Golden visa for Indian national with residency in Switzerland

Residencies & citizenships 🛂 Portugal Golden Visa 🇵🇹
#1

I am an Indian national living in Geneva, Switzerland for many years. I am interested to apply for golden visa and , would like to know if I am eligible even though I already live in Switzerland. I understand EU/EEC/Swiss nationals are not eligible but can NON-EU/EEC/Swiss nationals with EU/EEC/Swiss residency apply for the golden visa? I heard that I may have to give up my Swiss residency permit If I get golden visa. Do you have any experience or a similar case you have managed for GV? What I don’t want is to make investment of 500K and then I am denied GV or asked to surrender my Swiss residency.

Thanks for your help.

#2

Are you a citizen of Switzerland? I have a client, Indian national and UK resident just made a purchase of a property here for applying GV in Portugal. There is no problem with the lawyer. He is using everything India to make the application (criminal record, address proof, passport, etc), since he only starting living in the UK last year.

The only reason why EU/ EEC/ Swiss national are not eligible is because they don’t need the GV, they have the rights to live in Portugal with their citizenship, but as a resident, you don’t have the right to freely move between EU/ EEC/ Swiss countries. if you are not a citizen of these regions, but a resident, even if you use the address/ criminal record of Switzerland, etc for application, you are still be eligible.

Any other questions, you can reach out to me.

#3

Thank you Susana. I am not Swiss, carry Indian passport with Swiss residency card. I gathered conflicting information from few lawyers. It appears SEF has asked some NON-EU citizen applicants to choose between retaining their EU residence card (e.g French) or keep the GV issues by portugal. SEF says that with GV residence card, you can work in any EU country so u don’t need to keep another residence card. They say you can’t keep 2 residence cards from 2 different countries within EU. Now Switzerland is not part of EU and even EU citizens need to have a permit if they want to work and live in Switzerland. So, I am not sure if they will ask me to surrender my Swiss residence card. Any confirmation you can provide, is highly appreciated. Thanks

#4

Hi,

First, the GV resident card doesn’t allow you to work in any EU country. And I am aware that EU citizen needs to apply for a permit to work in Switzerland. One reason in some cases you can’t keep 2 residence cards is because there are requirements to maintain the residence card, such as the stay requirements. For example, it is impossible for you to stay more than 183 days in both countries in a year. However, the GV doesn’t require you to have this min. stay. I will double confirm with my lawyer.

Have you thought about just using your Indian passport / national to go thru the process?

#5

Why do you want the Golden Visa? Since you already live in Switzerland, wouldn’t naturalizing as a Swiss citizen be much faster, and give you pretty much the same advantages as Portuguese citizenship (ability to work anywhere in the EU etc)?

#6

You are right but I am not eligible for Swiss Naturalization as per the new rules, there are certain conditions which I will not be able to meet.

#7

Hi Navneet,

My lawyer confirmed that there is no problem, they will not/ can not ask you to give up your Swiss residency permit.

#8

Thank you very much. Have a good day!