The Golden Visa program was initially launched in 2012. Investors from non-European countries could acquire residency (which could eventually lead to citizenship) if they invested more than 280k EUR in real estate. This became and continues to be one of the most popular visa routes for people from countries like the US, China, Brazil, and South Africa to get European residency/citizenship.

Portugal’s prime minister, Antonio Costa, mentioned that the country is considering ending the golden visa program as it seems to have fulfilled its intended purpose. He said: “There are programs that we are currently re-evaluating and one of them is the Golden Visa program, which has probably already fulfilled its function and for which there might at this point no longer be any justification for keeping it.” This was shared during one of the interviews he did at the Web Summit in Lisbon in November 2022.

The cancellation of the Golden Visa is definitely a possibility. So, if you plan to get your GV in the near future, we advise you to make your decision as soon as possible. So far no one knows what is the final decision of the government, or if they do cancel the program when will be the end of the application. But one thing we would like to point out is that if you get your application submitted before the potential cancellation, then you won’t be affected by this change.

What other options do you have if not the GV? The D7 visa, aka the passive income visa, continues to be a popular visa route for non-Europeans. Portugal still wants to attract foreign investors. They are also introducing the new Digital Nomad visas, that allow remote workers with high monthly incomes (4x the minimum Portuguese salary - around 2800 EUR) to live and work in Portugal. There is however a big difference in these 2 visas compared with the GV. Both require you to move in to Portugal while the GV just requires you to stay or visit the country for a minimum of 7 days per year.

What do you think about these changes? Let us know in the comments. We’ll make sure to update you as soon as we find out more information about this.

Até já,

Mia and Rafael