My friend is currently being charged €185 as the primary applicant under the D2 category, but his child and wife, as dependent applicants, are being charged over €3000 as family reunification applicants. He doesn’t know who to complain to.
There are now two types of payment amounts.