How to use the Golden Visa to move to Portugal in 2025
Portugal has just been ranked joint third in Henley & Partners’ respected annual Global Residence Programme Index, which provides a comprehensive benchmarking of the world’s most important residence programmes. Portugal’s joint third placement highlights the success of the country’s ongoing efforts to welcome investors.
“Portugal welcomes investors with open arms,” explains Christina Hippisley, General Manager of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in the UK, which organises the Moving to Portugal Show and Seminars. “We’ve seen a growing appetite for this kind of investment migration in recent years, particularly as Portugal has refined its Golden Visa programme. The Golden Visa isn’t a financial play, it’s an investment play, and Portugal is benefitting from an influx of talent, entrepreneurial spirit and capital as a result.”
Chamber member and Portuguese law firm RME Legal explains that Portugal’s Golden Visa offers a wealth of benefits to investors and their families. For example, Golden Visa holders can live and work in Portugal and enjoy visa-free travel within the Schengen Area.
Or, if they prefer, Golden Visa holders can continue to live abroad (and thus be tax resident abroad); the minimum stay requirements for Golden Visa holders are to spend 14 days in the first two years in Portugal and then a total of 21 days during the following three-year periods.
Golden Visa holders can also apply for permanent residency after five years (the card is valid for five years) and/or then apply for Portuguese citizenship, by naturalisation.
The RME Legal team will be among the Chamber members present at the upcoming Moving to Portugal Show in London on 3rd April 2025. Free to enter (attendees must register online in advance), the event provides a wealth of information on moving to Portugal, with tax, visa and legal experts delivering presentations, seminars and panel discussions.
Experts are also available for one-to-one discussions with attendees, serving as a one-stop-advice-shop covering all aspects of making the move, from financial practicalities to lifestyle considerations such as healthcare and schooling.
Those interested in the Portuguese Golden Visa can find out about investment migration in depth at the Moving to Portugal Show and Seminars. In brief, the programme is open to those who invest capital of €500,000 or more into eligible Portuguese funds, research activities or job creation.
Eligibility also extends to those who invest €250,000 or more into the arts or national heritage reconstruction or renovation projects.
Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has recently introduced new procedures to speed up Golden Visa approvals. Electronic processing and biometrics will underpin a much more efficient application pipeline, while the timeframe for acquiring Portuguese nationality will begin from the date of the first payment in the process for all successful applications.
To find out more about Portugal’s Golden Visa, officially dubbed the Resident Permit for Investment Activity (ARI), and about investment migration to Portugal, individuals can register online to attend the Moving to Portugal Show at https://MTP-London2025.eventbrite.co.uk. The free event will take place at the Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel in central London on 3rd April 2025, and is open from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm.
