Great! Thanks for confirming.
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This is a logical perspective. Easier to not sit on money you may potentially need to refund, when you can wait and accept payment later if necessary.
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I figured Iāve got employees - harder to change the rules there
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I have a Portuguese bank account since I have a company there. I got same email from my attorney - confirmation with invoice for fee, confirmation of upload of all documents and reference document (3 attachments ).
I just did a bank payment from my Portuguese account and itās debited already . So as of 3/11 all my docs are in and Portugal has money. Now we wait
Hi, check the below; the uncertainty remains high for application post Feb 16th awaiting the final decision end of this month
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@rawadgebrael That āarticleā was shared further up. I wouldnāt trust it as from my first read itās full of inaccuracies. Applications are clearly still being accepted.
The investor being quoted as saying the payments are blocked is also asking for lawyer recommendations, making it sound they submitted the application by themselves or at least didnāt used a very experienced lawyer. Probably they didnāt realize that you need to wait 48 hours before making the paymentā¦
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This article is more clear and very direct
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Yes, itās much clearer, the message being that any application before Feb 16 is safe, there are no guarantees for applications after that date.
According to the Housing Ministerās office, ensuring that there is āa safeguard period for analysis of requests for ARI (Residence Permit for Investment) already entered in the competent services until February 16ā makes sense since, "in these cases, there was a legitimate expectation of a decision that is intended to be maintained, given that nothing had been said about the continuity of the regime until that dateā.
I would argue that there were legitimate expectation of the program being continued for those who made (or were in the process of making) investments prior to this date as well, not just those who had submitted the application by that date. We all know that putting together the application takes time. So I donāt think either the draft law or this statement precludes there being some sort of transitional regime.
That said, Iām not a Portuguese lawyerā¦ I think itās important to be aware of this risk and itās reasonable to limit your options to refundable investments in case you decide to go forward with an investment/application at this time.
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I would have thought that execution of The Golden Visa programme falls within the remit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, certainly not the Housing Ministry. Itās peculiar why an unnamed source in the āoffice of the Housing Ministryā is making statements on the programme it is has no jurisdiction over.
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The overall public policy is being driven by the Housing minister who probably was given a directive to solve the housing problem and this is part of their answer. Its not an immigration problem because the doors of Portugal are wide open to foreigners based on recent news. As several others have noted in this forum, golden visa is more or less a scapegoat for the housing problem. Sure, killing the GV program will free up a few houses, but it by no means is even remotely a solution for this complex problem.
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Itās a complex problem only when youāre really zoomed in and looking at a bunch of contributing factors
Mostly, thereās just not enough housing on the market. You can fight over why that is and there seem to be plenty of things to blame, but it comes down to a lack of competition
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I think that is what the housing minister is saying, by using the term safe harbor period, that people who have invested before Feb 16 will be ok. I believe that is how they will draft the law initially. He is saying how people who have already invested and were prepared to submit had no idea it would so suddenly end.
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Sorry, I donāt think the minister is saying that at all. The quote talks about applications [ārequests already entered in the competent servicesā], not investments, needing to be in by Feb 16. And thatās what the draft law said when it was published on 3rd March. That may change, but as it stands today, itās clear.
I finalized my real estate investment January 2023 and submitted my application early March. The delay was due to delays in the criminal background check apostille.
I would be so devastated if my application is rejected since I didnāt submit before Feb 16. 
So it is confirmed, as of now, that applications after Feb 16 will not be accepted, or are they leaving a possibility that it will be accepted?
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Nothing is confirmed on this yet as the law has not been passed doing anything to the GV regime. This is what the government has proposed and it faces political pushback as well as potential constitutional issues. We will have to wait and see what happens, but the cautious investor at this point will want to request a clause in their contract that allows they to back out if they end up not qualifying for the GV on such grounds.
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Given all the discussion seems to be about housing, does anyone have any views on golden visas using PE funds? Mine is all invested in funds and I have provisional approval, but my husbands dependent one may be borderline with the February date (cannot recall exactly when it was submitted).
Dependents technically donāt have a GV, they have a family reunification with your GV, which falls under a separate section of law, so they shouldnāt necessarily be affected by changes in the GV law.
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I have no idea where on Godās green earth the government would like to end golden visa (11k over 10 years) to solve housing crisis while opening floodgates for other immigrants, and without properly verifying the documents?
Where are they going to live?
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Extremely based news. All those immigrants are fantastic for the Portuguese economy. If only the government gets out of the way
Same for housing. Golden visas are being thrown under the bus for populist points but there is a small amount of good news in that the government seems to be addressing the red tape and disincentives for building housing
Doing some dumb stuff too but overall hopefully for the best
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Our lawyers claim that dependentsā GVs can also technically proceed on their own if, for example, a primary GV applicant dies/becomes incapacitated. I read in multiple threads on this forum that dependentsā GVs automatically get voided when the primary GV becomes null. Any input on this?
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