Portugal Golden Visa Guide: Pros & Cons in 2024 – Nomad Gate

Golden Visa is quite an interesting residency scheme. Nonetheless, there are a few other options which are way more interesting to obtain Residency in Portugal. For instance, D-2 Visa for Entrepreneurs, Startup Visa for bright minds (Since 2018), and Tech Talent Visa (Starting from January 2019) are options to consider.

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Definitely, as long as you are planning on actually living in Portugal. The Golden Visa is more for those who don’t want to relocate full-time to Portugal yet, or don’t qualify for any of those visas.

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Can you make some reviews on Germany?

Great article!

Is there any clarity on how much they look into dependency? For instance, if a child is say 30 years old during the third year but is still studying and is dependent on the main member, will he still be seen as a dependent child? Also, do you still need to prove dependency after the 5th year? What happens if the child is working and married by then?

Many thanks for your help!

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No, a dependant has to be 25 or less, or over a certain age if the dependant is an older parent, in which situation age is more flexible, but for sons it’s definitely 25

Hii - thank you for investing the time to write such an informative article on Portugal’s Golden Visa program. But I do have one question still - my husband and I are considering early retirement in Portugal. If we were to purchase a rehabilitation project for 350,000 euro, during the five years leading up to citizenship, would we have access to the Portuguese medical program or would we have to wait until residency is granted at 5 years? And if required to wait until 5 years, up until that time, we would be required to purchase private insurance is this correct? Thank you!

There’s no need to buy any private insurance. Access to the healthcare system is granted by residency status, not citizenship. You need a document to deliver to your local “centro de saúde” in Portugal and they’ll issue you a user card granting you full access just as anyone else in Portugal.

The way you get said document depends on your country of origin, so without knowing I can’t help more than that :wink:

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Hi Felipe1

Thank you so much for responding - we are from the US and have been told that the PT government will require us to have insurance. The most affordable policy we could find is through Cigna Worldwide at $700/mo for the two of us.

So I was wondering if by buying a qualified Golden Visa property, would we be able to use the Portuguese insurance program?

I realize now that I need to specify we are from America because most are from the EU Community and the insurance can carry over.

Thanks again for your time.

Lynn

I don’t know where you got that info but the Portuguese government doesnt at all require anyone to have private health insurance.

You need a residency permit and to register in Portuguese social security. After that you take those two papers to a “centro de saúde” so that they can issue you a healthcare card. After that you have the same access to healthcare as any Portuguese person.

“Being a resident in Portugal, you are eligible for medical cards that provide free medical assistance from your doctor at your local health centre. In order to obtain the card, you are required to present your residency permit, along with your social security card to the health centre.” - Guide Healthcare in Portugal | Allianz Care

Doctor appointments at the local health Centre (centro de saúde) are free and for anything else, exams, surgery, whatever it may be, may carry a small fee of about 20 euros

To be enrolled into social security in order to be able to request the healthcare card you need to go to a “Segurança Social” (social security) office and bring with you your residency permit as well as a document verifying your retired status

The US and Portugal have a deal since 1989 where your US social security status may be matched in the Portuguese system so that you can receive extra benefits and protections. You should probably contact the US embassy and the Portuguese SEF for details on how that works - International Programs - U.S.-Portuguese Social Security Agreement

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Hi
Great article. I have came across the following

http://info.urhomeportugal.com/en-gb/portuguese-golden-visa-program-350000-opportunity

How can I make sure that the offer is legit?

Thank you

I can’t vouch for the offer but Urhome is a legit real estate business

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Thank you Filipe

Hi Filipe,

Very good article thank you :grinning:

I have purchased several buildings in the rehabilitation area of Porto and I would like to apply for a golden visa. The buildings have been purchased in a company but the challenge is the company is owned by both myself and my business partner. Is it possible for us both to apply for the visa if we are both owners of the company and our investment is higher than the 350k each?

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Hi Felipe -thank you so much for giving us so much info. The information about the private insurance came from my understanding that the resident application with the Portuguese Embassy in the US requires proof of insurance coverage in PT - I mistook this to mean private insurance but now believe this is just an insurance policy that will cover us until we are granted our NHR permit. So that would be a short term travel policy I believe. Then once our Visa type 1 is granted, and we then have our interview and are granted NHR status, I think then we will be able to use the Portuguese health care system. Do you know if this is correct. Thank you greatly for your time. - Lynn

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Great article - thank you ! I have a question: I am thinking about setting up sail boat chartering business in Portugal through a LLC Co - would I be able to qualify for this visa in that case ? Please, feel free to message me directly (lazyxiong [at] gmail [dot] com) Thanks !

We are a Canadian family of 4, interested in the golden visa program. We would like to retire in Portugal eventually. Few questions on the residency versus citizenship visa program . Appears that it’s more cost effective to go for the residency visa

With the residency visa my understanding is that once you qualify , you still need language requirements. We would have to learn Portuguese?

We have a special needs daughter aged 19 - what are the pros and cons for her in Portugal?

Our other kid is 21 and needs to be in university- would she be able to acces university in Europe as a resident ?

How long does it take to get the resident visa and what are the total costs in USD involved with fees to government and lawyers etc . Also what is the minimum investment for the resident visa that is accurate? Some show 250,000 other sites show less ???

Thx
CSouza

Hi! You mention in the article that you can recommend an independent broker, but the contact link doesn’t seem to work. Can you make the recommendation here, or send me a message?

Thanks,

Svein

You can contact me from this page, but you’ll need to be logged in first. In any case, I’ve followed up separately :slight_smile:

Hi Thomas, I am also interested to know the contact of the independent broker. Can you please email me the detail. Thank you :grin:

Thanks, would like to ask for this two options

  1. Acquisition of real estate property of an amount equal to or above 500 thousand Euros
  2. Acquisition and execution of works of real estates, on the amount equal to or above 350 thousand euros

Does it mean the total price of real estate has to be 500k or the minimal downpayment has to be 500k?

Can I use mortgage like downpayment 200k and loan 300k to buy one 500k property achieve the requirement? Or could I remortgage immediately once the preliminary application is approved 5 months later?

What type of work could qualify “Acquisition and execution of works of real estates, on the amount equal to or above 350 thousand euros”? does it require pre approval from government?

Thanks.