Public declaration from the Portuguese Prime Minister on the Golden Visa Program

To keep you updated about the recent news about the Portuguese Golden Visa Program, we refer to the following news: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/portugal-likely-scrap-much-criticised-golden-visa-scheme-pm-says-2022-11-02/

These were declarations made on Nov. 2nd by the Prime Minister during the Web Summit. No one was expecting them, even because the rules changed recently, and the immigration law was updated two days ago to amend other available programs and rules, and nothing was said about the GV - which is currently active.

In the meantime, we already have been received some feedback from players in the market that this can be a maneuver to distract the public opinion from other situations, an opportunity to rebrand the Program or/and to anticipate the termination of the program which may happen in 3-4 years.

Nevertheless, these are all speculations, and we shall wait to receive some additional information. As part of PAIIR we already contacted the Government asking for urgent clarifications. So far, the program is active and running as usual.

Bearing this mind and regardless of the outcome, any amendments of the law have a vacatio legis (a period for the amendments to be in force) thus this will not happen one day to the other. This means that this situation is not affecting on going investments, pending applications and on boarding of Clients – our recommendation is to move forward with the process, as normal, have everything prepare to submit the GV application as soon as the investment is concluded.

As you can imagine, this situation is already spreading in the media so it´s expected that there will be a huge demand in the next months.

Vanessa Lima founder of VRL Legal & Co-founder of Prime Legal