Portugal Citizenship Timeline Reduced

The Portuguese Immigration department (SEF) have announced that the necessary period of legal residence required for citizenship applicants will be reduced from 6 years to 5. The revised ‘’Nationality by naturalization’’ legislation makes the programme even more attractive for international investors whose long term goal is to gain a Portuguese Passport and Citizenship.

The Golden Visa programme in Portugal allows investors to purchase property from a minimum of €350,000 in return for a residency permit. Once 5 years of residency has been fulfilled it is then possible to apply for a Portuguese passport through the Nationality by Naturalization programme. Legally, ‘’residency’’ is defined as spending a minimum of 7 days per year in the country and being registered with the Portuguese Tax authorities. Citizenship applicants must also demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language and have a clear criminal record. The requirements for citizenship are much more favourable when compared with other EU residency programmes, where usually a longer period of residence is required.

SEF have made a number of positive changes over the last year and processing times for the Golden Visa have improved dramatically since 2017. They recently reported that in most cases, processing is now taking approximately 90 days from the date of submission for first time applicants and roughly 60 days for renewals. At the last official count (published on June 30^th 2018) there has been a total of 6,369 Golden Visa applications processed since 2012. This is testament to how popular the programme has been and is why La Vida foresee it remaining as a firm favourite amongst international investors.