Main changes to the Golden Visa Programme in Portugal

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After months (in fact years!) of suspense about the extent and impacts of the legal changes foreseen in Portugal's Golden Visa regime, Law No. 14/2021, of February 12nd was finally approved, which processed expressly with the modifications of this regime and its entry into force.

On one hand, these are good news, as it eliminates the uncertainties regarding the scope and beginning of legal changes in the Phone Number List  Golden Visa Program. On the other hand, the bad news is that it will soon become more expensive and difficult to request a residence permit for Investors in Portugal.

However, at this moment there is an excellent "window of opportunity" that the investor can safely take advantage of should he wish to go ahead with his Golden Visa, in which traditional values still apply and real estate investments in large urban centres such as Lisbon and Porto are accepted.



Check out the main changes to come and why you should take the opportunity to make your investment and apply for the Golden Visa as soon as possible in this article. A short history and legal changes For some years now, political pressure has grown in Portugal for the Government to promote changes and even the extinction of the Golden Visa Portugal Program. Without going further on the subject, the main reasons are access to housing in large urban centers and the promotion of foreign investment in the interior of the country.

In this context, on March 31st, 2020, the State Budget for the year 2020 was approved which, among other topics, authorized the Government to review the residence permit regime for investment, created in 2012 (Golden Visa).

In this way, it was foreseen, still for 2020, the amendment to the referred Legal Regime concerning the articles referring the obtaining of residence permit through investments in the country, highlighting the increase in the minimum values of the investments, as well as the delimitation of territories for the acquisition of properties that are covered and admitted to the Golden Visa concession application.

Impacts caused by COVID-19 The Government initially pointed the referred legal changes would take place until June of 2021. However, due to the current pandemic COVID-19, and the resulting social and economic crisis, there was no concrete progress in this regard and the changes were once again postponed.