Can a non-European enter the Schengen area easily? Or will you also have to pay to become a citizen of an EU country?
That’s exactly what so-called Golden Visas are for – and Portugal is one of the countries that offers them. Anyone who invests at least €250,000 ($285,000) can first obtain a residence permit and later, if he wishes, can also apply for a Portuguese passport.
The problem is that the government has recently changed the rules, and many people who have been waiting for years for their promised residence permits are now planning to take legal action.
Golden visas – similar to the one US President Donald Trump has proposed for $1 million – are available in several EU countries, including Greece, Italy and Latvia. In exchange for an investment of €50,000 to €500,000, applicants are required to contribute to the economy of the host country. At least that’s the theory.
However, these programs have long been controversial because they can attract people with questionable backgrounds or even criminal ties – whom many would not want to see remain in their home country and, by extension, gain legal access to the EU.
A new house in Portugal
Portugal has been issuing Golden Visas since 2012. According to reports, some wealthy members of the Russian mafia and Chinese organized crime managed to obtain them. In addition, many investors poured their money into luxury real estate, helping to drive housing prices in Portugal’s major cities to shocking levels.
But there are other stories too.
Take Luke Strzygowski, for example. Four years ago, the 55-year-old American sold his house and moved to Portugal with his wife Kristin and their two daughters Amy and Kira. They invested €350,000 in a house near the city of Sintra, just north of the capital Lisbon – “it was all we had,” and applied for a Golden Visa.
“We wanted to get out of America. We wanted to give our girls a chance to live in a place that had less political pressure and was safer. Just a better environment for them to grow up in.”
After five years, they hoped to be eligible to apply for permanent residence – or even Portuguese citizenship – for themselves and their families.
“My 12-year-old daughter is already attending European universities, which are places she wants to go.”
Endless delays for residence permits
But things turned out very different. Strzegoski is still waiting for his initial, temporary residence permit — which the law says must be issued within 90 days of applying.
“I work in the solar energy industry. I still need to travel. There’s a conference every year in Munich. I can’t go there because of our illegal status in Europe,” explains Strzegowski.
As a result, the permanent residence permit they were promised – which can be granted five years after obtaining the initial permit – has also been pushed back. And the citizenship they had expected to be eligible for after five years will now take 10 years, as the current centre-right government has teamed up with the far-right Chega party to double the waiting period for naturalization for citizens of most non-EU countries.
According to immigration lawyer Madalena Monteiro, about 12,000 other golden visa applicants are in the same situation as the Americans.
Monteiro runs an agency that advises potential immigrants and helps them deal with Portugal’s notoriously slow bureaucracy.
“Many people feel they have been betrayed by the change in the law,” she says. “They want to take legal action against the state. We have already collected over 500 signatures from those affected.”
They argue that although the government is free to change the rules for obtaining citizenship, it is still bound by its own laws – which require Golden Visa applications to be processed within 90 days.
Instead, she says, processing time currently averages about five years.
As a result, a petition signed by 1,200 affected applicants has now been submitted to Portugal’s Justice Ombudsman. A class action lawsuit is expected to proceed before the administrative court along with individual civil claims for damages. If necessary, the applicants state that they are prepared to put their case forward before European or international institutions.
American investor Servette Tasman is furious, “You’re in a 90-minute football game. And you’re changing the rules of the game during the 90 minutes. You’re moving the goal posts.”
In late 2021, he invested €350,000 in two homes in the southern Portuguese city of Evora. “My aim was to become a European citizen so that I could work for a European company. I work in telecommunications.”
Under Portugal’s previous citizenship law, he would have become eligible in 2028.
He said, “According to my calculations, it’s now going to be 2037. In one night I lost nine years. Incredible. I don’t know what they’re smoking.”
New citizenship law has brought more tension in work
Tasman says that if he could do so, he would leave Portugal. But the money he invests cannot be taken out of the country until he qualifies for permanent residence. Due to new legislation, this won’t happen until 2030 – two years later than originally planned.
“Is this justice?” Tasman asks. “Even in a normal republic, the king would say it’s not fair.”
Not so, says Rui Armindo de Freitas, the Portuguese state secretary responsible for the issue.
According to de Freitas, the change in citizenship law has nothing to do with the Golden Visa program. He says the long waiting period for citizenship brings Portugal on par with other European countries.
When it comes to permanent residence, he insists that nothing has changed: Golden visa holders can still apply for permanent residence after five years.
He says the only change is that the waiting period for citizenship has been extended.
If applicants expected otherwise, de Freitas says, the fault lies with the agencies marketing the Golden Visa, not the government.
Court cases take years
“That’s simply not true,” counters immigration lawyer Gilda Pereira, who heads one of the agencies marketing the golden visa.
“The Portuguese government itself advertised the possibility of citizenship for Golden Visa holders in its consulates using promotional posters.”
She says those posters have been removed. “And now the government is trying to put the blame on us.”
De Freitas has a different explanation. “We inherited over one million unprocessed visa applications of all types from the previous government. We have now cleared 98% of that backlog, and from this point on, we will focus on overdue golden visa applications.”
Asked why the government missed the legal deadline of 90 days, de Freitas says: “We have limited resources and we have to prioritize.”
Still, the threat of legal action is unlikely to cause the Secretary of State any sleep. Portugal’s courts are known to be at least as slow as its immigration authorities, with cases often dragging on for years.
By the time the decision comes, many Golden Visa applicants will have completed the new waiting period for citizenship.
This piece was originally published in German.