Portugal Golden visa program is the most successful program in Europe for obtaining the right of long-term residence for investment as it imposes low requirements for the duration of stay in Portugal (on average, only 7 days per year).
If you plan to live in Portugal, it will also be helpful to know that, as a tax resident of Portugal, you will be eligible for a special tax regime — the non-habitual resident regime (NHR) – which will grant you tax relief for most types of non-Portuguese income for a 10-year period.
Types of investments
The Golden visa program provides 8 investment options for interested applicants. The most popular among them are:
1) Investment of EUR 1,000,000 in Portugal in the form of:
– deposit to a Portuguese bank;
– contribution to the capital of an existing Portuguese company or incorporation of a new Portuguese company with one shareholder and payment of EUR 1,000,000 to its share capital;
– purchases of government securities.
2) Purchase of real estate for at leats EUR 500 000 (one object or more);
3) Opening a business in Portugal with creation of at least 10 employment positions.
The investment must be maintained for at least 5 years. The change of a specific investment is allowed only within one type.
Procedure
To apply for Goldenvisa, the main applicant must:
1) Decide on the type of investment;
2) Get his local tax number;
3) Open a local bank account;
4) Make an investment;
5) Submit a passport, proof of address, certificate of non-criminal record, as well as documents confirming the investment to Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) for pre-verification;
6) If approved by the SEF, submit the family documents as well;
7) Submit biometric data;
8) Wait for final approval from the SEF;
9) Pay the fee for issuing the resident card and collect it.
Timeframes
Pre-verification of the SEF documents of the main applicant takes 1 month. According to the deadline, the procedure for reviewing and approving documents for a Golden visa depends on the city of submission. In Lisbon, at the moment, the review period takes up to 9 months and the possibility of submitting biometric data is possible only next year. In smaller cities, the review period will be 4-5 months.
After 5 years, the owner of the Golden visa can apply for Portuguese citizenship, taking into account that he will pass the Portuguese language test at a level of at least A2 and fulfill other requirements of the program.
Non-habitual resident (NHR)
The use of the preferential income tax regime NHR will be available to individuals if they meet the following criteria:
1) A person has the right to reside in Portugal;
2) The person was not a tax resident of Portugal in the previous 5 years;
3) Has a place of residence in Portugal (either owned or rented);
4) The person is registered in the tax service of Portugal;
5) And applied to use the NHR regime.
The regime allows for a fixed tax of 20% (instead of a progressive rate of 14.5% to 48%) on income from employment in Portugal, and also exempts foreign income (in particular, wages, dividends, rental income and capital gains) from local tax, provided that they are properly taxed in the source country. The term of use of the preferential regime is 10 years. You can read more about some other special tax regimes for individuals in Europe here.
Before moving to Portugal in order to use this regime, we strongly recommend that you consult a tax specialist about each specific type of your foreign income.
