Portugal has the fourth powerful passport in the world, with visa free access to 186 countries in the world, according to latest Henley passport index 2018 rankings.
The Portuguese passport is tied with UK, US passports in the fourth place in the index.
Portugal e-passport is the first in the EU to introduce braille graphics for the visually impaired.
Golden visaÂ
Portugal’s golden visa scheme (ARI)Â introduced in Oct 2012, is the most popular investment visa schemes in the world with record number of chinese, brazilian, russian and south african families buy property in portugal. The scheme requires EUR 350,000 property investment in portuguese cities and EUR 500,000 in Lisbon.
The attractiveness of Portuguese passport also a factor for the soaring popularity of the scheme. Under the ARI law, foreign investors qualify for permanent residence and citizenship in Portugal. The main requirements for citizenship are one has to live permanently in Portugal and knowledge of Portuguese language is also a obligatory requirement. The naturalisation time is reduced to 5 years last year, for those who already speak portuguese for over ten years. All other country nationals are required to wait for 6 years to become a citizen.
Travel Freedom
Portugal has the most valuable and highly respected european passport in the world. Portuguese passport holders can travel to 186 destinations in the world including Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, All of Europe
Portugal is part of the US Visa Waiver Program, which enables Portuguese citizens to travel to the United States without a visa. On January 12, 2009, ESTA (the Electronic System for Travel Authorization) became a requirement of the Visa Waiver Program.
Portuguese citizens are required to apply for a Canada eTA visa to enter Canada on a short term basis (under 90 days) for general tourism, business, transit or medical purposes.
