Well it’s official, I just emailed my lawyer. Bye bye, Portugal!
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I’m living in the UK as well, and yes the changes the UK are proposing w.r.t. Indefinite Leave to Remain (a.k.a. Permanent Residency) are also brutal and sometimes retroactive.
But at least my experience with the UK Home Office was far better than the absolute sh**show that is AIMA. Admittedly that was 20 years ago and things have probably gone downhill in Blighty too.
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That’s absolutely the key point. Everything is radically different now in that domain. I too sailed through my UK residence and citizenship decades ago, but that is a bygone era and the process is literally hell now.
We’ve been living in PT full-time since 2023 and I can tell you definitively, from our experience, the extra €60,000 fees that we will have to pay for the ‘privilege’ of living here is absolutely not worth it. And like @sj-to-pt said, being ostensibly trapped in PT while AIMA takes its sweet time completing your renewal is a terrifying prospect. Living in perpetual chaos has not been easy.
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If you are living in PT full time, after 5 years of cards you have the option to get “normal” PR with much lower fees, no?
Yes, that is correct. It is still more in terms of renewals than we are prepared to pay/deal with. Life here hasn’t been the easiest and it really feels like this experiment is all but over. If the past few years had been easier and more enjoyable then that might be an option. But sadly it has not worked out that way for us.
The only cast-iron guarantee is Citizenship, anything else is subject to rule
changes, even permanent residency.
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And if you just got a card after living in PT for three years and four years since your application, you are just at the beginning of you PR journey!..
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Actually, life in PT is fairly easy, at least if compared to the West Coast of the U.S. Can’t compare it to Britain, though…
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Did something new happen today? I thought it all got send back to parliament .
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Our life here certainly isn’t easy. Our house is the biggest reason why. We bought a villa on a hill in rural Algarve. We knew it needed some work but it has turned out to be somewhat of a nightmare. It is a never ending battle between keeping out water and staying warm. I’m from western Canada and I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the coldest I’ve ever felt was a winter in a Portuguese villa. 
Then there’s the garden. Between the chainsaws, machetes, flamethrowers needed to maintain it, we had to truck in 25 tonnes of soil and gravel and use 500m2 of soil stabilisation fabric as we have some serious problems with subsidence. The jobs are never done.
Our PhDs in biosecurity did not prepare us for this! 
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I bet you are aware that if you got your ARI via RE, your renewal fees will be ±EUR200 p.p.
Just saying.. 
What you are describing about your RE experience has not much relevance to citizenship, these are just personal circumstances, trepidations of daily life so-to-speak, can happen anywhere, even in Britain of all places (if your boiler breaks down at the end of December you are not going to feel much warmth) 
My point is that it is easy to fall into the trap of ‘compounding failure’ if you make an incorrect attribution to the constituent parts.
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Currently on the fence. I got my card in November, and now have to pay €6k each for my wife + 20yo son for their first cards by the end of December. At the moment I think I’m minded to pay for my wife’s but to drop my son’s application. But waiting a few more days for any more info.
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Hi Tommy. Yes, we are acutely aware of the significant difference in fees. In hindsight I wish we had gone that way as we would not have nearly as much capital tied up in Portugal.
This is all true. It is just our personal experience but the spectre of 8.5 more years of AIMA and tens of thousands of euros in extra fees means that our challenges here will continue and, ultimately, we don’t feel it is worth the additional financial and bureaucratic burdens.
I had a Social Studies teacher in the 80s who used to say, “How many times does a man need to be kicked in the head before he realises it hurts?” I think about Mrs. Preston frequently these days! 
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Just to confirm, card renewal fees for ARI investors are $6K per person? We are nearing our 2 year renewal mark and I will need to decide if I renew. My lawyer has, not surprisingly, been non-responsive.
I empathize with you, Doc. It must be far more difficult when you have already made the commitment to live in Portugal and purchase property, and are still waiting through such an uncertain process. That must be especially challenging.
My decision is simpler, as I am still relatively new to the process and my commitment is limited to open-ended funds. Aside from the time I spent gathering all the required documents, my financial loss will likely be minimal.
I just can’t imagine going through an immigration process with so much uncertainty and such a prolonged timeline at this stage of my life, simply for the benefit of European citizenship that would allow me to stay in Europe longer than currently permitted.
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Roughly $3.5k pp unless you are in the (grandfathered) RE path which is discounted to $250 pp approximately.
I believe it depends on your investment route. If you are real estate (residential or commercial) it’s ~200 euros because you are converted to a special D2 visa. Funds investors were stuck paying the full price.
EUR 3090.40 renewal, no?
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Thanks. Yeah, we are in a fund, we did not buy real estate. We are family a 4 people, so paying another 24K euros every couple years given the uncertainty feels like a big commitment.
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