Portugal

Golden visa — investment fund option. Residence by investing €500,000 in a qualifying Portuguese venture-capital or private-equity fund; the real-estate option closed in October 2023.

Free, with the law behind every answer

Golden visa — investment fund option

A residence permit valid 2 years, renewable for two further 2-year periods, without requiring you to live in Portugal full time.

Who qualifies

Minimum investment of €500,000 in units of a Portuguese investment or venture-capital fund registered with the CMVM (the securities regulator), with at least 60% of the fund’s capital directed to companies with a registered office in Portugal.
SEF/AIMA — Golden Visa, Capital Transfer (Art. 90-A, Law 23/2007)
Alternative: a minimum donation of €250,000 (€200,000 in low-density interior regions) to arts or cultural-heritage preservation, approved in advance by the Ministry of Culture’s GEPAC office.
AIMA — Golden Visa, Cultural Production and Heritage Route
A minimum average stay in Portugal of 7 days in the first year and 14 days in each subsequent two-year period.
AIMA — Golden Visa minimum stay requirement

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

Does it fit your family?

One question, from the program’s own rules.

Savings you could move or invest?

Not legal advice.

What it takes.

Investment: About $550,000.
Time: 12–24 months given AIMA’s investment-visa backlog.
Cost: About $10,000–20,000 beyond the investment itself: legal fees, fund subscription costs, government fees and translations.
The hard part: Choosing a CMVM-registered fund that actually meets the 60%-in-Portugal test and will still exist in 5 years.

Dollar figures are converted from the local currency at the rate the program’s research used; the official figure is in the local currency.

Citizens by 2038.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

2027
First residence permit
2 years, renewable for 2 years at a time.
2029
Renew the permit
Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 2 years.
2031
Renew the permit
Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 2 years.
2032
Permanent residence
Five years on temporary residence permits, basic Portuguese (A2: a CAPLE test such as CIPLE, a Portuguese school certificate or a Português Língua de Acolhimento course), and no prison sentence over one year in those five years.
2037
Apply for citizenship
With a language test and a civics test.
2038
Citizenship

Language: Proof by test or certificate of enough Portuguese. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries are presumed to know the language unless they plainly do not. The law sets no level; the old rules asked for A2 (CIPLE), and the new regulation is still awaited.
Civics: New in 2026: a test or certificate showing knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols, plus the rights and duties of citizens and how the state is organised, and a solemn declaration of adherence to the rule of law. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries still have to show the culture and civics part.
Time away: Years of legal residence under any permit are added up, whether continuous or broken, as long as they all fall within a 12-year window (9 years for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals). The clock now starts when the first residence permit is issued, not when it was applied for. Separately, a temporary permit can be cancelled after more than 6 months away in a row or 8 months in total during its validity.
Two passports: Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.

Only 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 in each later two-year period keep the permit; these are periods of legal residence and therefore count under the 2026 Nationality Law’s 7- or 10-year clock.
How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.

The law behind these dates

Living there.

Time you must spend there: 7 days in year one; 14 days in each following 2-year period — much lower than ordinary residence permits.
Tax: Golden-visa holders are not automatically Portuguese tax residents unless they exceed 183 days/year or keep a habitual home there; many hold the permit without becoming tax resident at all.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

Start today.

Engage a Portuguese immigration lawyer and CMVM-registered fund manager before filing.Open aima.gov.pt ↗
Gather these documents.
- Proof of the funds to invest: about $550,000, and where they came from
- Request your FBI Identity History Summary
- Health cover for the move
- Get the NIF (Portuguese tax number)

Postern can’t run this for you yet.

Postern cannot run this application yet. Missing: The current ARI electronic application, criminal-record permission and investment-maintenance declarations have not been captured, pinned, mapped from the family record or visually checked. The ordinary Article 77 AIMA form is not substituted for this Article 90-A application. Separate analysis and grant payment milestones, initial biometrics and final permit evidence are not completely specified. Renewals now use the AIMA Portal de Renovações, exclusively since 16 February 2026; that investment-specific renewal application has not been specified and tested.

Options open to you today →

ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

Cover

POSTERN