Those Portuguese who live abroad don’t seem to integrate quite well. If you visit Portuguese neighborhoods in London or New England, most of them live in closed communities and don’t often speak English. I’ve heard some Portuguese also go to richer European countries like Switzerland to do seasonal work, then go back to Portugal and pretend to be unemployed to receive benefits. Most talented Portuguese young professionals don’t see their future in the country. They are such hypocrites for judging how well we integrate. 
3 Likes
I understand the idea of preserving a nation’s bloodline and culture. I don’t see that as inherently racist, especially when it concerns a relatively small population. My issue with Portugal’s Golden Visa lies in the fundamental nature of the agreement. If the government offers and promotes this program with specific terms and criteria, without any mention of limits such as timeframes or annual quotas, then they have an obligation to honor those terms. If they later feel that the program is getting out of hand or that they no longer need more immigrants, they should stop the program altogether rather than changing the rules midstream.
12 Likes
This is true of most people in the world. People need to stop maligning the Portuguese people for something that barely half the leadership did in order to appeal to a small base within the electorate. Seriously.
7 Likes
I share the frustration expressed by everyone here, but could we please avoid even the appearance of denigrating the Portuguese people as a whole?
9 Likes
This has nothing to do with the people. It’s about the politicians. They’re the ones responsible for breaching the original agreement and breaking the promises made under the Golden Visa program. When a government offers such a contract, people invest their trust, time, and money based on those terms. Changing the rules afterward isn’t just unfair. It’s a violation of good faith and a breach of the commitment they made.
3 Likes
Well…just almost 5 months after your post…Do you have anything more to say? Still last call to those who are considering to apply PT GV? 
6 Likes
I was a little bit triggered by a series of disgusting comments like “Hoje, Portugal fica mais Portugal.” from such high-ranking officials. Sorry, I have deleted my comment.
2 Likes
Why does the original poster only have 25 minutes of read time on this forum? 
1 Like
I hear you Andy, we’re all angry and disappointed. I have real respect for you and your decision to remove the post. That’s very decent of you.
3 Likes
A helpful note from my PT immigration lawyer regarding this devastating annoucement:
"At the same time, we consider that legal grounds may exist to challenge the Portuguese State should the law enter into force in its current form. Prime Legal is already conducting a comprehensive legal assessment of this potential course of action, pending the finalisation of the legislative process.
Once the New Law is formally enacted and published, Prime Legal will organise a Client briefing session to provide detailed clarification and outline all available legal strategies."
Nothing concrete, but at least letting us know there may be grounds should it be finalized.
4 Likes
In a very brief exchange with my legal counsel they seem optimistic that the current language won’t hold up, especially the time from application piece, with the Constitutional Court. Should there be no changes, they are exploring the option of a possible class action suit with GV clients.
7 Likes
Exactly. I’ll happily join any and all class actions suits (since our POV is so clearly in the right - you cannot change the deal after we paid our money). But hopefully the PT court will do that itself. Who knows, but there seem to be possibilities.
4 Likes
I stopped trusting these law firms a long time ago, but lets hope!
3 Likes
I think any such lawsuit belongs in the EU courts.
2 Likes
Might be behind a paywall for some users. 
“AIMA’s real problem is not preventing reforms in other areas. It’s more serious: it created a system that punishes exactly those who try to follow the rules. Meanwhile, for years, those who entered irregularly ended up finding parallel paths of regularization. It is a perverse inversion that rewards chaos and penalizes compliance.”
15 Likes
There is a WhatsApp group dedicated to coordinating efforts on preparing a class action lawsuit, please feel free to join: WhatsApp Group Invite
Your lawyer is more than welcome to join too!
2 Likes
Keep up the letters to the president, folks.
3 Likes
I wonder if GCS has thought of sending a translated version of this article (minus the last section) to the President, because it certainly lays out both the constitutionality problems and the long term costs quite well.
Then again, who cares about long term costs these days? Unless the material consequences (or benefits) of a policy decision are clearly visible immediately afterwards, the voting public will not comprehend them as cause and effect.
2 Likes
News is coming in the WhatsApp groups of people receiving biometric appointment notifications en masse. I guess now that they’ve decided not to give us citizenship or honour their promises in any way, they’ll be happy to take your money!
11 Likes
Yup, they’re also talking about that over here…
4 Likes