Thank you Garbonzo
I asked because I do have investments in Portugal but I dont live there nor do I wish to. The Portugese economy is predicted to do better than much of the EU which in turn is being tipped for investment. Why would Skansa or Lang or Blackrock or KKR not invest in Portugal simply because some people’s visas have been changed? And property in the hotspots such as Lisbon and the Algarve have already been removed from GVs…
Anyway I shall not be pulling my investments out just yet
I think it’s more than just “some people’s visa being changed”. We are talking about a seismic shift unprecedented since the Salazar era. Since at least 2012 investors have been welcomed with open arms. Now it seems the government is willing to take up arms to stop investors from coming. The PS party could have easily said, “we are done with GV” and we will end it prospectively in 30 days. Only a few industry leaders would have been bothered by this. But instead Costa declared war on people who relied on promises made by the government and who invested in some cases their life savings in Portugal. It’s a dystopian situation that I still have not been able to understand completely. I could go on, but I will leave it to others here.
In my opinion, the most impactful aspect is if residency requirements for existing applicants become stricter in line with regular residency visas, namely 6 months in a year.
There are more existing applicants in any stage of the process than people who already obtained citizenship or prospective applicants. Making people rent out their apartments long term rather than airbnb won’t change anyone’s life, and may actually help with the housing crisis. Someone that owns an extra flat would rather lose out on a little income than be forced to spend 6 months anywhere. This will be a deal-breaker for a lot if not most people. At this stage obtaining citizenship after the whole process is also a big if.
Most lawyer contracts entail paying fees along the renewal process, so anywhere between 30% to 70% of outstanding legal fees depend on renewals.
Flexibility is what warranted the higher investment compared to traditional visas in the first place. Hopefully both existing applicants and the golden visa legal services community can focus their attention on retroactive changes especially to residency requirements, as it is both the most impactful to investor experience and lawyer revenues.
The reports talk of converting Golden visas to the D2 Entrepreneur visa.
The D2 visa stay requirement says that you cannot be away for a period of more than 8 months in the 2 year period of the visa.
So it means a stay of 8 months per year.
It will be difficult for most investors to meet the stay requirements.