Country Update 2024: PORTUGAL

Contributed by: Raquel Cuba Martins (SRS Advogados & Associados, RL)

May 2024

1. Legislative Changes

Amendment to the Immigration Law, in August 2023 - transposition of Directive (EU) 2021/1883 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 20^th October 2021, on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purpose of highly qualified employment.

Entry into force, in October 2023, of a law that approved several measures to solve the housing crisis in Portugal, including the partial revocation of the Golden Visa programme.

2. Business Immigration

Highly qualified employment and EU Blue Card

Due to the transposition of the Directive (EU) 2021/1883, applicants for a residence visa for highly qualified activity and Blue Card are required to submit a valid employment contract or offer of employment contract with a minimum duration of 6 months (instead of 12 months).

CPLP Residence Permit

The CPLP residence permit is issued to citizens from States that are part of the Agreement on Mobility between Member States of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries).

The process to obtain a CPLP residence permit is executed online, and it takes approximately 72 hours. The permit is issued as a printable PDF certificate that includes the holder’s personal information and authentication codes.

During the first week following the implementation of the online platform for submission of CPLP residence permit applications in March 2023, at least 73,000 permits were issued.

In September 2023, the European Commission issued a formal notice to Portugal, raising concerns on the issuance of permits under the CPLP Mobility Agreement and pointing out that Portugal is not complying with the EU rules.

Another concern regarding the CPLP residence permit is the renewal process, as the procedure has not yet been determined.

3. Residency by investment

Golden Visa

Between January and September 2023, 1183 residence permits for investment purposes were granted (plus 1615 family members) totalling a foreign investment of €564,346,394.30.

Top 5 citizenships for the period are: United States of America (244), China (152), United Kingdom (102), Brazil (71) and India (54).

In October 2023, part of the Golden Visa program was revoked. As a result, some types of investment activities are no longer eligible, namely:

• Transfer of capital in an amount equal to or greater than 1.5 million euros.

• Acquisition of real estate with a value equal to or greater than 500,000 euros.

• Acquisition of real estate which construction has been completed for at least 30 years or located in an urban rehabilitation area and the execution of rehabilitation works in the acquired real estate, in the total amount equal to or greater than 350,000 euros.

According to the new law, only the following types of investment activities remain eligible:

• Creation of at least 10 jobs.

• Transfer of capital in an amount equal to or greater than 500,000 euros, to be applied in research activities carried out by public or private scientific research institutions, integrated in the national scientific and technological system.

• Transfer of capital in an amount equal to or greater than 250,000 euros, to be applied in investment or support to artistic production, recovery, or maintenance of national cultural heritage.

• Transfer of capital in an amount equal to or greater than 500,000 euros, intended for the acquisition of shares in non-real estate collective investment entities, which are incorporated under Portuguese legislation, with a maturity of at least 5 years at the time of investment, and at least 60% of the value of the investments is addressed to commercial companies with registered office in Portugal (investment funds or venture capital funds are included).

• Transfer of capital in an amount equal to or greater than 500,000 euros, intended for the incorporation of a company with registered office in Portugal, combined with the creation of at least 5 permanent jobs, or to increase the share capital of an existing company, with the creation of at least 5 permanent jobs or maintenance of at least 10 jobs with a minimum of 5 permanent jobs, and for a minimum period of 3 years.

Furthermore, none of the above-mentioned investment activities may be intended, directly or indirectly, for real estate investment.

Applications submitted under the previous version of the Golden Visa regime which are currently awaiting a decision remain valid.

The renewal of granted residence permits will convert Golden Visas into a residence permit for entrepreneurial immigrants, while retaining the minimum periods of stay in Portugal (14 consecutive or non-consecutive days in each period of 2 years). However, the specific conditions for this conversion are not yet clear.

4.     Family based Immigration

In late January 2024, AIMA launched an online platform for family reunification.

The initial phase of this program only covers children aged between 5 to 15 and already living in Portugal. To be eligible, at least one of the parents must hold a residence card. Spouses who do not yet hold a permit can be included in the same application.

The next phase will include teenagers up to 18 years old, but the timing for expanding age ranges and allowing residents who hold CPLP residence permits to apply for this procedure remains unclear.

According to information provided by AIMA, 2500 applications were submitted during the first week upon launching this new platform, indicating significant demand for this service.

5.     Automatic renewal

Due to the increase in the number of residence permits issued during the last few years, the backlog concerning the Covid-19 pandemic and the difficulties in dealing with the high number of residence permits to be renewed, the Government decided to maintain an automatic renewal procedure (without the need of an appointment with the immigration office).

This procedure has been extended for holders of residence permits expiring by 30^th June 2024.

6.     Temporary protection for residents in Ukraine

The temporary protection regime for Ukrainian citizens or people living in Ukraine, which was initially valid for one year, was extended twice in 2023. Recently, in February 2024, the Government approved an extension for a 10-month period, from 1^st March 2024 to 31^st December 2024.

7.     Citizenship

In early 2024, the Parliament approved a bill that includes amendments to the Citizenship Law, namely regarding citizenship by residency and for descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews. The new law entered into force on 1^st April 2024 and the next step will be its regulation, which must be completed by 5^th June 2024.

Residence time

The new law provides that the time elapsed from the date of application of a temporary residence permit will also be counted towards the 5-year period of legal residence period in Portugal, provided that the permit is granted.

This is an important change that is aimed to compensate residents for the delays between application and issuance of the residence permit.

However, as there are procedures where we have an online application followed by an in-person application we need to wait for the regulation to be published to understand what the relevant date is.

Sephardic Jews

In 2022, 17,297 descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews applied for Portuguese citizenship, representing 68.1% of the total number of applications submitted.

The new law introduces two additional requirements on the citizenship procedure:

1. applicants will have to provide documentary evidence of the tradition of belonging to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin which will be subject to final approval by a specialized evaluation committee; and

2. applicants must have resided legally in Portugal for at least 3 consecutive or intermittent years.