Portugal Golden Visa
A renewable EU residence permit with a genuine path to citizenship at year five, on an investment fund route rather than real estate.
Portugal Golden Visa Overview
Portugal's Autorização de Residência para Investimento (ARI), known internationally as the Golden Visa, has operated since 2012 as one of Europe's longest-standing residence-by-investment programmes. Since real estate purchases were removed from the qualifying investment list in October 2023, the fund investment route has become the programme's primary path for capital-based applicants.
Responsibility for the programme moved in 2024 from Portugal's former immigration service (SEF) to a newly created agency, AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo), which now manages the entire application pipeline through its own online portal.
Benefits of Portugal Golden Visa
- A renewable residence permit with visa-free travel across Europe's Schengen Area
- Minimal physical presence requirement — an average of just 7 days per year is sufficient to maintain the permit
- A defined path to permanent residency or Portuguese citizenship after five years of the permit, subject to separate naturalisation requirements including a Portuguese language test
- Spouse and dependent children may be included on the same application
- No requirement to actively manage or work within the qualifying fund
Requirements
The main applicant must be at least 18 years of age, hold no criminal record, and complete a qualifying capital transfer:
1. Qualifying Fund Investment
A capital transfer of at least €500,000 into a non-real-estate collective investment undertaking constituted under Portuguese law. The fund must have a minimum maturity of five years at the time of investment, with at least 60% of its capital invested in companies headquartered in Portugal.
Procedure
The application is submitted electronically to AIMA. In parallel, legal representatives schedule an in-person appointment for the investor and any family members to submit biometric data and supporting documents.
AIMA reviews the submitted file within approximately six months of the biometric appointment. Once approved, the investor pays the applicable residence-permit-card fee, and physical cards are typically issued within a further six months of the biometric submission date.
Fees & Costs
Beyond the €500,000 fund investment itself, applicants pay AIMA processing fees per applicant and dependant, plus separate legal and fund-selection advisory fees. Indohill discloses the full statutory and legal fee breakdown for this programme, and every other programme we track, in the Global Matrix Marketplace fee breakdown tool before you commit to anything.
Real Estate Is No Longer a Qualifying Route
Effective 7 October 2023, direct residential real estate purchase was removed from Portugal's Golden Visa qualifying investment list. Indohill tracks the fund investment route specifically because it remains genuinely open; any advisor still presenting a straightforward property-purchase Golden Visa route for Portugal is describing a version of the programme that no longer exists.
Background & Legal Considerations
Portugal's Golden Visa programme was introduced under Lei n.º 23/2007 (the Foreigners Act), specifically Article 90-A, and launched in 2012. The legal framework has been amended several times since, most significantly the October 2023 removal of residential real estate as a qualifying route, and the 2024 transfer of administrative responsibility from SEF to AIMA — which is why Indohill re-verifies this programme's current qualifying routes before every client engagement rather than relying on an older summary.
Why Indohill Advises This Program
- A private, advisor-reviewed intake — every application is scoped by a person, with the current fund-only reality explained clearly rather than an outdated real-estate route left unchallenged
- Coordination with independently licensed Portuguese immigration counsel and fund-selection advisors, vetted against Indohill's Certified Partner Network standards before any introduction is made
- Full statutory and legal fee disclosure through the Global Matrix Marketplace before you commit to a specific fund
- The same 5-phase advisory methodology Indohill applies across every program, from initial audit through lifelong governance and renewal support
Portugal Golden Visa FAQ
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