Portugal Golden Visa - The New Law of 2023

Yes but it only affects you once you need to renew or maybe the initial card if you applied late

1 Like

Costa digs in
 “Government will keep all the measures presented in the More Housing package”

“The Government will maintain all the measures presented in the “More Housing” package, according to SIC Notícias. According to the channel, the measures will undergo minor changes due to the contributions collected during the public consultation.”

6 Likes

One interesting bit from that article:

End of gold visas

Gold visas will no longer be granted for the acquisition of real estate, with the Government’s proposal to make some fine-tunings to the renovation (every two years) of those already allocated, providing, in particular, that this only happens if the property is used as the owner’s own and permanent residence or descendant or if it is placed on the rental market for own

Implies that other GV pathways may remain open


3 Likes

Yes, but the fact remains everything is uncertain for the duration of everyone’s GV process and deals with the Portuguese government are not to be trusted. Buyers beware, or better yet, run.

5 Likes

Thanks for posting this. It seems like the government is planning to go full speed ahead and the president called this a poster law. We’ll see soon how this ends up.

1 Like

Another article


===========
"The Council of Ministers will approve this Thursday bills with various measures to combat the housing crisis.


End of golden visas

The end of residence permits for investment activity, the so-called golden visas, is another of the measures planned to “combat real estate speculation.” The Government has already approved the end of this program created in 2012 but has not yet created the legislation to make this happen.

But the intention of the Executive is that the suspension of new golden visas will take effect from February 16, the day the Government presented the legislative package for housing. Already the requests for renewal that will only be authorized if the holders present proof of residence or lease."

===========

3 Likes

Seeing that Marcelo seems inclined to veto this legislation, would the legislation as written require a two-thirds parliamentary vote to override his veto?

1 Like

We need to see the final proposal details to be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Not sure. Here’s my reading of the constitution:

  1. The 2/3 majority is required “in the case of organic laws (i.e., designed to lay the foundations for strategic decisions, such as the organic law of the National Health Service), external relations, limits to economic sectors (private, public, co-operative), or electoral matters”. Don’t know if Mais Habitação meets that test.

  2. Additionally, if the President refers the matter to the Constitutional Court, and the Court rules it unconstitutional, then Parliament must fix the issue (and return it to the President), or pass it with a 2/3 majority (in which case the President has to sign it).

2 Likes

Can anyone explains why “residence by investment” is treated or perceived so badly?

" The only category excluded from benefiting from the facilitations that arise from the amended law on EU long-term resident status are those who hold a residence permit solely on the basis of an investment scheme in any of the Member States."

1 Like

It sure sounds like this proposed law will be a limit to economic sectors and with its retroactivity, be unconstitutional. And I don’t see how they get two-thirds to push it through. The Socialists and other left wing parties together do not have the numbers

2 Likes

Because the EU ‘leadership’ have a certain business model at play, which is based on high-volume / low-value transactions when it comes to ‘movement of people’.
I will not go into the details publicly at to ‘why’ but I hope ‘sapienti sat’.
And not only EU by the way, I can name two more countries with two-letter acronyms which are in the same way.

2 Likes

I guess they want people who actually live there, not just wealthy foreigners trying to buy a backup residence or passport.

This is the first time I have seen them call out “residence” specifically rather than “citizenship”. My theory was that “citizenship by investment” (eg, Malta) is what the EU really disliked, but I guess they dont want any investment schemes at all.

Hopefully this path doesnt end with the EU disallowing freedom of movement for citizens who got their passport via investment


1 Like

Its wild that the government gets a second try at passing an unconstitutional law if they have enough votes. One might think “unconstitutional” is the end of the line (otherwise, what is the point of having a constitution?)

5 Likes

Hi all, do you have any updates on the presentation of the final draft of the law? I believe they will also vote on it today? Thank you very much for any feedback :pray:t3::heart:

3 Likes

The Portuguese government will present the final version of its controversial ‘Mais Habitação’ (More Housing) programme this afternoon.

Reports SIC, the presentation will happen at around 4.30pm in SetĂșbal after the Council of Ministers meeting.

Final version of housing programme to be presented today - Portugal Resident

5 Likes

Indeed
 although since Parliament can amend the constitution by 2/3 majority, I suppose this is just an alternative way of doing that - ie if 2/3 of MPs disagree with the Court and declare that something is actually constitutional, it becomes so, by definition.

3 Likes

I wonder how often that’s actually happened in Portugal’s parliamentary history, or if anyone who’s studied Portuguese law knows of a precedent.

1 Like

We are not likely to see two-thirds supporting this law. The PSD center right party itself controls over a third of the seats. Has anyone heard from their leader about this?

2 Likes

It is already past 6pm. Which website is good to monitor when the draft law will come out?

3 Likes