I have been planning to apply for the Portugal Golden Visa for quite some time, but at the last moment I have started to feel uncertain and now I am seriously thinking whether I should go with Portugal or Bulgaria instead.
One of my main concerns is the timeline in Portugal. I keep reading about the backlog at AIMA and the waiting time for biometrics and residence cards. From what I see on this forum, people who recently reported receiving approvals seem to be mostly applicants from 2022 or 2023, and in some cases 2024. I have not seen any reports of approvals or residence cards for people who applied in 2025.
Some people who applied in late 2025 mentioned they received early biometric appointments, which is encouraging, but I have not yet seen anyone reporting that they actually received the residence permit after that. This makes me wonder what the real timeline looks like now if someone applies today.
Because of this, I have started looking into Bulgaria’s permanent residence by investment. The investment amount seems to be almost the same as the Portugal fund route, but the information online suggests that Bulgaria grants permanent residence relatively quickly and without the long waiting periods.
However, I would really like to hear from people who have actual experience. If anyone has experience with the Bulgaria investment PR programme, How long did it actually take from investment to getting the residence card?
Portugal still seems very attractive overall, but the waiting time and uncertainty are making the decision difficult. I would really appreciate hearing recent experiences from people who have gone through either process.
Is your goal just the residency, or citizenship? One downside if you’re aiming for citizenship, Bulgaria requires you give up your existing citizenship to naturalize there, so you can’t get dual citizenship.
But for residency I could see it being much better, especially since they give PR right away.
I think the Bulgarian program has much fewer applicants. So very likely less backlog than Portugal, but also harder to find information from applicants.
Portugal is a quagmire. If you apply now do not expect a card before 5 years nor citizenship before 15-20 years if ever.
Recently the waiting time seems to have improved significantly for the early stages. I see people reporting pre-approval within about a month and biometric appointments within 3–4 months. Any hope that in 2026 the waiting time for final approval will also improve ?
Stay far, far away from this program. It’s a complete scam. Even if you get lucky and have a step or two work out for you, eventually you will get stuck. I have been waiting 4 years for a biometrics appointment, don’t believe the lawyers (unless they’re actually honest..) and don’t believe the GV advisors and investment companies. There are no strings you can pull if you get stuck, there are no legal options the courts are packed with cases, if you get stuck, you’re done. If you get in this program, you will regret it and come back one day to this comment.
According to the crowdsourced timeline database, nobody in the database who applied after the end of 2023 has received their card yet. This is even after the rush of approvals in October following the passage of the (now overturned) nationality law.
even after reading all the horror stories (real life experiences) here on NG, you still think the PT government is truthful about their intentions of speeding things up, roll the dice..
on 10/31 last year they offered biometrics appointments to pretty much everyone who had applied before September. A few lucky outliers with September and October applications got appointments too but most who applied September or later are still waiting 6 months on.
I spoke with a Bulgarian attorney recently and was not impressed with the assurances that their GV option is more certain or speedy than the Portuguese one. One advantage of Portugal is that its program has been ongoing for a long time. Yes, there have been delays in processing in the past, but with the new digitized setup, things have been moving rather smoothly in my opinion.
@Aawattoo Your concerns are completely understandable. The Golden Visa process has been going through a very difficult phase due to administrative inefficiencies and the volume of applications. This has been frustrating not only for applicants but also for us, advisors who are trying to help their clients navigate the system. I think that even at this point nobody can responsibly promise clear timelines.
That said, I think @calvinesq is right: AIMA is trying to improve and digitalize the process, and we see good progresses. In the specific case of NSM, a good percentage of our clients who submitted their applications up to around September 2025 (64%, to be more specific) have already had their biometrics completed. No residence cards have been issued for those cases yet, but the process is moving much faster than before. And the Portuguese Golden Visa is still a very attractive program overall, so it’s definitely worth considering.
I think that depends on your goal. For those looking for citizenship without living in Portugal, the program seems very risky given the government’s desire to change the citizenship laws with no grandfathering for existing residents. Maybe for now the change is only adding 5 years (plus the 3-5 years of wait time for first card), but during that extra 8-10 years the government could change it again to disqualify those who don’t truly live in Portugal. Every extra year adds political risk.
The timeline uncertainty with AIMA is absolutely real, and I understand the frustration of trying to plan around it. You’re right that most recent approvals seem to be for 2022-2023 applicants, though I have heard of some 2024 filers getting movement.
One thing I’d think about beyond just processing time: the financial and tax implications between Portugal and Bulgaria are pretty different, especially if you’re American. Portugal has the tax framework that can work really well for US citizens (depending on your situation), while Bulgaria’s tax environment is structured differently. The Golden Visa timeline headache might be worth it if Portugal’s the better long-term fit financially, or it might not be if Bulgaria checks more boxes for you overall.
I don’t have firsthand Bulgaria PR timeline data to share, but I’d be curious what you find if you go that route. The decision gets a lot easier once you map out what each residency actually means for your taxes, retirement accounts, and overall financial setup over the next 5-10 years, not just which card arrives faster.
We have been waiting for 4 years until we got biometric appointment for 1st appalicant in Jan 2026. Until now the residency card is not issued
The other family members are still waiting for the biometric appointments
The problem now is that we need to keep our investment in Portugal for another 5-6 years. The nationality law also changed to 10 years
At this stage we just need the residency card and the freedom to sell the property. We give up on the nationality
The naturalization process requires renouncing all non-European citizenships and to provide proofs, although Bulgaria recognizes dual citizenship. You will be misinformed online and by lawyers that it is not enforced because you can technically request deferral and get citizenship anyways since you are given two years to produce the proofs. The fact is the current citizenship applications stretch for at least 3 years and are becoming longer meaning the application will be denied if you didn’t renounce your existing citizenships. The incumbent gov’t is also not friendly towards naturalization and it will get stricter.
Although you can be absent from Bulgaria and only need to visit for one day you are required to either buy residential property or lease a residence which will serve as your permanent address as far as Bulgaria is concerned and all official communication is sent there (sometimes by email). This is because you are meant to relocate to Bulgaria and not have the intention of being absent (though you can be in practice). You are also required to register and update your address as a foreigner living in Bulgaria in old fashioned way. If you omit this part as the case with many people it will be very difficult to renew your PR card (more on this below). Also, many people who went with bad advise of “buying an address” where tens of people share the same address lost their residency (non-PR).
Although you are required to be present for just one day per year Bulgaria is not easily reachable and it will cost time and money to travel there every year
The documentation requirements regarding first applying for PR are straightforward and the status is permanent however the card requires renewal and at that point the process is complicated and requires police checks, investment letters, income tax statements, and address proofs ..etc. This is a minor inconvenience but it defeats the designation of being PR imo.
The most significant downside of all is that there are hardly any viable investments for 514k in Bulgaria to qualify for PR!! There are very few ETF options which mostly invest in bonds and they have very low float in the market to the point that the ask/bid spread will essentially cancel out your potential future returns. There are lawyers who will offer alternative fund investment but it is shady management imo with no real investment value just structured to serve PR papers.
The practical option is to actually invest double the amount (about one million euros)in Bulgarian stock market.
If you can live with all these negatives then let me reveal a little known fact. Your name as a Bulgarian citizen will become Bulgarian in the sense that you will have your father’s name as your middle name even if you’re female and you will have Bulgarian suffixes -ov -iva etc too. It will serve as your new legal name which will follow you should you reside in other EU countries. The Bulgarian passport is not the greatest out there it does not allow for ESTA and is routinely discriminated against in most other online electronic authorization portals (has higher rejection rates in Australia, New Zealand ..etc).
Compared to Portugal the timeline is not much different 14 years vs. 9 so choose wisely.
This is very interesting, can I ask where you found this information?
For example ChatGPT told me that if you have e.g. a US and an EU citizenship, Bulgaria would allow you to keep both because EU citizens are exempt from the renunciation. But you are saying you would still have to renounce the US one.
This makes Bulgaria less attractive. I was thinking it could be a good way to get minor children EU citizenship if the parent gets PT citizenship but the children are denied based on “insufficient connection to PT”. Since I read that if a parent gets Bulgarian citizenship, it is basically automatic for the children (no connection test like Portugal).
That’s the problem with LLMs, they confuse context and just answer based on cues.
An EU citizen is exempt that is true, but they are inelgible for PR or residence in Bulgaria. They qualify under a unified EU/EEA framework for freedom of movement which includes a separate PR pathway on its own other than GV. This means you will have to reside in Bulgaria and pay income taxes if you want to use your EU citizenship. If you apply for residence using your US citizenship your application should be denied.
This is not particular to Bulgaria it is the case with every EU/EEA country the common EU/EEA migration framework is your only option.
I don’t believe this is the full picture - EU nationals exercising freedom of movement rights are required to pay tax only if they satisfy the requirements of tax residency in the country they reside. This will often be the case but certainly not automatitic. They would often need to spend at least 183 days there and or work there to become tax residents. This is true across the EU. For example, pensioners use the freedom of movement to live 4/5 months a year in Spain or Portugal but never become tax resident, paying tax in Germany / Sweden etc