Portugal Golden Visa

The Portugal Golden Visa is an immigrant investor program by the government of Portugal that granted residency in Portugal to people who invested in properties worth at least €500,000 or created 10 jobs in Portugal.

Golden Visa processing backlogs
Despite being advertised as a fast route to a residence card, processing of Golden Visas is extremely slow with many investors left without a residency card despite waiting multiple years after applying. As of 2023, the backlog would take an estimated 7 years, or until 2030 to be processed.

This has led investors to file lawsuits to hold the Portuguese Foreigners and Borders Service to the legally mandated 90 day processing time. However such lawsuits only move the winner to the front of the line and do not change the overall backlog. As of beginning of May 2024 around 50 lawsuits were filed per day. As of 10 May 2024 there were 7,500 lawsuits pending in total, which Porto's mayor Rui Moreira described as "a scandal".

Golden Visa lawsuit backlogs
Despite lawsuits being advertised as a way to get the residence card within a reasonable time, there are now so many lawsuits that the courts themselves are paralyzed by a lawsuit backlog, and wait time for a lawsuit to be heard is steadily growing. As of end of May 2024 the courts were receiving around 100 new lawsuits per day.

History
The scheme began in 2012, and in May 2020 has been credited with investments of over 5.2 billion euros from over 20,000 persons (8,736 investors and 14,936 family members).

In August 2019, according to SEF, Chinese investment in Portugal under the scheme was down during the first eight months of 2019 a decrease of 15.7 percent from the same period of 2018. Investment by Brazilian nationals under the same scheme was up by almost 42 percent in 2019. Spain and Greece have programs comparable to Portugal's Gold Visa program.

Eligibility
The eligibility criteria to obtain a Portugal Golden Visa included:
 * A Capital Transfer with a value equal to or above €1,5 million
 * The creation of at least 10 jobs
 * The purchase of real estate property of at least €500,000 or above
 * The purchase of real estate property, with construction dating back more than 30 years or located in urban regeneration areas, for refurbishing, for a total value equal to or above €350,000
 * Capital transfer with a value equal to or above €500,000 for investing in research activities conducted by public or private scientific research institutions involved in the national scientific or technologic system
 * Capital transfer with a value equal to or above €250,000 for investing in artistic output or supporting the arts
 * Capital transfer of the amount of €500,000, or higher, for the acquisition of units of investment funds or venture capital fund of funds dedicated to the capitalization of companies, capital injected under the Portuguese legislation, whose maturity, at the moment of the investment, is, at least, of five years and, at least, 60% of the investments is realized in commercial companies with head office in national territory
 * Capital transfer of the amount of €500,000, or higher, for constitution of a commercial society with head office in the national territory, combined with the creation of five permanent working jobs, or for the reinforcement of the share capital of a commercial society with head office in national territory, already existing, with the creation or keeping of working jobs, with a minimum of five permanent jobs, and for a minimum period of three years.

Portuguese, European Union and European Economic Area nationals are not eligible for the ARI / Golden Visa scheme.