Why does getting a Portugal residency permit by investment take so long? The angry applicants are suing the immigration authority.

The Portugal Golden Visa Program, a significant pathway to European Union residency and citizenship through investment, is always abuzz with news. Its popularity is evident in the constant updates and changes, making it a key player in the immigration landscape.

First of all, the entire program changed, and instead of the most popular real estate investment option, more and more wealthy foreigners are opting for the capital transfer structure. However, they cannot keep up with the elevated number of incoming applicants—and not only because the number of investors is increasing. The tricky part is that so many immigrants are arriving from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia that it is impossible to do the relevant administrative and due diligence processes.

Meanwhile, the new gossip is that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are investing in real estate to obtain EU residency.

To understand the problematic situation of Portuguese Immigration, the number of immigrants reached 9.8% of the entire population last year. More than 150,000 new applications for residency permits arrived only in 2023, the highest number ever in history. Moreover, the foreign population in Portugal has more than doubled since 2018. According to national and EU regulations, all applicants must be treated equally. There is no faster track for wealthy people in Portugal. Several investors have sued the state because of the long waiting times.

If the constantly increasing number of applicants is difficult to handle, the new migration Authority also has problems. The AIMA (Agência para a Integração Migrações e Asilo- Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) is a new organisation. Because the Portuguese government had to close the previous authority, the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service). The reasons are ugly and show deep problems in the legal system of the EU Member State. In 2020, three SEF officers beat an immigrant to death. Corruption cases surrounded the Golden Visa Program. Russian oligarchs, Brazilian money launderers and Chinese businessmen with opaque activities, among others, got their residency permits by bribing the government directly. During "Operation Labyrinth", the police arrested 11 people, including the heads of the immigration authority and the Institute of Registries and Notaries.

How can you evade the long processing time of the Portuguese Golden Visa Program?

If you want to live in Portugal, you will have to wait. However, suppose your objective is to get a residency permit in the European Union. In that case, the best you can do is contact us and discuss all the available structures in the EU, which can get you the European documents in a couple of months.
Contact us here for a free consultation and become a European quickly! 

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