My lawyer gave me the list of following investment funds for the GV.Does anyone have any experience/advice when choosing? I’m find it a bit daunting. Thank you in advance!
OXY CAPITAL
LINCE CAPITAL
PORTUGAL PANORAMA
C2 CAPITAL
ADMAR SCR
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My firm recommendation would be to avoid closed-ended funds like these. Subject of course to your own risk/reward parameters, an open-ended fund such as IMGA, BPI Portugal or Optimize offers:
(a) exposure to listed Portuguese equities: you know you’re not paying a “golden visa premium”
(b) the ability to liquidate your investment within a week or two if the ARI is no longer for you - the rules change, your circumstances change etc
There are loads of people on here locked into closed-end funds, or wondering what happens when they mature too early, who wish they had liquidity.
https://community.nomadgate.com/t/psa-just-buy-an-open-ended-index-funds-for-most-flexibility
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We invested in Lince. Basically a well organized fund but I second the opinion about closed end funds. Timing is unpredictable. Also important is the tax regime. Lince optimized for PT tax regime not U.S. and you can end up at PFIC. Certainly need to ask tax relevant questions.
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If you still find it necessary to invest in Portugal after the breaches of trust those of us on this forum have experienced, at least use an open-ended fund. The government will likely change the program several more times while you are invested — who knows what further shenanigans there will be.
If you just want a Plan B EU passport in the shortest amount of time possible, wait for Romania. Their program has a chance to go live in a few months with terms roughly similar to the original PGV.
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From my cursory research into Romania it seems that for purposes of naturalization, only years where you spend at least 6 months in Romania counts. You also need to apply for PR after 5 years, then you can apply for citizenship at the 8-year mark after getting your first residence permit.
So unless they also update their citizenship law, I don’t think it offer a feasible path to citizenship without moving there.
@djmelissa I’ll echo what the others are saying here. At this point, if you’re still set on the PT GV despite everything, at least go for an investment that’s easy to liquidate—typically open-ended funds.
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Fool me once… Now that I know the EU won’t step in to support the rule of law in EU countries, the EU is a worthless institution. I not going down such a path without ironclad guarantees of citizenship eligibility.
Totally understandable, but given the ECJ ruling against Malta that is unlikely to ever be possible in the EU, I think.
And as far as I’m aware, even the people who had were in the Maltese program when the judgement happened (which was much more of a CBI than Portugal ever was) got screwed. I believe anyone who hadn’t already been granted citizenship was out of luck there.
Of course, Malta didn’t require the investment up front. So only those who had completed the required residence period and hence gone ahead and made the investment in anticipation of the final citizenship application were left with an expensive investment with no citizenship to show for it.
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For now, this is accurate from what I understand, but supposedly the authorities are working on updating the citizenship law.
Good point – will have to see how Romania walks the line.
I have been working toward applying for Romanian citizenship by descent alongside the PTGV process and my lawyers finally have my grandfather’s certified birth record, but I think the updated B1 language requirement will now prevent me from being able to move forward. Drag. My lawyers have shared some about GV on their website but don’t mention residency requirements, so my guess is it will be pretty restrictive. Once they answer my current naturalization questions I am happy to prod for more GV details and report back.
EDIT: according to my lawyers, the current draft of proposed Romanian GV does not have a minimum annual residency requirement. That said, it also didn’t have a language requirement when I started my document search process for citizenship, and as we are seeing in PT, things can change without much warning.
One positive: funds are only invested after approval!
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Query - how did you get in touch with the other investors in your fund?
If I had to do it all over again I would go with a fully open fund [ok-maybe I wouldn’t have done it at all, I dunno, I’m not sure yet, still assessing] even though I typically have a higher tolerance for illiquidity and risk, and dislike low returns for anything other than current cash needs. From an investment standpoint I would never choose these over my options in the US, so in the end the advice really is “do your own research (yes, it is daunting) and opt for whatever makes you least uncomfortable”. As painful as it is, it is all just an unavoidable sunk part of the visa cost. Calculate that in to whether this makes a GV worthwhile for you.
Even though Oxy it is a partially open fund and the numbers work well over the long term for their ongoing management fees, they have a 3 year tiered redemption penalty assessed from the subscription date. So even if you decided to split your investment with a closed fund that termed out, you can’t add money to this fund thinking you can avoid an additional penalty period.
My journey… First I went down the list and eliminated any funds and management companies with anything in their portfolio that even hinted at bend the rules, is this even legal type schemes -pay us 250k and we loan you the rest so you only need to come in w/250k total? Nope. You aren’t buying real estate, but after you invest in our hotel project you can stay with us for free AND we cash you out with your favorite unit? Not happening. Invest with us and we’ll buy your sports car and art! Buhbye. Your 500k includes all your visa fees, subscription fees, travel costs, consulting fees and attorney fees! Erm what? We will pay you all your dividends up front so you only have to come in with a portion of the required 500k but we will say you invested the full amount? Sounds like jeopardizing my visa to me!
Then I eliminated any of the ones with some red flag concern like abandoned hotel projects, 180s on investment strategies, problems with conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, scandals, investigations, etc.
From there - I crossed off any gold chain wearing, chest hair showing, smooth talking, chippendale n fabio twin slickstering sales forces.
Lastly, I crossed off all the impossible business plan, how do these numbers work, what were you thinking, what ARE you thinking, do you have any idea what you are doing, is this the actual company website, would I be better off lighting my money on fire? funds.
I then realized I was out of funds, so I went back and picked the least objectionable options for my situation and now I’m here, wishing for a few miracles and hoping I didn’t make a disaster of a mistake.
*Disclaimer due to certain Portuguese laws - all examples contained herein are entirely fictional and any resemblance to actual people, products, events, discussions or circumstances is purely coincidental regardless of whether I may or may not have investigated any/all of the funds mentioned on your list.
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Romania citizenship law is strict. You are disqualified from applying for citizenship if:
- You have a continuous physical absence from Romania of 6 months or more during your residency period; or
- You have a cumulative absence from Romania totaling 10 months or more in the past 5 years prior to applying for citizenship.
- You lack B1 language proficiency
10 months absence per 5 years is only an average of 2 months absence per year allowed.
The golden visa program for Romania is fine for those who want to physically live in Romania, but not for most investors who live elsewhere for the majority of the year.
Malta and Portugal were the only countries that allowed a pathway to citizenship with relatively little physical presence. And both of them are effectively shut down.
I doubt anyone will get their Portugal citizenship even after waiting 10yrs. The citizenship law require zero breaks in legal residence, but the govt has also changed the residence period to be when the card is issued and not backdated to the application date. So guess what happens when people renew? You are only allowed to renew within 6mo of expiry. But the renewal card takes 2+ yrs to issue. What happens in that “gap” of 1.5yrs when you have no card? Under the old rules, you’re still a legal resident so there’s no gap. Under the new rules, you’re not a legal resident and have a gap. So what happens at 10yrs when they see all these gaps? Rejected? Lawsuits? Courts step in and help? SOL? No one knows.
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Fully agree. I ve just quit and did not renew my residence since I saw the path to citizenship close to impossible. Now my focus is a decent return or no significant loss in the funds. I took this decision also due to personal circumstances, but in the end it was pushed for all the ill treatment of GB investors. A real shame. Beautiful country, nothing good to say about its politicians, bureaucracy and legal system.
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By the time someone waits for 9 years, new law can be introduced and 10 years might become 20 years. Who knows? If 5 years to 10 years is possible, then from 10 years to 20 years or back to 5 years is also possible. 
I haven’t given up hope that the TC will stall this calamity, at least for a while, but the trend isn’t encouraging.
Given the xenophobic and boldly racist rhetoric spoken in Parliament by the governing parties, I can imagine Portugal adopting the same posture as Greece: you’re welcome to keep paying for overpriced residency, but you’ll never be a citizen unless you can prove Portuguese ancestry.
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I expect Romania will loosen the physical presence requirements for investors; otherwise, there would be no meaningful update to the investment visas they already had.
And for the most part I expect this to be the trend worldwide from now on, and we all need to get used to it. Maybe Argentina will be an exception, though at this point I bet not - maybe they will do CBI but I bet it will still require more than token real footprint.
The age of globalization is dead. If you didn’t make arrangements for your Plan B a decade ago while the world was wide open, well, bummer. If you guessed wrong on your path for making those plans, well, bummer. I don’t like this, but I’m not in charge. Besides, it’s how these things roll. If you don’t do it while it’s something no one sees a need to give a shit about…
We also need to get used to the idea that “rule of law” is more and more becoming a weak reed. It’s a nice enough idea, but we have had decades of growing reliance on debt and the weakening of cultural institutions and norms in the name of ideals, which will result in some really painful adjustments to society across the world; I think (first order approximation, without any real research) one will find from history that rule of law is one of the first victims.
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I echo the sentiment here. Stay away from closed end funds. There is no flexibility of redemption. Also, when the date comes for the fund to liquidate, they need to sell all their assets. For the fund I invested in, they will need to find a buyer for over €50 million. Since their goal is liquidation and not profit optimization, the CFO of the fund has warned me that they will likely have to sell at a discount to a well capitalized buyer. He warned that the shares might be worth less than when I purchased them 6 years ago even though the property market is up over 60% during that time. Just my 2 cents.
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Also the OK fund invests in SPVs that are owned by their own friends at a valuation that has no clarity on fair value as STAG is basically completely incentivized to say yes to whatever Optylon Krea proposes
I get the sense this is more widespread than just OK’s funds. During the course of my research I encountered more than a few comments suggesting familial ties, etc. Not that it isn’t something that happens elsewhere, but I don’t see a huge incentive to perform for GV clients.
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