As well as financial and real estate investment, supporting areas such as science, culture and heritage will now grant you a Golden Visa.
The Portuguese government has relaunched the Golden Visa program, granted to foreign citizens wanting to invest in Portugal. The new rules reinforce the security and surveillance of the visas’ concession. They also present new investment possibilities, nonexistent up until this moment.
The core of this alteration comes from the dismantlement of a corruption network in the concession of the visas. The program’s credibility was thus affected, but being this such an important source of investment, the government ended up deciding to revise and apply new rules to it.
The base of the concession is still real estate investment with a minimum value of 500 thousand euro. A cash deposit, stock investment or tax obligations valued at one million euro can also work as an alternative. Another way to invest is by creating companies employing at least 10 people.
The news is that these Golden Visas are now also granted to foreigners investing a minimum of 350 thousand euro in scientific research, supporting the Portuguese culture or for National Heritage maintenance purposes.
Golden Visas have been successful in Portugal despite the project’s troubled path. Since October 2012, date of their creation, Portugal has already an investment of around 1.3 billion euro to thank for, mainly by Chinese investors. According to Construction and Real Estate Portuguese Confederation there has been a 900 million euro investment in 2014 alone.
