2026 investment routes (real estate abolished)
Buying real estate no longer qualifies for the Golden Visa. The 2026 routes are:
- Fund — €500,000 (art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) vii): units of a non-real-estate collective investment undertaking constituted under Portuguese law, with a maturity of at least five years at the moment of investment and at least 60% of the investments placed in commercial companies headquartered in national territory. Capital is recoverable on exit (subject to fund performance).
- Cultural donation — €250,000 (€200,000 in low-density areas) (art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) vi); n.º 2–3): investment in or support for artistic production and the recovery or maintenance of cultural heritage. Non-recoverable. The low-density figure is not a separate amount in the law: art. 3.º n.º 2–3 allows the amounts to be cut by 20% in low-density territories — fewer than 100 inhabitants per km², or GDP per capita below 75% of the national average — so €250,000 × 0.8 = €200,000.
- Scientific research — €500,000 (art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) v): capital applied in research activities carried out by public or private scientific research institutions. Non-recoverable.
- Company / jobs: €500,000 to set up a company headquartered in Portugal creating five permanent jobs, or to reinforce the capital of an existing one creating at least five permanent jobs or maintaining at least ten jobs (five of them permanent) for at least three years (art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) viii); or the creation of at least 10 jobs with no capital minimum (al. ii).
Legal basis for the €500,000, €250,000 and €200,000 amounts, the 60% allocation and the job counts: Lei 23/2007, art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) ii), v), vi), vii), viii) and art. 3.º n.º 2–3 (as amended through Lei 62/2026) — consolidated text (PGDL), read on 22 September 2026; the passages relied on are kept verbatim in monitors/srccache/portugal_lei23_2007_20260922.md.
How to apply: steps, fees & timeline (2026)
The Golden Visa is investment-first: you complete the investment, then apply for residency through AIMA (the agency that replaced SEF). Here's the 2026 path.
Government fees (Portaria 307/2023 base amounts)
| Stage | Who pays it | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Reception and analysis (grant or renewal) | Each applicant, incl. family | €773.74 |
| Residence permit grant | Main applicant | €7,730.11 |
| Residence permit grant | Each reunited family member | €7,730.11 |
| Renewal, every 2 years | Main applicant | €3,865.79 |
| Renewal, every 2 years | Each reunited family member | €3,865.79 |
| Permanent residence grant | ARI holder or family member | €10,822.14 |
These are the base amounts in Portaria 307/2023 (13 October 2023), point 3 of its fee table, read on 10 October 2026 from the copy AIMA publishes. Article 3 updates them automatically each 1 March by the previous year’s mainland consumer price index excluding housing, so the amount on your 2026 payment slip (DUC) is higher than these figures. The analysis fee is charged on every grant and renewal request, so the calculator adds it to each renewal. Grant and renewal fees are split equally between AIMA and the Fundo para as Relações Internacionais. These government fees are separate from your investment and from lawyer/advisory fees.
How long does it take?
We state no processing time. The month figures this page used to print were elapsed times applicants report, not a deadline AIMA publishes, and we found no published AIMA service time for investment residence permits to cite instead. A complete file with source-of-funds evidence avoids requests for missing documents, which add time.
Documents to prepare
- Valid passport and your Portuguese NIF.
- Proof of the qualifying investment (fund subscription / donation receipt).
- Clear source-of-funds evidence (bank statements, sale/contract documents, tax records).
- Criminal record certificate from your country of residence (apostilled / legalised).
- Proof of health insurance valid in Portugal, and family relationship documents for dependents.
The May 2026 citizenship reform
Parliament approved a revised Nationality Law on 1 April 2026; it was promulgated on 3 May 2026 and published as Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio in Diário da República, 1.ª série n.º 95. It entered into force the day after publication, on 19 May 2026 (art. 8.º).
- Naturalisation extended from 5 years to 10 years of legal residence for most nationalities, and 7 years for nationals of EU member states and of Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) countries — art. 6.º n.º 1 al. b) of Lei 37/81 in the version republished with this law.
- Only time spent holding a valid residence title counts: art. 15.º n.º 1 defines legal residence by the title held, and the paragraph that let the clock start at the application date (art. 15.º n.º 4) was repealed by art. 5.º of the new law. Art. 15.º n.º 3 adds that separate periods are added together provided they fall inside a window of 6, 9 or 12 years (stateless, EU/CPLP, other nationals).
- Administrative procedures already pending when the law took effect are decided under the previous version of Lei 37/81 (art. 7.º n.º 2); everyone else follows the new timeline.
- The Golden Visa residency program itself is unchanged — only the citizenship timeline. Permanent residency at year 5 remains available.
AIMA has yet to publish the updated nationality regulation, and treatment of residency already accrued is contested. Verify with a lawyer.
The year-5 PR strategy
Because permanent residency is still reachable at 5 years and is independent of the longer citizenship clock, a common 2026 plan is: hold the fund to year 5, obtain PR, then redeem the fund to recover your capital while keeping residency rights, and continue toward citizenship at year 10. Stay requirement is light — roughly 7 days per year on average.
Common rejection & delay reasons
Real-world reasons Portuguese Golden Visa files stall or get refused.
- Still chasing the real-estate route. Property investment was removed as a qualifying route by Lei 56/2023. Only the €500,000 fund and the other non-property routes of art. 3.º n.º 1 al. d) remain.
- Fund is not Golden-Visa-eligible. Subscribing to a fund that is not a CMVM-regulated qualifying fund. Verify eligibility before transferring.
- Weak source-of-funds trail. Funds from third-party or company accounts without documentation cause suspension at AIMA.
- Criminal-record certificate not legalised. Missing apostille/legalisation or translation from your country of residence.
- Assuming citizenship at 5 years. The 2026 reform raised naturalisation to 10 years of legal residence (7 for EU/CPLP nationals).
Golden Visa document checklist (save your progress)
Tick each item as you gather it. Progress is saved in this browser — nothing is uploaded.
Sources and official references:
Portaria 307/2023 fee table (aima.gov.pt); Diário da República — Lei 23/2007 (ARI, consolidated text); Link correction of 21 September 2026: the address printed here before resolved to Lei 22-A/2007, the vehicle circulation tax code — the wrong law. It has been replaced with the consolidated Lei 23/2007 above. diariodarepublica.pt still does not answer our collector, so on 22 September 2026 the governing article was read instead from the PGDL consolidated text of Lei 23/2007 (amended through Lei 62/2026), with art. 90.º-A n.º 2 and Decreto Regulamentar 84/2007 art. 65.º-C read from Legispédia — a secondary compilation, not the official gazette, which is why the stay-day rule is labelled as such on this page. The passages relied on are kept verbatim in monitors/srccache/portugal_lei23_2007_20260922.md so the next check starts from the same text. Removed in that pass, for want of an official source: the 12–18 month and ~6 month processing times and the €25,000 legal-fee placeholder. Source gap: AIMA, the authority that administers the programme and publishes the route amounts and fee schedule, has been unreachable from our automated source checks since July 2026 (TLS failure on every aima.gov.pt path), so the route amounts on this page are carried against the legislation above rather than against AIMA’s own page. Re-checked on 22 August 2026 across two collection runs and twelve addresses — the AIMA fee, investment and immigrant-portal paths, the predecessor SEF site and its fee-table PDF, and the Diário da República pages for the governing instruments — and none returned readable fee text. On 10 October 2026 the fee table was restored from Portaria 307/2023 as published on aima.gov.pt; it carries 2023 base amounts that are indexed each 1 March, and the calculator adds them to the total labelled as base amounts. Verify the current amount on your DUC before paying. Last reviewed: October 10, 2026.
Lei n.º 56/2023 (which removed real-estate as a qualifying route);
Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio (Diário da República, 1.ª série n.º 95; in force 19 May 2026), read on 21 September 2026, which raised the naturalisation residency requirement to 10 years for most third-country nationals and 7 years for EU and CPLP nationals — art. 6.º n.º 1 al. b) of the republished Lei 37/81 — and counts only periods spent holding a valid residence title (art. 15.º). The Golden Visa investment routes themselves (mainly €500,000 qualifying funds) are unchanged by the nationality reform. Government and processing fees are estimates and change periodically; fund performance is not guaranteed and capital is at risk. This is an estimate, not legal, tax, or investment advice. Confirm with a licensed Portuguese immigration lawyer and a regulated fund advisor.