How To Obtain EU-resident Status For An Investment In Portugal

The holder of a Portuguese residence permit enjoys free circulation in the Schengen Space, composed, in addition to Portugal, of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands.

A non-EU national may obtain resident status in Portugal without having to obtain a prior residence visa if he/she, whether privately or through a company, makes an investment in Portugal under one of the following conditions: the invested amount is of at least EUR 1m, unless it is in real estate, in which case this amount is reduced to EUR 0.5m; or the investment leads to the creation of at least 10 permanent new jobs. This condition must have been met before the residence application is submitted and the investment must be kept during at least 5 years. In the event the investment is made through a company, the relevant investment amount will be the paid-in share in a Portuguese company or else the pro rata of the capital allocated to the Portuguese permanent establishment of an EU company.

The application should be submitted within 90 days of entering Portugal for the first time and the residence permit shall be initially granted for 1 year, subsequently renewable for successive 2-year periods. During the first year the permit holder is supposed to stay in Portugal for at least 7 days (not necessarily consecutive) and this number of days is increased to 14 during the following years.

The investor may also become a tax resident of Portugal enjoying the "non-habitual resident" status, in which case he/she may manage to pay little or no tax, as described in the previous article.

After 6 years of being a resident, the investor may also apply for a Portuguese passport.