Portugal launched a ARI/Golden Visa scheme in 2012 for third country nationals to obtain a temporary residence permit in to conduct business activities with visa waiver in schengen territory.

• Live, study and travel in Europe.
• Most popular european property investment scheme
• Very minimal residency requirements.
• Profitable real estate investment
• Naturalize for citizenship after 6 years.
• No interviews, No language tests
• Immigrate to Europe with family and children.
• Travel freely in Schengen including Switzerland, Germany etc.
• Qualify for Portuguese PR after 5 years of living.
• Non Habitual Tax regime for HNW families

Qualifying investments

The following investments qualify for portuguese golden visa scheme.

Golden visa fees

The following fees are payable to the Government and SEP (immigration office).

Government Processing Fee	€ 513.75
Initial investor residency permit	€ 5173.60
Renewal of residence permit	€ 2,586.80
Residence permit for family members	€ 2,586.80
Real estate transfer Tax 8%	€ 28,964.75
Financial Management and Fiscal Representation (0.5% per year)	€ 2,500.-
Real estate stamp duty 0.8%	€ 4,000
Property Transfer Service 1.5%	€ 7,500
Permanent residency application	€ 350
Citizenship application	€ 250

You have to pay initial retainer fee usually €10,000 euros and our lawyers will start the process .

Residence requirements

The Portugal program does not require you to live or stay in Portugal at all. No minimum residence requirements, except you are only required stay in Portugal are 7 days on the first year and 14 days over the subsequent periods of 2 years. Initially Residence permit card is valid for 1 year, then renewed for 2 years, then again renewed for 2 years, then PR after 5 years of holding RP.  If you dont visit Portugal, you cannot prolong your residence permit.

For example if you have a business to look after in UAE, you might like to stay in UAE for most of the time but want to visit or live in Portugal anytime you want, without applying for visa. We also take care of property rentals, when you are out of the country. We work with developers of many real estate projects in Portugal (Lisbon, Cascais, Coimbra, Porto etc).

Portugal citizenship

Under the requirements set out by the Nationality Act (Act number 37/81 of 3 October) after 6 years, it is possible to naturalize for Portugal passport and citizenship.

Portugal Passport

Portuguese passport is ranked 6th best passport in the world with visa free travel to 185 countries according to henley restrictions index 2016. Portuguese passport gives right to live and work in 26 member states of EU including Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Visa free travel

The ID card (residence permit) issued by Portugal allows you to travel all 26 schengen countries including Switzerland and maximum stays of 90 days in 180 day period allowed in combined in all EU member states. Non EU citizens cannot visit UK using the portuguese residence card (will need a separate visa). You may also visit other non schengen EU countries such as Croatia, Romania, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Montenegro etc. using the EU residence permit issued by portugal for stays up to 30 days.

Non Habitual Tax Regime

Golden visa applicants can make use of non-habitual tax regime to pay less taxes in Portugal

The Non Habitual Resident’s regime (NHR) is a Portuguese unilateral regime for relief from international double taxation, with European Union approval. It works as a means of enabling tax residence in Portugal, with a preferential (as opposed to the Portuguese in general) tax regime. It is, for the time being, a one off, 10 year entitlement starting from the date of application, with the possibility of interrupting and restarting, counting the period of interruption.

Eligibility

• To have civil law consent to reside in Portugal;
•  To not have been tax resident in Portugal at any time, in the five years immediately preceding the date of application;

NHR provides for benefits applied in line with two streamlined income criterias. These are:

(i) Source (Portuguese or foreign) and

(ii) Nature of the income

Tax exemption on foreign-sourced income: dividends, interest and other financial income, capital gains (derived from property but not securities), income from self employment and from retirement and pensions; T

Taxation at a fixed rate – 20% – on Portuguese-sourced income of self employment;

Taxation at a fixed rate -20%- and employment provided it originates from certain legally classified activities, such as architects, medical doctors, dentists, engineers, liberal, technical and similar professionals, namely company directors, plastic artists, musicians.