hey @ohbee, you seem to be one of the few people who went the cultural route for your GV. Any chance you could share the details of your path and timelines? (canāt send you a DM, too new here).
I understand your road has been long and bumpy, would love to hear anything you could share. Thank you!
Applied in Sept 2022 I believe. Gave 250k to a museum that never emails me back.
Highly recommend choosing a refundable path.
I would not apply for a Portuguese GV today if I knew then what I know now. Two and a half years of waiting for what should have been a 6-9 month process is way too long, and first SEF and now the AIMA show few signs of reducing the backlog.
Since I applied in 2021,the governmentās policy changed to give GV applicants the lowest priority, leaving those of us who have made substantial investment in the country and who have moved here in legal limbo with no end in site.
Take my advice: do not fall for the promises and optimistic time frames. Say no.
I do want to point out that while I would not recommend that anyone use the GoldenVisa route, it doesnt mean that I do not love my life here in Portugal. If it hadnt been for the D7 process being shut down due to Covid, I would have applied for the D7 and had my residence card years ago.
My anger with the Portuguese government is over the shoddy way they are treating GV applicants who, after having made a substantial investment in the country, are being left in legal limbo for years while other types of visas, including the D7 and the digital nomad visas are being processed and awarded in a matter of months.
Do not be fooled! If your objective is to obtain an EU passport and dont intend on actually living here, you will likely face years of waiting, waiting, waiting with no guarantee when, or even if you will get that passport.
If you want to live here you will face years of not being able to get a driving license or a bank loan, not be able to legally travel anywhere in the Schengen zone or even register for the health system.
Your paperwork will be in a black hole.
What is the most discouraging part of living in legal limbo is that there is no end in sight.
Never everā¦
What I wanted and (naively) expected:
(a) Citizenship ā Right to live and work in EU within 5-6 years of application
(b) Backup plan ā Clear legal right to live and work in safe country
What I got:
(a) Citizenship: Maybe within 9-12 years of application, maybe never? Even if ability to apply for citizenship is granted to ARI applicants within 5 years of ARI application, the current processing time for citizenship is 3 years, and that doesnāt account for the impact of the huge upcoming wave of MH and other applicants. With this in mind, citizenship at 9 years from ARI application appears optimistic and 10-12 years perhaps more realistic. By then I will be close to retirement age, so the right to work anywhere in EU wonāt be nearly as meaningful. And the availability of this ārewardā assumes I can successfully navigate the minefield of gotchas on visa renewal every 1-2 years, keeping GV funds invested even in years 9,10,11 (!), and other requirements the government imposes in the interim.
(b) Backup plan: No driving license, no bank loan, no legal travel within Schengen, no registration for the health system. Indefinite limboā¦
The most galling thing is that even ācredibleā publications such as IMI or Henley Global continue to promote PGV/ARI without clear warnings. The reality of the program is nothing like what is being presented. These problems are the current actual situation, not theoretical ārisksā, and noting them is just facing facts, not ābeing negativeā:
(1) Portugal is not delivering on the terms of the ARI program;
(2) Political circumstances and the general populationās attitude toward ARI are materially worse than when we applied;
(3) SEF/AIMA is ignoring the law. You can file a lawsuit to seek enforcement of the law, but a judge may decide your case is insufficiently āurgentā;
(4) SEF/AIMAās overall backlog is longer / bigger / worse than when we applied;
(5) ARI applicants are getting last priority.
Iām still considering abandoning the application and taking my money back. Even if that means selling at a loss, being free of this nightmare and putting the money toward something that would actually move my life forward might be worth it.
Somebody, please tell these people the truth:
Wowoo, congrats, 7% return.
Mine -13%, and have being waiting for 22months without pre-approval. Iād put my money into NASDQ, and apply a D7.
I have submitted GV application since Aug 2022, 22month waiting in vain. Not even pre-approval. Lawyer asked me to provide a rental contract , water bill something like that and with an emergency reason of moving to Portugal , before I can file a lawsuit. Which ironically, Iām living outside of PT now, no rental, no water/electricity billsā¦ And somebody said, thereās more than 7000 lawsuit cases waiting in line for Porto AIMA, and more than 9000 for Lisbon AIMAā¦.Holy Molyā¦even I suit AIMA, Iād wait for how long?
Next Tuesday, I have an appointment to submit materials to apply D7. Suddenly, my lawyer came out saying if I go for D7, my GV will be stopped! Right now itās been a huge dilemma lying in front of me.
I really donāt know which one to chooseā¦
Go for D7? Or keep hold on to this endless GV waitingā¦
Check out the Facebook group Americans & FriendsPT. Mostly D7 applicants, and a lot of anecdotes about similar problems with that processāunavailability of biometrics appointments within visa timeframes, renewal and reunification problemsā¦. BUT much cheaper and seemingly more success than the dead stop that weāre experiencing.
I canāt believe people are still peddling this fantasyā¦ āGet the initial Golden Visa within around 12-18 months.ā
Knowing the lie puts you in the unique position of knowing who not to trust.
Unfortunately, in this case, āwho not to trustā is nearly everyone in the industryā¦
Apparently the Golden Visa isnāt ādeadā ā the country is still promoting it, even introducing a new type!
Also, it appears the government plans to create a preferential service tier for the ānew Golden Visaā to obtain residence permits faster than the current Golden Visa.
āThis means that it will take less time for foreign investors to be accredited and obtain Residence Permits for Social Investment if the plan is approved.ā
Please donāt fall for it, folks.
I remember in another post, someone (half- jokingly) said Portuguese government should ask future investors to invest in AIMA. Now this even comes true lol.
Then in a few years, there will be another GV route to invest into IRN to speed up citizenship process 
.
Itās not dead, itās walking dead 
What I learn now is take everything they say, any party involved with GV, a grant of salt. Remember the recent outsourcing to solicitorā¦ itās cricket quite now
Wait, WHAT?! This seems profoundly discriminatory and illegal to me. What about those of us who applied YEARS AGO in good faith under the promise of 90 day processingāweāre to be pushed FURTHER down this list? This requires an all-out revolt.
Soon they will add another GV route to invest in a fund that supports older GV applicants waiting for their renewals. Itās all golden visas all the way down.
We ālegacyā ARI/GVers are already last in line. Since at least 2021, SEF/AIMA has already been processing hundreds of other applications more urgently while ARI/GVs sit on a shelf for months, if not years (or in some cases, apparently forever). Some judges see this as unlawful, some donāt care.
So if they make this official, it just codifies the disdain and deprioritization of legacy ARI/GVs that already permeates the legal and administrative sector in PT.
Do you really want to invest in a country that treats its investors worse than its refugees, while treating neither with dignity?
There has to be a remedy we can pursue. Itās fraud.