Portugal tackles golden visa delays with new fast-track system

According to its fresh article, Bloomberg reveals that Portugal is taking steps to address delays in its popular golden visa programme by shifting to a more efficient digital system. 

Portugal is accelerating the processing of golden visa applications after delays have started to damage the reputation of one of Europe’s top residency-by-investment programs. According to a plan seen by Bloomberg News, Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum will transition from a paper-based application system to a digital one. Currently, between 45,000 and 50,000 golden visa applications are awaiting review, as reported by AIMA, and applicants will now be able to transfer their applications to the online system.

Applicants to Portugal’s residency-by-investment program are required to invest locally, rather than simply purchasing real estate. This approach may be creating a new type of safe-haven asset for now.

“This is good news for investors,” said Bettino Zanini, an immigration lawyer at Lisbon-based FiO Legal, who recently took part in several group meetings with AIMA to discuss the plan.

The move aims to help clear a backlog of pending applications. It follows legal action from dozens of investors attempting to push AIMA to process their applications more quickly. Some have waited years to schedule a mandatory biometric appointment with the immigration agency, where personal data such as fingerprints is collected.

Under the new system, AIMA will automatically schedule biometric appointments for candidates 30 to 90 days after they submit their online applications, and it will accept untranslated documents in English, Spanish, and French, according to Zanini, the immigration lawyer. Portugal’s golden visa program, which requires participants to spend just seven days per year in the country, has generated more than 7 billion euros ($7.2 billion) since its inception in 2012. The majority of applicants come from China, Brazil, and the US. The sharp increase in immigration following the Covid-19 pandemic has led to significant delays in visa processing.

Since 2018, the foreign population in Portugal has more than doubled, now reaching a record one million, or about 10 per cent of the total population. While Portugal ended a program in 2023 that allowed golden visas through real estate purchases, non-Europeans can still apply for expedited residency through several other methods, including a minimum 500,000 euro-investment in qualifying funds.

Spain has announced plans to end its golden visa program in April, while Greece and Italy are among the other EU countries offering golden visas to non-European nationals.

By Naila Huseynova