Golden visa investment does lead to Portuguese citizenship. Since the golden visa scheme opened in 2012, a few investors have already become Portuguese nationals on or after 2018. The procedure takes atleast 5-6 years.
Portugal cut the time to get citizenship from 6 years to just 5 years to encourage golden visa investments in Portugal.
Here is what you need to do
- Invest in real estate (atleast 280,000€)
- Acquire residence permit for investments
- Spend or visit atleast 15 days in Portugal every year. (must)
- Apply for permanent residence card.
- Take A2 Portuguese language test (learn from language school)
- File your citizenship application at the Civil registry office (250€)
The examination of citizenship applications takes months, and it should expect the whole process to complete in 5-6 years. Portugal Government does not exclusively publish how many investors received citizenship through golden visa scheme.
In 2018, Portugal citizenship office received over 41,000 citizenship applications from all categories. Brazlians, Israelis and Cape verde nationals were the ones applying for Portuguese nationality in large numbers.
Citizenship Legislation
The legal regime of Portuguese nationality is established by Law no. 2/2006, of 17 April and regulated by Decree-Law no. 237-A / 2006, of 14 December. Under the Portuguese Nationality Act, all foreigners all eligible for acquiring citizenship through the general provisions on naturalisation.
The conditions for granting citizenship through naturalisation are foreseen in Article 6, n.1 of the Nationality Act. The applicant must fulfil the following requirements:
- Majority or emancipation under Portuguese law;
- Previous legal residence in Portugal for at least 5 years;
- Sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language;
- No conviction for having committed a crime, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 3 years or more, according to Portuguese law;
- No danger or threat to national security or defence, due to involvement in activities related to the practice of terrorism.
