Portugal Golden Visa in 2026: what is left after the reforms

Status in September 2026: open, but a different program

Portugal's Golden Visa, officially the Autorização de Residência para Investimento (ARI), is in force in 2026. The regime has operated since 8 October 2012, applications are filed with the migration agency AIMA through the online ARI portal, and the investment residence permit itself is set out in Article 90-A of Foreigners Law 23/2007. As of that date there is no official decision to close the program as a whole.

But this is no longer the program that was marketed before 2023. Three changes alter the calculation for any investor:

• Real estate no longer qualifies. Since 7 October 2023 no new applications are accepted for buying or renovating property or for a plain capital transfer, and the remaining routes may not direct money into real estate, directly or indirectly.
• Citizenship is twice as far away. Since 19 May 2026 naturalization for nationals of countries outside the EU and the Portuguese-speaking community CPLP requires 10 years of legal residence instead of 5, counted from the date the first residence card is issued rather than from the application date.
• Backlogs. In practice the path from filing to a residence card took between one and three years in 2024-2026, and longer for some applicants stuck in older queues.

What has not changed: the minimum stay of 7 days in the first year and 14 days in each later two-year period, Schengen travel with the residence card, family inclusion and the option to apply for permanent residence after 5 years. Still, the rules changed three times in three years, and political risk belongs in the decision too.

What changed in 2023-2026

Who the Portugal Golden Visa suits and who it does not

It suits people who want a backup EU residence permit without relocating, have a planning horizon of 10 years or more, and can lock €500,000 into a Portuguese fund for 5 years or longer, or give €250,000 to a cultural project with no return. It works for families who want the option to move at any time and for those planning their children's education in Portugal.

It does not suit:

• people who want to buy a flat and get residence for it - that route is closed in Portugal;
• people who need an EU passport in 5-6 years - it is now 10 years from the card plus the wait for the card itself;
• people who need status quickly - AIMA queues are measured in months and years, not weeks;
• people who actually plan to live in Portugal - the D7 and D8 visas are cheaper for relocation, and residence counts toward citizenship under the same rules;
• Russian citizens without EU residence who are counting on the fund route - see the sanctions section below.

Investor requirements

Investment routes and amounts

Low-density areas are defined by Ordinance 208/2017: fewer than 100 inhabitants per km² or GDP per capita below 75% of the national average. By law the 20% reduction applies to the research and cultural routes and to the 10-jobs route. For the cultural route that would give €200,000, but the AIMA page states €220,000, so confirm the exact figure with GEPAC before transferring money.

Since 2023 most investors have chosen the fund route. It is not a guaranteed product: units are illiquid until the fund matures, funds charge management and performance fees, and supervision by the CMVM regulator means oversight of the rules, not a guarantee that you get your money back. Before subscribing, check the fund's CMVM registration, its lifespan, the actual portfolio and whether the manager will issue the ARI compliance declaration that AIMA requires.

The law also requires all investment routes to be assessed every two years for their impact on science, culture, foreign investment and employment. That is not a closure but a mandatory review every two years.

Government fees and real costs

AIMA fees for the Golden Visa are among the highest of any EU investment program. The 2026 AIMA fee table has two columns: a standard rate and a rate with a 25% reduction for applications filed through a digital channel. Which one applies to your filing is shown on the DUC payment document the portal generates.

At the standard rate the first permit costs one person €9,261.70 and each renewal €5,053.10. For a family of four, the initial fees alone exceed €37,000.

On top of the fees: support from Murblz specialists together with a partner in Portugal (portal filings are usually handled by a representative), apostilles and sworn translations, a NIF tax number and bank account, health insurance, fund fees and trips for biometrics and renewals. These vary, so we do not quote averages; Murblz specialists calculate them after reviewing the documents for the specific route and family.

Process and timeline

Since 11 September 2026 Law 62/2026 has set a general decision deadline for residence permit applications of 90 days, extendable by 30 days. The rule applies without prejudice to other deadlines in the law, and in 2026 there is no evidence it has shortened ARI waits yet. When a case stalls, applicants go to the administrative court to compel AIMA to decide; we covered how such lawsuits work and what is changing in the courts in our article on lawsuits against AIMA.

The receipt for a renewal application works as a residence card for 60 days and can be extended, so filing renewals on time matters even with backlogs.

Required documents

The core package on the AIMA list is the same for all routes:

• a valid passport;
• proof of lawful entry and stay in Portugal;
• health insurance for the full term of the permit with a renewal option, or proof of coverage by the national health service;
• a criminal record certificate from your country of nationality and any country where you lived for more than a year, issued no more than 3 months before filing and translated into Portuguese;
• a tax number from your country of nationality or tax residence;
• the official application form with consent to a check of the Portuguese criminal register;
• a sworn declaration that you will meet the amount and the 5-year holding period;
• certificates of no debt to the Portuguese tax authority and social security, issued no more than 45 days earlier;
• the receipt for the review fee.

Investment documents come on top: a declaration from a Portuguese bank confirming the actual transfer, then route-specific papers. For a fund, a certificate of unencumbered unit ownership and a manager's declaration on the fund's maturity, capitalization plan and 60% Portuguese company allocation. For research, a declaration from the research institution. For culture, a GEPAC declaration. For company and jobs routes, a commercial registry certificate, the share acquisition contract and employment contracts. Files are uploaded as PDFs of up to 4 MB each.

Documents from Russia, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries need an apostille or consular legalization and a sworn Portuguese translation. Certificates expire quickly, so the order in which you obtain them matters as much as the package itself.

Family

Family members can file at the same time as the investor, but their applications are decided only after the main one is approved. The AIMA list covers:

• a spouse;
• children aged 17 or under, and dependent children who lack legal capacity;
• dependent unmarried children aged 18 to 25 who are studying;
• dependent parents of the investor or spouse;
• minor siblings under the investor's guardianship by a decision recognized in Portugal.

Since 23 October 2025 most foreigners can bring their family only after holding a permit for 2 years. The law makes an express exception for ARI families, so they can be included straight away. Each family member pays the same issuance and renewal fees as the investor.

On children born in Portugal: under the new nationality law, a child of foreign parents can, as a rule, acquire Portuguese citizenship by birth only if one parent had been legally resident for at least 5 years at the time of birth. The former shorter period no longer applies. More on the Portuguese citizenship by birth page.

Taxes for Golden Visa holders

A residence permit alone does not make you a Portuguese tax resident. You become one if you spend more than 183 days in the country in any 12-month period, or have a home there in conditions that suggest you intend to keep it as your habitual residence. With 7-14 days a year, most ARI holders remain non-residents for Portuguese tax purposes and pay tax in their country of residence, while Portugal taxes only their Portuguese-source income.

If you relocate and become resident, Portugal taxes worldwide income. Under the Personal Income Tax Code (CIRS) for 2026, the progressive income tax scale runs from 12.5% to 48%, with an additional solidarity rate of 2.5% on income above €80,000 and 5% above €250,000. Dividends, interest and capital gains are generally taxed at a special 28% rate. The old NHR regime is closed to new residents. It was replaced by IFICI, a 20% rate on income from qualifying activities for 10 years, but it is designed for specialists, researchers and staff of innovative companies, not passive investors.

Rates and property taxes in detail are on the Portugal taxes page, and country comparisons in taxes by country.

Path to permanent residence and citizenship after the 2026 reform

Permanent residence. After 5 years an ARI holder can apply for permanent residence. The Foreigners Law requires 5 years of temporary residence, no sentences over one year in the last 5 years, means of subsistence, accommodation and basic Portuguese. ARI holders receive a special permanent investor permit that is not cancelled for long absences under the general rules. The fee is €11,786.70 at the standard rate. It is widely believed that the investment no longer has to be held once permanent residence is granted; Murblz specialists check this for your route before you exit a fund.

EU long-term resident status is a different status. It requires 5 years of actual continuous residence, which is practically out of reach with 7-14 days a year.

Citizenship. Organic Law 1/2026 changed the essentials:

• 10 years of legal residence for nationals of countries outside the EU and CPLP, 7 years for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals;
• the wait for the first card no longer counts: the 2024 rule counting residence from the application date was repealed, and the clock starts when the first permit is issued;
• residence periods can be added up if, for non-EU and non-CPLP nationals, they fall within a 12-year window;
• instead of a single language exam, proof of knowledge of the language, culture, history and national symbols, of citizens' rights and duties and of Portugal's political organization, a solemn declaration of adherence to the rule of law and means of subsistence;
• revised criminal record criteria and broader security criteria, including a requirement not to be subject to UN or EU sanctions.

Citizenship applications filed before the law took effect on 19 May 2026 are decided under the old 5-year rules. Everyone else, including people who got ARI in 2020-2022 and had not yet applied, is fully subject to the new periods.

Two caveats. First, the format of the new tests is set by the nationality regulation, which the government was due to update within 90 days of the law's publication. As of writing we have not found a published text, so check the level and format of the exams before filing; the language benchmark remains A2. Second, the law speaks of legal residence under any residence title, and AIMA still lists naturalization as a right of ARI holders, but the new law puts the emphasis on effective residence. There is no practice yet on new applications from ARI holders with minimal presence.

Realistic arithmetic for a CIS national applying for ARI in 2026: 1-3 years to the card plus 10 years of residence means 11-13 years before you can apply for citizenship, plus the time to decide the application itself. Portugal allows dual citizenship; what your own country's law says is covered in our article on dual citizenship, and where the Portuguese passport ranks is in passports of the world.

Risks, refusals and the uncomfortable truth

• Political risk. In 2023-2026 Portugal removed real estate, rewrote the family reunification rules and doubled the time to citizenship. Some investors are trying to challenge the new rules, including through the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman, but in 2026 the law applies in full.
• AIMA backlogs. Years of waiting are now years that do not count toward citizenship. Renewals also take time and attention to deadlines.
• Capital risk. A fund can lose money, exiting before maturity is usually impossible, and selling units early removes the basis for the permit. The research and cultural routes are money you do not get back.
• Refusal and non-renewal. Grounds in the law include a criminal sentence over one year, a Schengen entry ban, tax and social security debts, insufficient stay, exiting the investment before 5 years, and false statements or forged documents. Being placed on an EU sanctions list is a ground for cancelling the permit.
• Russian and Belarusian citizens. After February 2022 SEF stopped processing applications from Russian citizens; in practice processing resumed in 2024 after court rulings, and applications from people not on the sanctions list are now accepted. But EU Regulation 833/2014 bans selling Russian nationals and residents of Russia units in funds providing exposure to certain securities (Article 5f) and restricts accepting deposits from them above €100,000 (Article 5b). The exception covers EU nationals and holders of a temporary or permanent residence permit in an EU member state. So for a Russian citizen without European residence the fund route is often closed in practice, and any route starts with checking whether the bank and fund will accept the money. A second passport lifts these restrictions only if it is issued by an EU country, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, so Murblz specialists check the route for dual nationals before filing. Without an EU passport or permit, the UAE grants Russians residence for a home purchase on a comparable budget. Similar EU restrictions apply to Belarus. Entering for biometrics requires a valid Schengen visa.
• A Portuguese permit is not an EU-wide permit. The card lets you live and work in Portugal and travel in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, but not live and work in other EU countries.

Alternatives in Portugal and neighboring countries

If the goal is relocation rather than a backup status, Portugal itself has cheaper routes with the same residence count toward citizenship. If you specifically need an investment permit, compare the neighboring programs.

For the continent-wide picture, see our overview of Europe's golden visas in 2026 and the residence permits hub.

What the Portugal Golden Visa offers in 2026

How to get the Portugal Golden Visa: step by step

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