Portugal Golden Visa is a scam - endless waits, misleading information and outright lies

What do you mean the need to move? If one move their money and invest in funds or property with the end goal of moving there, wouldn’t that imply they need to move? I am waiting (nearly a year) for approval and then biometrics. I have invested in real estate verses investments. At the moment, I do not “need” to be there, but in the future I will need to be there as a large chunk of my retirement savings is invested there. Regardless of the reason why someone has invested in the GV, the government needs to their job. I totally give them a break in being behind with Covid and the Ukrainian movement, but beyond that
they need to step it up. Honestly, the 5 years should start once the investment is made and the application is submitted unless there is a valid reason why you are denied.

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Never met a single rude person. But then we have our labrador with us most times.

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Next week will be the one-year anniversary of my investment. Still no closer to pre-approval. Many others are also far away


13 months and still nothing, yet the “news” is posting rubbish like this:

Seriously, don’t waste your time or money on Portugal.

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What other options are there for obtaining a EU passport (without moving now)?

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Presumably you applied in the last working week (20-24 Dec) of 2021, with a multitude of others
 ?
Pre-approvals for Dec 14 2021 trickled in yesterday.

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If a passport is your goal, your window to obtaining it within this decade from Portugal is already closed, so unless you have a nearly unlimited time horizon, save your money for something else.

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Applied earlier, but processing issues with the bank caused the final payment to SEF to be delayed far past the original plan.

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You are justifiably frustrated, but posts like this aren’t very helpful. And may not even be true! You certainly don’t know what the next 5 years will bring.

You applied during the time of presumably the highest volume of applications ever, but SEF seems to be working through December '21. Progress is progress.

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Which part may not be true? The multi-year SEF processing backlog? The deprioritization of Golden Visa processing by SEF? The hostility towards Golden Visas and their applicants from the Portuguese public? The disdain shown by the Portuguese PM toward the Golden Visa program? The apathy, at best, toward the GV program by the remainder of the Portuguese public sector? The demands by the EU to eliminate golden visas and passports altogether?

Nobody knows what the next five years will bring, but the PGV trends are all negative. Hope is not an investment strategy – whatever your objective, there has to be somewhere else with better odds than PGV.

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The pre-approval backog is just over a year at this point, not “multi year”.

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Why post here to Just complain lol

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There might be, but there doesn’t have to be.

If your objectives are more Plan-B-y, then sure there are better alternatives.

If your objective is a life in the EU as a citizen and you don’t have ancestral ties to work with or several million dollars to spend on it and don’t want all the boots on the ground, there aren’t really any better alternatives - other countries have a path, but your practical odds are near nil as the citizenship requirements are really strict and completely subjective in practice.

And no, the EU really doesn’t want you. World as it is, I expect this back door to slam shut soon enough. I really have no expectation that I will get citizenship without having to go boots-on-ground; GV for me is really more jamming a foot in the door before it slams shut and running the clock in the hopes that it will help in the long run.

I’m not disagreeing with you at all on all the things going unpleasantly with PGV. I’m just saying that there aren’t necessarily better alternatives either depending on your actual goals and there’s no requirement that there be. The EU owes you nothing; if it wants to slam the door shut, it’ll do that.

That said, I think “citizenship” is overblown. There are other paths to permanent residency in the EU, which, well, what’s the practical difference, if your goal is EU access? If you need a second travel document, buy a Caribbean one and call it good. You don’t have to fret about entry to the EU because you have the PR card. If I were going through it all over today, I might go that path.

Let’s face it, all investment strategies are hope at some level. past performance is not a guarantee of future returns and all that. It might be indicative, but that’s all you ever get.

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I’d agree with that for the most part. There’s some amount of backlash against immigration at this point in some sectors and there are definitely issues but there is also a recognition of the need to poach younger people from elsewhere.

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The recent anti immigration and protectionist bent of so many countries is terrible. Incredibly frustrating to see populism do well.

But I suppose that’s a topic for another forum

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I don’t fault the citizens of a country. If I want to become a citizen, I think I should prove that I bring something of value. I don’t mean prove in a literal sense, but rather to show by my actions that I am contributing to society. Not just show up expecting a free lunch. Its hard to break through the negative drum beat of articles bashing foreigners for rising home prices and inflation. Really, the estrangeiros need a lobby to explain how much investment and jobs are created. Until then, expect more of the same cold stares.

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Immigrants, even unskilled, are very good for a country and a net benefit in many ways. Feel free to PM or start a thread if you’d like and I can link you some sources

As for real estate, portugal seems to make it very difficult to build, otherwise all the new people coming in could build new housing. To a point, old buildings can be renovated, but that doesn’t massively increase t he housing supply like actual new construction would

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The point of posting is to prevent others from making the same mistake I made. If I had read such a clear-eyed account before I invested, I would have chosen differently.

At the time, I thought it was “just Covid” that was causing all the delays. It wasn’t.

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A quick search of NomadGate reveals numerous posts from PGV applicants whose applications have been stuck for multiple years. Pre-approval is only the beginning of the story.

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Will the PR card really be honored in times of crisis? We already saw PR’s abandoned and locked out by numerous countries during COVID. Even if certain EU countries didn’t do this during COVID, what about the next crisis?

May be right about this. Europe hasn’t at all been spared the rise of xenophobia and populism, and this is terrible news for those looking to immigrate. May be time to look elsewhere


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