Portugal, this october 8th celebrated 7 years of running golden visa scheme. The ARI/Golden visa scheme was launched in Oct 8, 2012 and entered into force the same day.
Portugal not just famous for wine, football, tasty pastels but also for golden visas and can be rightly said as the ‘land’ of golden visas.
Portugal is credited for inventing “golden visas”, infact the portuguese word “vistos gold”, means Gold visas. Today the portuguese invention of golden visas echoes across various continents, creating a multi billion dollar industry. Back in 2010, Golden visa schemes were only known as immigrant investor schemes, which were hugely popular.
The Golden Visa (GV) industry is estimated around €10bn in Europe, with Portugal leading  from the front. GV schemes currently run in 20 EU member states, according to EU commission report.
The Portugal Golden Visa (PGV) scheme raised €4.8bn euros as of Sep 2019, 90% of which invested in the real estate sector. No other country in Europe has amassed such huge investments from foreigners mainly from chinese and brazilians. With Portugal at the crossroads of Europe and America, with good flight connections to Americas, this scheme has attracted also number of americans.
Portugal used the golden visa scheme with great success to recover from recession, steering towards the positive economic growth. The GDP annual growth from world bank shows, the economy picked up from 2012, the golden year for Portugal.
According to SEF statistics, a total of 7,960 Gold visas issued to property investors. On an average, foreigners are buying property at €550,000 well above the minimum required threshold of €350,000 for PGV scheme. This goes on to show many foreigners are investing in high end properties including in the luxury sector and coastal areas.
The SEF Borders authority has said 677 Golden visa applications have been refused for several reasons since the start of the scheme.
Below are the top countries applying for PGV according to the latest SEF statistics.
Portugal has successfully demonstrated to the world that its Golden visa model has achieved great success, reviving the property sector. Over the years Portugal has greatly simplified golden visa scheme reducing the amount of paperwork, and speeding up processing times, also giving path to citizenship after 6 years.
Portugal still wants more immigrants, investments and wants more jobs created.  The Gold visa scheme is still open for a minimum €350,000 investment in real estate sector.  This scheme is only for third country nationals and EU/EEA nationals cannot apply.  After the Brexit, UK nationals will be able to apply for Golden visa scheme in Portugal.
