A Portuguese Golden Visa brings many attractive advantages for high-net-worth individuals. The scheme is Europe’s most successful and most sought after visa programme. With so much information about it online, it can be difficult to sort out everything, so we compiled all the information you need to apply.

Local agencies and lawyers can guide the investor through the process, facilitating every step of the way and most of it can be done remotely. Once the applicant chooses the type of investment to make, the first step is to gather the following documents to move on with the application:

• Identification documents;
• Proof of address;
• Proof of employment or source of income
• TIN – Tax number document

With all of this on hand, the applicant or their lawyer will issue a NIF (Portugal’s taxpayer number) and open a local bank account. Once the bank account has been opened and the investment is complete, the application can go through.

After pre-approval of the online application, the Golden Visa investor should make an appointment to collect biometric data, signatures and pictures for the final approval and issuance of the residence card. That’s the first moment in which they have to be in Portugal.

If it’s the applicant’s choice to also request the visa to their family, it can be done along with process, presenting documents that prove family ties, like marriage and birth certificates, each family member’s clean criminal records, and in some cases proof of economic dependance.

The Golden Visa residence permit is valid for 2 years, during which the applicant has to spend a total of 14 days in Portugal. Every two years, the permit has to be renewed and the applicants presence in Portugal is necessary for another biometrics appointment.

At the end of 5 years with the residence permit, the investor and family can apply for either permanent residence or citizenship. While permanent residence process is faster, the citizenship provides the applicant and their family a Portuguese passport.

With more than 11.000 investors and 18.000 family members visa issued since 2012, teams located in Portugal have years of experience and expertise on going through the process and guiding the applicants.