Hello Friends,
I am an Indian national living in the US. My kids (minors) are US citizens but me and my wife (also an Indian national) have a long road to getting a green card and subsequent US citizenship. I was looking at GV programs with two things in mind – 1) flexibility and ease of visa-free travel and 2) Future optionality to get citizenship in another country which could also benefits kids long term.
We don’t have plans to relocate out of the US in the foreseeable future, which is why PGV was attractive with its relatively less demanding residency requirements. There is no immediate or pressing need to move to EU either. I’m personally not convinced about Caribbean countries for citizenship as I’m not sure it’s worth giving up Indian citizenship for one of those.
Given what I’ve read about long processing times for PGV and some other concerns people in this forum have called out, I’m looking for some advice on 1) Whether pursuing PGV is the right move at this time and 2) If there are other alternatives that I haven’t considered yet.
Thanks for the response. Are there a few threads in the forum you’d recommend that’s relevant to my case? I also read in the forum that PGV might still be a reasonable option if one doesn’t mind waiting for a long time. You’re right that green card may happen faster but citizenship is another 5 years after that.
There are a ton of options out there across the entire spectrum, with different pros and cons and suitability to a given situation. It’s just too difficult to attempt to summarize them all into a simple post. There’s a lot of material on this board in various locations - just here indeed for a few:
there are a lot of other resources in the various posts but they’re just as difficult for us to look up as they are for you. There are other paid services to help you as well - schiff sovereign isn’t bad for example.
As long as you are ready to wait (up to 8 years at current timelines), Portugal still would make sense, in spite of all the problems that we have had with SEF/ AIMA, etc. It is the only program which allows you to get permanent residency and eventual citizenship without onerous stay requirements. That’s the reason why in spite of all the complaining, we all stay in the program. In my case, I applied in November 2021, did biometrics in March 2023 and waiting for final approval, which could take up to another year. Then the five year wait for citizenship. There are some changes introduced by the Portuguese government which could potentially reduce this time, but there is no clarity yet.
All the best
Portugal government taking steps hiring manpower to reduce clear backlog other than GV applicant , it is surprising to see, nom body cares for investors , bringing money to Portuguese’s economy .
Am from India too. I have already applied for the PGV which in hindsight is a very bad decision I made. Why don’t you try applying for the EB5 visa that would help you get accelerated green card and citizenship. Last I read the cost was around 800k-1M usd. If you’re not an entrepreneur, perhaps green card and citizenship would make sense. But if you’re a high income earner, I would stay away from that country that has worldwide reporting requirements on taxes. If you don’t trust me, YouTube on why so many entrepreneurs gave up their US citizenship. Remember Europe has something called as CFC laws and many other countries do too. India doesn’t (for now)
Also your take on the Carribean citizenship is spot on. No point to give up the Indian passport.
Long story short, Portugal GV has zero benefits and I would recommend you not to enter this bureaucratic nightmare. You could consider alternatives like Thailand, Dubai, Malaysia too. if you’re not worried about taxes, EB5 is an ideal option assuming you have a million dollar to spare. In whatever case, Portugal is not a great choice (my opinion)