Obtaining Portuguese Residency (Golden Visa Application)
Portugal offers a very appealing option for foreign investors, it’s known as their golden visa program. This is probably the most popular program of that kind in Europe due to its flexibility and multiple benefits.
Portugal residency by investment program was first launched in 2012. and has been only increasing in popularity since then.
In order to get this visa, you will need to invest 500 000 EUR or 350 000 EUR in real estate in Portugal. If you decide to go with the lower investment, the property needs to be more than 30 years old or located in an urban renewal area. There is also an option of investing 1 million EUR in the country, in this case, you can invest it in anything you like. Other options include the creation of a minimum of 10 jobs, capital investment amount of 350 000 EUR in research activity, 250 000 EUR of investment in the reconstruction of national heritage, 500 000 EUR in an investment fund or venture capital.
As you can see, there are plenty of options to choose from!
Real estate option is the most common form of residency investment visa in Portugal. If you decide to buy property in lower density territory, the value of your investment can be reduced by 20% (400 000 EUR instead of 500 000 EUR).
It is reasonable why many investors choose real estate option when it comes to Portugal. It’s an attractive location and prices of property are only expected to go up in the future years. This means that you can make good interest while getting your residency permit in this country. However, it’s important that you keep your property for the period of at least five years in order to keep your residency.
95% of all the money Portugal has generated from Golden visa program was from real estate investments.
Portugal residency by investment program opens the doors for your whole investor’s family, making it an amazing deal. The investor can include their spouse, dependent children, and parents with no additional investment needed.
Residency and Citizenship
If an investor spends at least two weeks in a country every two years, they can renew this visa. After five years, you will be able to apply for permanent residency, and after six for their citizenship. Portugal passport is one of the best passports in the world, letting its holders travel to 186 countries and territories without a visa.
An interesting part of this program is that an investor doesn’t need to actually live in Portugal to make it happen! It’s enough to spend only a week per year in the country.
Portugal residency card will allow you to freely travel, get the education or work anywhere in the EU. You could go even further and get amazing tax savings if you actually reside in Portugal. You can take advantage of something that’s called Nonhabitual Residence Scheme and pay very little tax, even zero in certain cases. Most of our clients that decide to get residency in Portugal do it largely because of this opportunity. If you are interested in saving on tax by getting Portugal residency, you can read a separate article that we have about this topic.
It’s interesting that most users of this residency program were from China in the past couple of years. Chinese investment in Portugal via golden visa program made 2 billion EUR to the country. This represents 60% of all money raised by this program since it started in 2012.
In total 3588 golden visas were given to Chinese citizens, out of 5533 since this program is launched. Second place is taken by Brazilians with 473 visas issued, and third place is taken by South Africans with a total of 218 visas.
