Portugal Golden Visa in 2026: The Complete Guide

Portugal used to be the programme people chose for speed: buy an apartment, hold a card for five years, apply for a passport. That version is gone. Two laws changed it, one in 2023 and one in 2026, and the agency that handles the cases has a long queue. I still think the programme is useful for some families, but only if they go in with the right expectations. Here is how it works today.

What the Portugal Golden Visa is

The official name is the residence permit for investment activity, or ARI (Autorização de Residência para Atividade de Investimento). It has been in force since 8 October 2012 and is regulated by Article 90-A of the foreigners law, Law 23/2007. It gives a temporary residence permit to a third-country national who makes a qualifying investment, without the need for a residence visa to enter Portugal.

Applications are handled by AIMA, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, which took over the migration work of the former border service SEF in 2023. The scheme is not open to Portuguese citizens or to nationals of the EU, the EEA, Andorra and Switzerland.

What changed in October 2023

Law 56/2023, the housing package known as Mais Habitação, rewrote the programme. Buying residential property stopped qualifying, most commercial property and real estate funds went with it, and so did capital transfers to a bank deposit. AIMA now says plainly that the investment cannot be aimed, directly or indirectly, at real estate.

If someone offers you a “Portuguese Golden Visa through property” today, BRIDGES is blunt about it: there is no legal basis for that offer. You can still buy a home in Portugal, but it does not give you the permit.

The investment options in 2026

Option	Minimum	Key condition
Investment fund units	€500,000	Portuguese non-real-estate fund, maturity of at least 5 years, at least 60% invested in companies based in Portugal
Scientific research	€500,000	Paid to a research institution in the national science system; €400,000 in low-density areas
Culture and heritage	€250,000	Artistic production or national heritage; 20% less in low-density areas
Job creation	10 jobs	8 jobs in low-density areas
Company with jobs	€500,000	New company plus 5 permanent jobs, or a capital increase with 5 new jobs or 10 kept, for at least 3 years

The fund route is the one most private investors take. According to BRIDGES, more than 78% of applicants choose it, because the money stays an asset rather than becoming a donation. I go through each option and the full budget in my guide to costs and investment options.

An important note for Russian citizens

BRIDGES points out that EU Regulation 833/2014 forbids selling such fund units to Russian nationals and residents of Russia, unless they also hold citizenship or residence in an EU or EEA country or Switzerland. A third-country second passport does not lift the ban. In practice that leaves only the donation routes, which are not refundable. This is a case where the passport decides the route before anything else.

The stay requirement

The permit asks for very little time in the country: at least 7 days in the first year and at least 14 days in each following two-year period. You do not have to move, and you do not have to give up work elsewhere. Holding the card does not by itself make you a Portuguese tax resident.

What the card gives you

• the right to live and work in Portugal;
• travel in the Schengen area without a visa, up to 90 days in any 180;
• family reunification for your spouse, children and dependent parents;
• the right to apply for permanent residence later and, after the required years, for naturalisation.

The first card is valid for two years from the date it is issued. BRIDGES notes that renewals are generally issued for three years, as long as the investment is kept and the stay rule is met.

How long it really takes

This is where I am most careful with families. On its programme page BRIDGES gives 6 to 18 months, depending on how busy AIMA is. Its own analysis from October 2026 paints a harder picture: on 7 October the Minister of the Presidency told parliament that 46,000 Golden Visa applications were in the queue, about 6,000 had been processed and about 30,000 people were booked for biometrics. Surveys put the average wait on cases closed in the second quarter of 2026 at 50.4 months. Those were mostly old cases, so the figure says more about the backlog than about a new file, but I would not plan anything important around a fast decision.

The step by step process and the document list are in my guide to the application process and documents.

The road to a passport is now longer

Organic Law 1/2026, published in the Diário da República on 18 May 2026, entered into force on 19 May 2026. Nationals of countries outside the EU and the Portuguese-speaking community (CPLP) now need 10 years of legal residence before applying for naturalisation, and EU and CPLP nationals 7 years. The law also adds a test of Portuguese language and culture, knowledge of the rights and duties of citizens, a solemn declaration and proof of means of subsistence. Procedures already pending on that date continue under the previous wording.

BRIDGES reads the new rule as counting from the issue of the first residence card, so years spent waiting in the AIMA queue would not count. Lawyers in Portugal disagree on how the rule applies to people who filed before the law changed, and a collective lawsuit has been filed. I treat this point as unsettled and explain it in the guide on keeping the status, taxes and citizenship.

Who the programme suits now

From what I see, Portugal fits a family that wants an EU residence status with Schengen travel, is not in a hurry, is ready to keep €500,000 in a fund for five years or more and sees Portugal as a possible place to live later. It fits less well a family that needs EU status within a year or two, one that counted on a passport after five years, or holders of a Russian passport, for whom the fund route is closed. For a family that weighs Portugal against a property-based programme, I compare the two in Portugal or the Greece Golden Visa, and the family rules are in my guide for families.

BRIDGES describes the programme, its budget and its process on the page about residency in Portugal by investment. Last checked 20 October 2026.