Foreigners Hurry to Apply for Portuguese Golden Visas After Govt’s Decision to Abolish This Program

Portugal’s Prime Minister last month announced that the country would abolish its Residency by Investment Program (RIP) as part of efforts to address the housing crisis, as rents continue to soar, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Head of Arton Capital, Armand Arton, which helps persons acquire a second residency or citizenship in Portugal through investment, said that his first firm had experienced a surge of a total of 50 per cent in requests following Portugal’s PM announcement.

At the same time, Nuri Katz, from another advisers firm, Apex Capital Partners, told Reuters that as soon as you put a deadline on something, it gets people rushing.

“There’s absolutely nothing as good as a deadline in this business,” Katz pointed out.

In addition, the decision of Portugal regarding abolishing the Golden Visa Program has been considered populist by both Arton and Katz.

“He (Costa) is just trying to … show that he’s doing something about the housing prices,” Katz pointed out, while Arton said: “I have seen a lot of PMs doing this kind of messaging for electoral votes.”

Portugal’s Golden Visas allow wealthy foreign investors to acquire residency in this country in exchange for financial investment.

However, following reports that the scheme allows foreigners to acquire residency in an unlawful way as well, lead Portugal to terminate the program, despite the fact that it brought over €654.2 million in financial contribution to the country last year.

The data provided by the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) revealed that as of 1,281 Residence Permits for Investments (ARI) were granted by authorities in Portugal last year.

SEF’s data noted that the highest number of this kind of visas had been granted for a period from June until December, or 155 and 151, respectively, while fewer golden visas were issued in March (73), August (77) as well as July (80).

Still, authorities in Portugal decided to shut down the scheme after being urged many times to take such a step. In addition, the EU Commission called on all European countries offering Golden Visa programs to terminate them as soon as possible.

The Portuguese Association of Residental Tourism and Resorts (APR) recently noted that the end of the Residency by Investment scheme could lead to the suspension of investment of more than €600 million.

Portugal is not the only country that recently took such a decision; Ireland also abolished its Golden Visa program last month.