Portugal Golden Visa Leads to Citizenship
In Portugal, reports confirm that the investors are obtaining not only permanent residence (PR) permits but also citizenships after physically residing for just 35 days in the country.
Room for Interpretation
The rules that obtain permanent residence, an individual must have been legally resident in the country for five consecutive years. Until recently, only those who had held Permanent Residency for at least a year could apply for citizenship, which meant an investor would have to wait until year six to apply.
This rule, however, changed in July as Portuguese lawmakers amended the country’s nationality law to permit anyone who had been legally resident for five years to apply for naturalization.
The Best Possible Outcome
Thankfully now confirming that participants in Portugal’s golden visa program are not only receiving permanent residence permits and qualifying for citizenships; they’re doing so after having spent as little as 35 days in the country during the last five years.
According to, João Cunha Vaz, a Senior Partner at EDGE International Lawyers based in Lisbon, said that “The reality is that at this stage we already have several clients who have transitioned their temporary residencies into permanent residencies, having complied with the minimum stay requirements applicable to the Golden Visa”. He also stated that “This is absolutely real and, with the recent change in the law enabling an applicant to request citizenship after five years of residency, we are now starting to have the first Golden Visa residents applying for citizenship,” he adds, and confirms that those now applying for citizenship are doing so on the basis of only having spent 35 days in Portugal.
Mr Cunha Vaz notes that “There is also a new category of permanent residency recently created that allows for an applicant to obtain permanent residency without then having to abide by any minimum stay requirements in Portugal. This is given to the applicant for five years (renewable every five years) and does not impose any minimum stay requirements.