1300 Golden visa applications pending in Portugal

Portugal has been receiving about 100 applications per month on average and currently SEF revealed that about 1300 golden visa applications are pending, for missing documentation. The investors are waiting for such visas. Currently Portugal requires 350K euros business or property investment to qualify

SEF spokesperson said that “there has been an extraordinary level of recovery, as about 1,300 requests from investors at national level are pending, many of which are due to a lack of essential documents or the need to clarify or update them, or because of a lack of biometric data collection.”

By the end of last year there were about 6000 pending applications, according to SEF.

Portugal reduced the time required for citizenship  to 5 years from 6 years.  It only applies to those who come from countries such as Brazil who already speak portuguese language.  Law permits golden visa applicants from other countries to apply for permanent resident status and also citizenship after six years.

The number of South Africans applying for golden visa scheme in Portugal jumped up in 2018, while the number of Lebanese declined. Over 500 applications from Brazil originated since 2012.

Until Q2 2018, 816 residence permits were issued and additional 1478 family permits, according to latest statistics

The number of visas declined in 2015, by 50% due to the corruption scandal in Portugal.

Golden visas have boosted property prices in Lisbon and other cities, with 94% of visas issued for property investment. The housing prices in Portugal up by 12% in 2018.

Houses sales in Q1 2018 alone  exceeded the 5.4 billion euros, 25.7% more than in the first quarter of 2017, according to Statistics Portugal.  A total of 40,716 dwellings were traded in the first three months of 2018, 15.7% more than the number of transactions recorded for the same period in 2017.

Source: theportugalnews.com