Thank you for asking.
First, I would recommend you to read comments from other members about the lengthy process. Please keep in mind that if you apply now, it might take 5 years to receive the first card. I hate over-estimate things but I took my entire family 3 years 10 months to receive cards. Some other members here report 4 years 2 months to receive card of his/her wife. Therefore, time consuming is the first thing you need to consider. If you have no problem waiting 5-7 years to receive the first card and another 5-7 years for the passports (total time 10-12 years), then you are already mentally prepared!!
Regarding the fund, at the time I selected it, there was not many choices. In fact, it was the first fund for GV (first introduced in 2018) and it was the only one fund at that time. My criteria at the time was to preserve my capital. I did not and still do not want to pay 7% duty tax for the property acquisition, then yearly maintenance fee + property tax. When I re-sell the property, 5% for commission and 28% capital gain tax will be imposed. Hence that led me to the Fund route.
So far, I am happy with the fund’s managers. Whenever I have questions/concerns, they always reply directly to my questions. The fund was diverted and re-invested into other real estates projects. The exit condition is straight forward: within 30 days of the last general meeting, I need to submit a form to exit the fund if I want to do so. There is only 1.5% yearly dividend for the investors. What I get after 10 years of the Fund is 350k (my capital) and 1.5%/year for 10 years (almost 4500Euros/year after tax). So after 10 years, I will get 350k +45k = 395k (I hope so). I think because the managers have a giant portion of fund’s profit, they work hard for the profit. It also creates easy exit condition for investors. Because once the fund is dissolved and all capitals are given back to the investors, the rest belongs to the fund’s managers.
If I were you, in addition to keep in mind about the lengthy process to get the cards, I would consider the exit condition very carefully. It needs to be written clearly without any ambiguity. But you never know what exactly might happen in Portugal until it actually happens.
Maybe other NGers here with more recent experiences can also share opinions about it.
Good luck to you on this difficult project.
Thanks so much for this. The government has now changed the law so that the waiting period post-submission now counts towards the five years so this should shorten the wait a little but I remain concerned as to how long it then takes to obtain a passport. Do the funds need to remain invested until the date the passports are issued?
I am considering using Henley to help guide me to something super-conservative but am very nervous about losing the funds and don’t really know what safeguards exist to ensure the safe return of capital, other than the incentives for the fund managers and the reputation of the likes of Henley in their linkage with the funds in question.
I need to look closely at the exit terms and work out how to ensure that the funds don’t expire before my visa conditions are fulfilled. I will also speak to Henley about this.
Thanks again for your response and I would be very interested to learn how you get on in the future!
I agree with Garrett’s recommendation above about open end fund. The 1st priority must be open end funds. Then, within those open end funds, you pick the most conservative one with clear exit condition.
Also, this law has yet to be implemented and, as many of us have learned the hard way, is likely to applied inconsistently and may be revoked or amended before it would become applicable for you. We are trying to caution you that the attorneys and investment firms that market the GV and their own GV-related services very often oversell the visa. Many of us learned the truth about how uncertain, unstable, and frankly dishonest this program is and has been after having been lured into very expensive “investments.” Please tread very carefully and take every interested opinion or prediction with a lot of salt.
Also skim through this thread if you haven’t already. Plenty of regrets, although some people are still ok (note I didn’t say “happy”) with their decision.
I would caution that any investment that now qualifies for the GV is inherently high risk and could lead to loss of capital. A broadly diversified fund investing in listed equities is unlikely to lose 100% of capital, however equities are very volatile particularly when invested for the short term (and 10 years is short term when you consider how long it can take to recover from a major market crash). I would not invest anything you cannot afford to lose. If you cannot afford to lose at least part of this money then another route to citizenship might be more suitable - i.e. by moving to Portugal.
Sage advice. Safest position is to assume you could lose the entire amount of our investment and have nothing to show for it. If an EU passport with low residency requirements is worth that amount to you, you are not in a rush, and you understand the government could pull the plug at any moment, this is the right program for you.
Truly. I’m now telling people to only invest 50% of what you can afford to light on fire because you’ll spend the other half chasing the first. Portugal is a little like Hotel California, but for money (and maybe also souls).
I think some users are much too pessimistic about the program
Yes it’s slow. It’s risky, if you fall through the cracks. There’s an element of luck.
But it’s still the only program like it in the EU, so still massively valuable
As for investments, make sure it’s something liquid. Open ended funds you can sell fairly immediately are much safer than locked time based investments. That alone helps remove a lot of risk
The liquid funds are only less risky if you want to pull out of the program. Otherwise, you’re still stuck in the fund for the duration, and if the market is significantly down when you’re ready to sell, you’re effectively locked in unless you want to take a loss. Not sure that they are really “safer”, they just give you more optionality in theory.
Considering the biggest risks with the program are either it being cancelled, the investment not lasting long enough for you to complete the process, or not being able to liquidate when you want, I think it’s a pretty massive improvement
I’m not pessimistic about the program, I think it’s far and away the best option for those who don’t want to move to the EU full-time. I’m just concerned that the risk surrounding the investments for this program are not sufficiently highlighted. None of these investments are something that people should be putting their life savings / retirement funds in to.