Portugal has refused a total of 677 golden visas for investment since the beginning of the scheme until last august, said SEF, the immigration and borders agency, in an exclusive interview to CIP Journal.
Portugal first launched the Golden visa scheme in Oct 2012, and named it gold visas (vistos gold in portuguese) for the residence permits granted under investment activity. Since then it has become biggest and successful schemes in the world, becoming role model for other countries.
From just two residence permits granted in 2012, the Portuguese Golden visa (PGV) scheme went on to raise €4.8bn euros and issuing 7885 residence permits for pursuing investment activities (ARI) according to the latest golden visa report.
The PGV scheme remains most popular with real estate
Portugal has further simplified golden visa scheme, recently making it easier and faster for residence permit extensions, exempting applying for criminal record certificate. From now on, the criminal record certificate will be requested electronically between authorities, and applicants only need to submit authorization. This benefit is extended to Brazilians who are exempted from consular certification for criminal record certificate. Brazilan’s are the second in table after chinese investing in PGV scheme and lately there has been a big spike in interest from Brazilians applying for PGV.
Here is our interview with SEF borders and migration authority
1. Please provide us some background on Golden visa scheme in Portugal?
The Residence Permit for Investment Activity (ARI) comes from a legal framework which entered into force on October 8, 2012. It was developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Department of Consular Affairs and the Portuguese Trade and Investment Agency (AICEP), and the Ministry of Internal Administration through the Immigration and Borders Service (SEF).
2. Have you made any recent changes or amendments to portuguese golden visa scheme?
The ARI Programme takes place in accordance with the legal framework in force, which last amendment was taken on September 2018.
3. What is the processing time for golden visa applications?
Relevant information on the ARI Programme is available at SEF’s Website. It is important to refer that the processing time depends, many times, on the submission of all the necessary documentation by the applicants. In some cases, subsequent notifications for the submission of necessary documents also establish different response times. The application process is submitted online, at SEF’s Website (http://ari.sef.pt), only the biometric data collection is done through face-to-face service at a SEF’s bureau.
4. How citizenships granted for golden visa investors through naturalization?
It is also important to clarify that the Portuguese Residence Permit for Investment Activity Programme does not provide the direct right to apply for Portuguese citizenship. The holder of ARI residence card can only apply for Portuguese citizenship, by naturalization, providing all the requirements set out by the Nationality Act, including being a legal resident in national territory at least for 6 years.
You can find the Statistic Map about Residence Permits for investment activity in Portugal also at SEF Website.
5. How many Hong Kong nationals received golden visas?
About the Hong Kong and Americans nationals, it is important to highlight that the Hong Kong nationals are included in SEF’s statistics as “China’s nationals”, by which it is not possible to make available a statistical treatment of that administrative region.
6.How many Americans received golden visas?
Since the beginning of the Program in October 2012 till August 2019, 128 residence permits granted to USA nationals.
7. How many UK nationals received golden visas as a result of Brexit which is around the corner?
Portuguese, EU and EEE nationals, like the UK nationals, are not eligible for the ARI Programme. However, the last figures of 2018 show that the residents from the United Kingdom in Portugal increased almost 18% when compared with 2017. The United Kingdom represents now the 5th community of foreign nationals living in Portugal (26.445), followed by the Chinese one (25.357). The “Brexit effect” is, for sure, an important variable to consider in this data analysis.
9. How many applications have been refused?
Until last August, 677 requests for Residence Permits for investment activity were refused.
