Santos Silva said that his figures were for the period through to April 22nd and that after difficulties due to the restructuring of the system last year, the processing was now running at speeds similar to 2014.

The Foreign Minister made a point of stating that the aforementioned total covered a series of categories with 537 relating to the granting and renewal of investment based residence visas, 767 involved family members of visa holders and 307 had either expired or were turned down.

In turn, Santos Silva affirmed that there had been 459 gold visas issued this year in addition to 647 visas to family members taking the total numbers since the scheme was launched in early October 2012 through to April 22 to 3,247 gold visas and 4,950 family residency approvals.

"We are now working at the same pace as 2014," said the foreign minister before identifying a new manual of procedures and additional controls as among the changes made since the scheme was the target of police investigation over corruption allegations.

These new rules also expand the investment criteria into areas such as urban rehabilitation, science and culture, among other areas although the visas hitherto issued remain under the auspices of the previous rules.