Yeah, I’m not convinced that anyone applying for a residence permit prior to any changes to the Nationality Law gets voted through will be grandfathered to the 5-year nationality timeline—although some lawyers seem to think there’s a legal argument for it.
I’m slightly more hopeful that you might be grandfathered into the provision that the clock to citizenship starts ticking from the time of application, not when the residence permit is issued.
Either way, if applying now and being grandfathered is important for your plans, make sure to make an investment that can easily be liquidated if things don’t pan out the way you hope (e.g. an open-ended fund). After all, it is possible that by applying now you do get grandfathered in some way, so I can understand that some people still rush to apply—but it is far from guaranteed in my opinion.
If you truly mean this, I implore you to reconsider this decision.
Even if it all works out in the end, Portugal Golden Visa is an anxiety burger with a side of anger fries.
Portugal’s immigration policy is disconnected from the capacity of the administrative state and the courts that are tasked with implementing it. The state’s resources were barely adequate prior to the Manifestação policy that brought hundreds of thousands of applicants into the queue ahead of your potential application. Despite the problem being well understood since at least 2022, capacity remains totally inadequate to timely process initial visa applications and renewals, because the government lacks either the will or the ability to fix the problem. Soon, this giant mass of applicants will descend on the citizenship application system and create similar problems. Anyone whose application falls victim to a software glitch (many on this forum), or is misplaced by AIMA (many others) cannot rely on the hopelessly clogged courts, so their timelines are lengthened by years, maybe decades, if they are even able to maintain their status at all.
And if that’s not enough to worry about, there will probably be at least 3-5 changes of government before you are eligible to apply for citizenship, and each of them may attempt to change immigration policy, since this has become one of Portugal’s most sensitive political issues.
The uncertainty will hang over every life decision you make until the day you hold the passport in your hands.
Well said. Even with a few years in country and a valid residence permit in hand, we are strongly considering not renewing next spring. When I read analyses like this, from people who have been in the program for years, the decision almost makes itself.
I applied five years ago, my application is lost in depths of AIMA somewhere and the courts have told me twice to get lost. My situation is obviously anomalously bad, but it can happen. Now I’m out 10s of thousands of dollars in fees and travel expenses, 100s of thousands in terms of opportunity costs, and with the coming change of citizenship laws, literally nothing to show for it (my fund will mature before I’m eligible for PR or citizenship even if I manage to get my GV in a year or two, so it won’t help at this point if the new law passes). And none of that includes the stress on my marriage this has caused by me having to constantly go back to Portugal for KYC renewal with my bank for an investment that I wish I could sell but can’t. I don’t think you can consider this a case of ‘it may be bumpy but will all work out in the end’. It might work out for you, but there’s a chance you end up like me. Easily the worst investment I’ve ever made.
I have my residence card and I’m stuck in a closed end fund, but I have basically decided to pull the plug. If for some reason the recent changes to the length of citizenship period are rolled back, I would stay with the program. But it makes no sense for me, personally, to make the effort to spend 2 weeks in the country and pay the ridiculous renewal fees (with no corresponding guarantee that things will be timely processed by the government). Does that make it a scam? Depends on how you define scam. But you mostly certainly cannot be sure you will get what you expect for your money.
@portunhol Unfortunately, you are not alone. I don’t really care if these people asking for advice here invest in the GV or not. But it’s also these same people that will be back here in 2-3 years posting incessantly on the “rage” thread about how they wish they had not done this.
I’m really sorry to hear your horrible experience, it’s a sh**show, no other way to describe it. I would probably sue anyone and everyone that was involved in the journey; including my lawyers, SEF, AIMA, Portuguese government (all the way up to European Commission). True, most likely I’d lose that uphill battle at the end, but at least I’d try..
At this point, I just want to put the whole thing behind me. Of course, I can’t because I can’t exit my fund, so I am stuck with constant KYC trips, the tax headaches, and the poor investment until the fund matures. I can’t imagine the pain of managing more lawsuits with lawyers who ghost you no matter how much you pay them.
Yeah, even my lawyers were surprised that this is how my bank decided to do it, but at this point, nothing surprises me much about this. It is a very sore spot in my marriage.
What an awful situation. Really sorry to hear this.
Our fund wanted to redo compliance last year. Had to get our lawyer to certify the very same documents we used to buy the fund. Couldn’t see the point of it. Not sure I’ll do it again. But annually? That’s ridiculous.
The fund itself also does annual kyc, but not in person because they are sane. It’s my bank that is requiring this. I have a bank that isn’t mentioned much here so I won’t name them, but this requirement is very frustrating as you can imagine.
Wow, that is just ridiculous. I’ve heard some bad banking stories, but that’s next level.
For what it’s worth I think you should name and shame…
Do you know what would happen if you just refused to update the KYC? Being the custodian of your investment, I don’t think they could just close your account. Probably they’d restrict your access etc, but once your fund matures you could make another trip to unlock the account.
Disclaimer: The above is likely poor advice, probably better not to attempt.
A cynical, but usually accurate, NY CFO I had once offered this:
“There are only two things that you need to understand. That other folks want to make their problems, your problems, and your money their money. If you understand this construct, most of the world makes more sense.”
I don’t know and they won’t tell me. It might be ok, but I could also see it turning into hell getting my money out when the fund matures. The customer service is about as bad it gets and I imagine it doesn’t get better on a blacklisted account.
Is there any chance of moving the shares to another bank? Yes it means fighting with customer service to get the shares transferred out, but at least the fund itself should be on your side on this and might even be able to facilitate on your behalf somehow, and you could get to a bank that doesn’t make you make all the trips?
My lawyers advised me not to change banks during the GV process as SEF/AIMA is too unpredictable. However, if the citizenship law passes, I’ll give up on the GV and try to change banks.
