Hi there!
My husband and I live in the United States and are interested in applying for the Portuguese golden visa. I am a Chinese citizen and my husband is a Russian citizen. We learned that Portugal just banned Russians from applying for the golden visa. Question is - can I still apply as the main applicant? Would my husband be able to get the visa as a family member?
Thanks for reading the question and any insight would be greatly appreciated.
No one here can answer this question. At the very least your application will get extra scrutiny. Worst case you would both be denied. I wish I could give you an answer, but there isn’t one. You take your chances which will be much greater in Turkey.
You can still apply yourself as the main applicant, and then add your husband as a dependant.
As things stand, your husband may still be denied GV even as a dependant, but it is a worst case scenario.
I agree, it is much easier and faster to get the residence and citizenship in Turkey for a Russian national at the moment.
However, please note that Turkey has just raised their CBI threshold from $250k to $400k on the real estate route, due to huge increase in demand.
Not many English-speaking resources around for Turkish CBI, but feel free to ping me if any question.
Thank you. We have both lived in the US for the past 10 years and have US green cards. Would that help?
Thanks for the response. Is there any legal ground for denying my husband as a dependent?
There is no legal ground as of yet.
Please see below quote from Iaservices.pt:
“ 1. The announcement issued by the Ministry represents a restriction on current Portuguese legislation, a restriction that, in order to be valid, needs to be adequately stated and justified. Therefore, additional information and context is expected to be received in the coming days.
We will continue to monitor this situation as well as any further updates on any related matters.”
As I said, it is currently not possible for your husband to apply for GV as a main applicant.
It may be possible that he would still be processed as a GV dependant.
In any case, I believe the information above is sufficient for you to make a decision and proceed, ie:
A) you apply as a main GV applicant yourself, and then add your husband as a dependant
B) you wait until the ‘Russian suspension’ is lifted by SEF, and then your husband may apply as the main applicant.
You probably need to discuss the matter with a lawyer with some familiarity with the situation.
I agree with jb4422. You should really speak with a lawyer about this. It sounds like an awful situation to be in, and this is an area where a lawyer will be very helpful in navigating a likely closing narrow path of legality.
I think a lawyer wouldn’t help much unfortunately. Most of what is currently happening to Russian GV visas is not lawful not to say illogical. For instance, people that have lived here for many years are denied the prolongation without a valid reason. Example explanation.
Moreover, things change on weekly basis. So, something that is a fact/case/law today can be the exact opposite in a month. It’s definitely not a good time to rush things with EU GV.
Sadly, it’s all a reminder that you don’t ever really escape the country of your birth. Or it’s damn hard. It’s nice to talk about being a rootless digital nomad with bunches of second passports and the like, but… even if you are carrying the right passport, sometimes simply looking and acting like the Other is enough to damn you, and I wonder sometimes how durable/safe some of those second passports you acquire really are in the face of Things Going Really Wrong.
Sure, but it’s still better to have them than not.
Two weeks ago SEF started to accept new applications from non-sanctioned Russian citizens, and this week they have issued at least two new residency cards to 2 Russian citizens whose applications were approved in February 2022.
If you have been living in the U.S. for 10 years and have Green Cards, why not get a U.S. citizenship first? Then your nationality will be listed as American on all applications and only your place of birth will remain Rassia/China. That would remove many obstacles and eliminate myriad of questions. It has certainly done so for me and my wife.