Hi there,
My husband and I are in the process of obtaining Portuguese GVs through the capital transfer route (1M EUR in a Millenium bank account). Does anyone know if it poses any legal problems, from the GV perspective, to take out a loan collateralized by this account? Our banker is willing to do it, but advised that we should check to make sure this doesn’t cause any issues. Our lawyers are often really slow to reply (to the extent they know the answer at all) so I wanted to check with this group first. Would appreciate any intel!
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth
I was advised against taking an OD secured on my capital transfer prior to approval of my application. For no other reason than to keep it simple.
I’m with BPI and they haven’t offered that facility, but my understanding is that the bank is responsible for determining if the capital transfer remains in PT for the duration of the application by writing to SEF. Presumably Millennium wrote in support of your application in 2021 and by the sound of it they’re willing to support that after they provide an OD. I think that’s an important factor to confirm with the department that wrote the letter, not your personal banker.
Hope that helpful.
Peter
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Very helpful, thank you, Peter.
I’m not sure about your exact question, but I do know that you can take a loan in your home country and then use those funds to transfer to Portugal for the GV. That’s what we did.
I would think it would be similar in your case. You have the funds, the funds are in Portugal, you are just taking a loan against the funds to make the actual payment. Money is fungible.
Practically speaking, as Peter notes, as long as the bank is willing to write the letter you need to prove to SEF, that should be enough. Still, I’d want to check with my lawyer as well.
Much appreciated. I totally agree, I think this should be fine by the intent of the law, but am checking with my lawyer and the bank’s internal function to understand more.