Citizeo
Pathway

Portugal Golden Visa

Portugal Residency
Pathway overview

At a glance

Portugal's Golden Visa is for applicants making an accepted investment, now focused on routes such as qualifying funds, cultural support, research, or business activity rather than ordinary home purchases. It generally requires source-of-funds evidence, maintaining the investment, and standard background checks.

Type
Investment residence
Investment fit
Investors using a qualifying non-real-estate investment route
Core requirements
Qualifying investment, source of funds, and clean background checks
What to know
Real estate is no longer an eligible Golden Visa investment route
Duration
Initial residence card is generally 2 years.
Renewal / path
Can support permanent residence after 5 years; ordinary citizenship is now generally 7-10 years under the 2026 nationality law.

Summary

Portugal's investment residence permit, the ARI often called the Golden Visa, is for non-EU/EEA/Swiss/Andorran citizens who maintain one qualifying investment. New real-estate-purchase and unrestricted capital-transfer applications closed in October 2023.

The current routes are job creation, research funding, cultural support, a qualifying non-real-estate collective investment vehicle, or a qualifying company capitalization and jobs project. None may be directed, directly or indirectly, to real-estate investment.

Pathway fit check

Eligibility

The current qualifying investments are:

You must maintain the investment as required, prove lawful source and transfer of funds, satisfy criminal-record and security checks, and complete AIMA biometrics.

What This Route Allows

The permit allows residence and work in Portugal, short Schengen travel, and family reunification without the general two-year sponsor wait. The initial temporary ARI is valid for two years; the special renewal cycle is generally two years. The minimum stay is seven days in the first year and 14 days in each subsequent two-year period.

After five years, qualifying holders can seek the special permanent ARI. Legal residence can also support nationality, but the current ordinary naturalization period is seven years for EU/CPLP citizens and ten years for most other citizens, with additional language, civic, security, and support requirements.

What This Route Is Not

It is not citizenship by investment, an approval guarantee, or a promise of tax residence or non-residence. Purchasing a home, investing in a real-estate fund, or transferring money to a bank account is not a current new-application route. Existing pre-October-2023 cases have transitional renewal rules and should be reviewed separately.

Next Steps

  1. Select one statutory route and obtain independent legal, financial, and regulatory due diligence.
  2. Confirm that the investment has no prohibited direct or indirect real-estate objective.
  3. Obtain a Portuguese tax number and complete any banking and entity setup actually needed for that route.
  4. Execute and document the investment, jobs, lawful source of funds, and required holding period.
  5. File through AIMA's ARI portal, attend biometrics, maintain the investment and minimum stays, and renew through AIMA's current channel.
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Sources