If they change the citizenship requirement to 10 years and put people in that category that have already applied, that is a retroactive change to the GV system. What they are saying doesn’t seem to make any sense.
“Retroactive: Fitted or designed to retroact; operating by returned action; affecting what is past; retrospective.”
Anyway, I’ve talked to two attorneys and in both cases they don’t believe if any of those laws pass they will be retroactive to any program. They are also starting to lean more towards the 10 year thing not happening or at least being tabled for a while.
Regardless, I’m going to do open-ended funds so I can have a backup plan.
With all the delays and uncertainty over what the government’s proposed changes may be, and the 24-36 months it seems to be taking to process citizenship applications, EU citizenship in 5-7 years would indeed be a small miracle! It took us 2.5 years and a successful lawsuit to get our first cards. The big question is when does the clock start on one’s residency and will it continue to be 5 years or longer? Worst case scenario of the clock starting at first card and a 10 year residency requirement, we would be looking at closer to 15 years for citizenship.
Thanks. You’re right- I’m probably too optimistic. Just started working with La Vida (golden visas.com) so really at the beginning stages. Sorry, what’s happening in September?
That is, of course, a big unknown at this point in time. I was only referring to the fact that June 19th, 2025 date most likely will be deemed invalid for the start of the new law, whatever form it is yet to take.
I have lost faith in them post applying - can’t say more - if you dont mind locking your money and forgetting about it - only then is what I think - otherwise your call - each one’s circumstances are different .
I believe you’re referring to the HQA program that’s a €175K investment. It has some benefits, including much faster processing, but it’s more suitable for someone who’s planning to base themselves in Portugal within a couple of years.
I looked into and that’s not exactly true. In fact, it’s the only way I’ve seen that you can use to not even visit Portugal. If you have a valid business reason - or even family reason in some cases - you can use that to skip the visits required for the investment visa.
You can invest in a business idea as a passive or active investor. If you select passive you’re basically just buying your way in with no ROI. If you go active you still may not get an ROI.
If you think the opportunity cost of an investment visa (5 or more years) investing in what most consider an inferior market, then 175 euro makes sense. If you have millions of dollars and it’s no big deal to give up 175 euros then that visa would be the logical way to go. It’s faster and easier.
The GV is the only visa that says in law you only need 7 days per year.
Any other visa it is up to discretion of the AIMA agent. Is your “family reason” good enough to not live in PT? Could depend on the current government’s/AIMA’s policy. And you only find out when you try to renew, which could be too late.
