In the bill for the Mais Habitação program, the Government said that only requests for gold visas submitted by February 16, 2023 - and awaiting a decision from the competent authorities - remain valid, with the rest being frozen, if submitted after that date.

According to idealista/news, the measure raised doubts, but the Ministry of Housing has already clarified the matter and guarantees that after that date the requests are without effect.

The ministry says, quoted by Jornal de Negócios, that the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) “can continue to accept requests until the program comes into force”, however, from the moment the revocation of the regime, then “all requests that have been filed after that date are already aware of this condition, so there is no guarantee of analysis and decision, the procedure being extinguished as soon as the law comes into force”.

The truth is that as soon as the end of this program was announced by the Socialist Government, several law firms and consultants admit to having received hundreds and hundreds of people interested in obtaining golden visas. Some of these people already had ongoing processes and wanted to try to speed them up. Others had the intention of investing in Portugal and, as they now know that they have little time to do so, they wanted to take advantage of the last moments to obtain the golden visa.

According to the Housing Minister's office, ensuring that there is "a safeguard period for analysis of requests for ARI (Residence Permit for Investment) already entered in the competent services until February 16" makes sense since, "in these cases, there was a legitimate expectation of a decision that is intended to be maintained, given that nothing had been said about the continuity of the regime until that date”.


Related articles: