What's the potential impact of the 2025 Portuguese election on the Golden Visa program and pathway to citizenship?

I’m confused - didn’t we all need a NIF even to apply in the first place?

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Whether or not it was necessary, it’s not like it’s hard to get. One of the few numbers that are kind of trivial

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No. Only main applicant needed Nif to apply. Dependent did not need at all.
But now it’s required that all must have nif…

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Original Expresso story is behind a paywall, but the following from Observador hopefully covers the highlights…

More than 500 Golden Visa holders want to proceed with a class action lawsuit against the State for amending the Nationality Law.

According to the weekly publication [Expresso], foreigners holding residence permits for investment (ARI) have joined together through WhatsApp groups, will register as an association, and will be represented by several law firms. However, they have not yet gone to court because they are awaiting final regulations on how the law will be applied to nationality applications that are already underway.

They will mainly be American citizens, attracted by investment funds that promise Portuguese citizenship, but there are also citizens of other nationalities. “We are not angry people. We are an organized group, residing in Portugal, that needs the Portuguese State to fulfill the contracts it has signed. Our legitimate expectation, when we moved here, was to obtain citizenship after five years,” one of the group’s leaders, who wished to remain anonymous, told the newspaper. “We will exhaust the Portuguese legal system and then assess what legal avenues exist at the European level.”

Wee bit more in Eco:

Madalena Monteiro, a lawyer at Liberty Legal, argues that the time calculation stipulated in the new law undermines the principles of equality and human dignity and will argue in the lawsuits that the ‘clock’ should start 90 days after the submission of the residency application.

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Thanks for this, @PTbound . I completely missed the Observador version. I also did an interview for TSF, but I haven’t seen it on their website yet. (They did just run a story on the 8h edition.)

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Anyone know how to join the class action? I would be interested.

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Agree, same here

Not saying Turkey is perfect. There are things to complain about in any country, and certain things in Turkey may be more worth complaining about than in our countries of origin. But I applied in 2024, 2.5 years after applying for PGV, and yet:

I got my passport a year ago and now it has dozens of stamps. I visit Turkey frequently.

My investment in Turkey is up 20%+ in USD terms, more than my PGV investment, despite less than half the duration.

And unless something goes horribly wrong in the next few weeks that would be a great embarrassment to President Erdogan, I will soon have the option to move there for 20 years while only paying tax on local income, something I am seriously considering.

Will my investment still lose money eventually? Maybe.
Will there be a rug pull in Turkey later? Maybe.
Will I get the full 20 years without having to pay tax on worldwide income? Maybe not.

But is Turkey CBI a cesspool of liars loitering around a money pit like Portugal’s migration programs? As of now, no.

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As for the rule of law, Portuguese politicians have already demonstrated their willingness to discard it to pander to voters, and the system has failed to stop them. Our legal rights have been repeatedly violated, and we have no effective recourse.

Maybe Turkey will not treat me right always, but at least it’s treating me right now.

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Same here.

I share the same experience about Turkey. I believe that when the word “Turkey” comes to people’s ears, most of them just simply think of Turkey as a Kebab shop! No more no less!

I’m glad that I have choosen Turkey and experienced the journey.

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It’s interesting that the thread title is:

What’s the potential impact of the 2025 Portuguese election on the Golden Visa program and pathway to citizenship?

And the answer is apparently: everyone is moving to Turkey.

It seems like people generally value speed, trustworthiness, and transparency. Things Portugal appears to have failed at terribly. Even the AIMA processing delays are shameful. I’ve had several friends who moved here for engineering jobs move away because their resident permits were in limbo for 2+ years. Talented tech folk aren’t going to put up with this nonsense.

Unfortunately, this incompetence is going to cost the country dearly.

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The article mentions Whatsapp groups and there was an earlier mention today on this forum about one. How does one join one of these groups? And is any one in particular recommended for up to date discussion this situation?

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Me too, i want to join

Actually, we should find a way to include all GV seekers, like an instagram post that goes viral and ask all GV seekers to unite under one law suit

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Not us. :grin:

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Would be helpful if anyone with the WhatsApp group details would post them here!

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Those numbers are very low. But of course anyone who became a national in 2024 probably arrived in 2015 or 2016. What the people are really worried about are the huge 2022 arrival numbers applying for nationality and that was used by the right wing to spread fear and pass this new law and the scrapping of the manifestation of interest.

Unfortunate but yeah.. the large majority of nationality requests came in this period from Sephardic Jewish people and Portuguese citizenship by descent. Those are not in the numbers above.

If there is SEF or AIMA data about new resident permits granted in the last years that would give a better picture of how things may progress in years to come.

I think we can wait for the regulations to come out before wrapping it up.

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Here’s the group:

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