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
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
6 Likes
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.
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.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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!
1 Like
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.
3 Likes