Portugal Speeds Up Golden Visa Processing After Long Delays

Portugal is expediting Google visa applications by transitioning from a paper-based system to a digital application method to clear a backlog of 45,000 to 50,000 cases. This initiative will include automatic scheduling of biometric appointments within 30 to 90 days. The program has raised over € 7 billion since 2012.

Portugal is speeding up processing times for golden visa applications after long delays began to tarnish the image of one of Europe's most popular residency by-investment programs. According to a copy of the plan, Portugal's Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum has informed potential investors that it will replace its paper-based application system with a digital one. Data provided by AIMS showed that between 45,000 and 50,000 golden visa applications are currently awaiting review, and candidates can now migrate their applications to the online system.

"This is good news for investors," said Bettino Zanini, an immigration lawyer at Lisbon-based FiO Legal who recently participated in several group meetings with AIMA to discuss the plan. The move is intended to help clear a backlog of pending cases. It occurred after dozens of investors took legal action to force AIMA to move faster with their applications. Some have waited for years to schedule a mandatory biometric appointment with the immigration agency in which fingerprints and other personal data are collected.

Under the new system, AIMA will automatically schedule biometric appointments 30 to 90 days after candidates complete their online applications and accept untranslated documents in English, Spanish, and French, according to Zanini, the immigration lawyer. Portugal's golden visa by investment program, which only requires participants to spend about seven days per year in the country, has raised more than EUR 7 billion since it was created in 2012. The majority of participants are Chinese, Brazilian and US nationals. A sharp rise in immigration flows after the COVID-19 pandemic led to long delays in processing visa applications. Since 2018, the foreign population in Portugal has more than doubled and is now at a record one million people, a tenth of the total population. While Portugal abolished a program in 2023 that offered golden visas through real estate purchases, non-Europeans can still apply for fast-track residency through various options, including a minimum EUR 500,000 investment in eligible funds. Spain has said it plans to end its golden visa program in April. Greece and Italy are among the other EU countries that offer golden visas to non-European nationals.

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