A copy of this plan has been seen by Bloomberg. An immigration lawyer at Lisbon-based FiO Legal, Bettino Zanini, told Bloomberg News that these changes are good news for investors.
The figures from Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum have revealed that at present there are between 45,000 to 50,000 golden visa applications waiting to be reviewed, while now applicants will be eligible to move their applications to the online system.
The new changes aim to clear a backlog of pending cases. Up to this point, a large number of applicants took legal action to attempt to push AIMA to accelerate their requests. Besides, some have waited for years for a mandatory biometric appointment, in which fingerprints and other personal data are collected.
The new changes mean that AIMA will schedule biometric appointments automatically within 30 to 90 days after investors complete their online applications. According to immigration lawyer Zanini, the agency will also accept untranslated documents in English, French and Spanish.
Extended Visa Processing Times Left Hundreds of Golden Visa Applicants in Limbo
Portugal’s Golden Visa Program offers residency in exchange for financial investments to wealthy nationals from non-EU countries.
In spite of the fact that Portuguese authorities abolished the real estate investment option from this scheme (the most sought-after one), in a bid to deal with the housing crisis, other options continue to attract a large number of internationals.
Increased demand from North America and the United Kingdom, enhanced processing to meet the increasing demand as well as consistent demand from Asian markets, are among the key predictions for the Golden Visa Program for 2025.
However, long visa processing times have left a large number of golden visa applicants in limbo.
An immigration lawyer, Bettino Zanini, last year told Bloomberg that about half of his 50 golden visa clients have sued Portugal due to extended processing delays.
Since its introduction in 2012, Portugal’s Golden Visa Program brought over €7 billion ($7.2 billion) to this country.
