Portugal Golden Visa Guide: Pros & Cons in 2024

Article discussion
91

HI Mohanad,

A quick response to some of your points:

  1. Yes
  2. In your specific example, no issue as the dependency age is 25 years old.
  3. You have to renew the ARI twice during the 5 year initial period, after year one and then after year 3.

Regards

92

Lisa

Both capital an refurbishment capital (excluding any VAT on services associated with refurbishment) can be included in the €350K GV. The challenge is finding a suitable €350K investment. All developers, even the ones with which we work, have maximised the prices per square metre to ensure maximum gain from the sale of these units. In return they offer access to what is still a very limited number of opportunities at the lower level.

93

Hi guys,

I have heard that nobody has actually gotten Portugese citizenship or passport through the golden visa program as of yet.

Is that true?

Please comment.

95

Hi all, does anyone have experience obtaining a temporary residency visa while waiting for your Golden Visa to be approved/issued? We are planning to actually move to Portugal from the US but are pursuing the Golden Visa so we have options for working, flexibility to move around the EU eventually, and options to come back to the US long term potentially down the road…

With a wait time of approx. 5 months or even longer, we are wondering if we need to apply for a separate visa through the consulate so we can go ahead with our move from the US while we are waiting to have the Golden Visa in hand - and so that we are legal residents in Portugal while we are waiting. I’d rather just apply for one visa but it seems risky to move overseas anticipating such a long time to be in limbo with the immigration authorities. And, I understand we need a residence visa in hand in order to receive our shipment of furniture, etc. without paying duty and having the Golden Visa in time for that seems unlikely… Sorry for the long series of questions - this is quite the logistical puzzle!

96

Hi all, I have a question: Regarding the family members - would I be able to include my sister on my Golden Visa (she has disabilities and is in her 50’s)?

Many thanks

97

Hi Adrienne,

SEF is very slow. It’s now been 1 full year we submitted all online documents. 3 months later, (by law) I was pre-approved and had an appointment at the SEF for them to take my picture and finger prints. We also had to submit the original document. That was in early December, 2018.

So as you can see, it makes things complicated when you are on a 3 month tourist visa (I’m not from the EU zone like you) during all the year. I had to travel and jump from one country to another… thanks I work online!

That said, I asked my lawyer if there was a way around it… because it’s quite ridiculous to wait so long after the pre-approval and payment of the fee.

3 months ago, my lawyer suggested to obtain a “Declaration” from the SEF that should let me stay in PT as long as I want, until they finally release the residence permit. I don’t have more details so I will update on this. They actually just received it today.

(It is quite disturbing it takes the SEF more than 2 months to deliver a document until they deliver the resident card… why wouldn’t they just take 1 extra hour / day to complete the application instead?)

Regarding the shipment of furniture, I’m not really aware of this. You are probably correct that they might ask you to pay duty & taxes if you don’t have your residency… but I would ask a Lawyer on this particular question.

I know for sure that they tax everything in Portugal. Ordering stuff from Amazon.com (instead of .es / .uk, etc.) you end up paying 20-30% more.

98

I don’t think so, as she’s an adult and not a children of yours.

But again, simple questions like this are most of the time responded by firms that do Golden Visa.
You better reach one of them directly for a clear answer, at no cost.

99

Thank you for your response

101

In the EUR 1million option, would the purchase of stocks through a Portuguese Bank count for the investment? Do these stocks have to be from Portugal or can be any stocks offered by the Portuguese bank/brokerage? In theory, that would satisfy the 1 million Euro transfer to a banking institution although the ARI manual does not seem to specify what the final investment should be.

Any knows or have been approved with this option?

102

Hi all,
I’a aware of the new GV opportunity which allows you to invest 350 k (or more if you wish) in a capital fund with a guarantee return for the next 5 years. Let me know if interested.
The main advantage is that there is :
no transfer fees or taxes
lawyer fees are much lower compared to other programs

103

from what i know they start only applying this year for a passport…

104

The first batch of applicants applied last year and its already been 12-14 months but nobody has gotten anything yet. At least thats what Ive heard. If anybody knows differently would love to know.

105

First case study - Article from October 2018

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106

I may have missed the reply to this. I also need to know if children will also be eligible to apply for permanent residence and citizenship after the applicable time and language test?

Or is the permanent residency and citizenship only available to the investor and spouse?

107

I was told by a lawyer that with the new
Regulations for obtaining the Portuguese citizenship, you have to prove that you had effectively live in Portugal for the last 5 years; and therefore the criteria for the golden visa of staying an average of 7 days a year would not longer qualify. Any clarifications on that?

108

I have read that too but was told by portugal based lawyers that nobody has actually gotten the passport yet.

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109

So far have you come across any successful cases of obtaining Portuguese citizenship through the Golden Visa Programme?

110

Thanks for explanation; my question is with regards to travel with the one year card to the UK, I want this for my parents. I am a UK citizen and if my parent get the residency card, can they travel to the UK with it and does it count as Article 10 residence card.

Also if they get the card, do they need visa or the card will do to travel to EU schengen countries.

Many thanks

111

Can you finance the purchase of the property other than say a 20% down? For the $350,000 property “with the execution of rehabilitation works,” does that mean it has already been remodeled or that it needs to be remodeled? If it needs work completed do they give you a deadline on when that work needs to be done? Thanks!

112

So, I have what might be a stupid question, but can’t find it addressed anywhere. When you say you can “Travel freely in the entire Schengen Area”. What does that exactly mean? Are there any travel restrictions when you have this visa? Like, can I go live in Austria for 8 months with no issue? Can I visit and live in any Schengen Area country for as long as I want as long as I hold this Golden Visa?

It looks like there is still the 90 days out of 180 restriction.

EDIT: I did confirm that the 90 days out of 180 restriction is in place even if you hold this visa for other countries in the Schengen Area. So, this Golden Visa would be great to create a long term base in Portugal and travel around the EU. So, for my purposes, I could retire to Portugal and mostly live there. They did say once you got Portuguese citizenship, then you could live and work anywhere in the EU.

Thanks!

Kurt