If you are a non-EU citizen trying to lock an EU residence card without moving your life to Lisbon, Portugal can still do that. The usual price is a €500,000 subscription in a qualifying investment fund, a stay of 14 days in each two-year renewal cycle, and a file that AIMA can actually read.
The pain is that half the pages still selling this program are written for 2022. They talk about a Lisbon apartment, a five-year passport, and a one-week holiday as if those were the rules. They are not.
This is the 2026 list: who is allowed in, which routes still exist, which documents stall a file, and the two clocks people mix up - the residence card and the nationality clock.
Key takeaways
- EU, EEA, Swiss and Andorran nationals cannot use the Golden Visa. It is a third-country route.
- Real estate is closed for new applicants. The route most people actually use is a €500,000 CMVM-regulated fund that is not a property fund.
- A listing on the CMVM register is not the same thing as a Golden Visa-eligible fund. That is a hidden gate.
- You must stay 14 days in each two-year renewal cycle. Do not call this the lowest presence in Europe. Greece, Italy's Investor Visa and Malta's MPRP have no minimum stay to keep the permit.
- Citizenship is 10 years for most Golden Visa applicants and 7 years for CPLP nationals, counted from the first residence title. Permanent residence at year 5 is a different, shorter clock.
- AIMA's published target is not the wait you should budget. Plan 12 to 18 months for a clean new file; older files have run longer.
Those six lines are the map. The rest of the page is why each one keeps catching people out.
Who can apply - and who cannot
You must be 18 or over, hold a clean criminal record, prove the money is lawfully yours, and make a qualifying investment. You do not need to speak Portuguese to get or renew the residence card. You do not need to become a Portuguese tax resident.
You cannot apply if you are a national of the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or Andorra. That is not a footnote. Whole comparison tables still list "EU citizens" as Golden Visa customers. They are not. EU citizens can live in Portugal under free-movement rules. They cannot buy this permit.
CPLP nationals - Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and the other Community of Portuguese Language Countries - can use the Golden Visa. Their nationality clock is 7 years, not 10. That is a real advantage. It is not a shortcut around the investment or the AIMA file.
That answers who is even allowed through the door. Next is what the money has to do.
The investment routes that still exist
Portugal closed the property route in October 2023. A Lisbon flat you already own, or one you plan to buy, does not qualify a new file. The law behind that change is Law 56/2023, the housing package known as Mais Habitação.
| Route | Minimum | What you actually hold | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying investment fund | €500,000 | Fund units. Capital is potentially recoverable, subject to performance, liquidity, market and issuer risk. | Most applicants. This is the working route. |
| Cultural / heritage donation | €250,000 | A gift. It does not come back. | Buyers who want a lower cheque and can treat it as spent. |
| Scientific research | €500,000 | Donation or investment in an approved R&D body. | Rare in practice. Confirm the receiving institution is on the live list. |
| Job creation | 10 permanent jobs (8 in low-density areas) | A real payroll, not a paper company. | Founders already building in Portugal. |
| Company capital + jobs | €500,000 + 5 jobs held 3+ years | Equity in a Portuguese company plus employment conditions. | Operators, not passive investors. |
The fund route has its own four-part test. The vehicle must be set up under Portuguese law, regulated by CMVM, have at least five years of maturity at the moment you subscribe, and put at least 60 percent of its investments into commercial companies headquartered in Portugal. It cannot be a real-estate collective investment vehicle.
Here is the hidden gem. CMVM lists hundreds of funds. Most of them fail the Golden Visa test. A promoter who says "it is CMVM-registered, so it qualifies" is answering a different question. We wrote a whole page on that mismatch: /countries/portugal/cmvm-funds.
Once the route is chosen, the file becomes a document problem, not a brochure problem.
Documents AIMA actually reads
For the main applicant and each person on the file:
- A valid passport.
- A Portuguese tax number (NIF), usually obtained through a fiscal representative.
- Proof of the qualifying investment - subscription confirmations, not a screenshot of an intention.
- A source-of-funds trail from the origin of the money to the Portuguese account that paid.
- Criminal-record certificates from the countries that apply to your history, apostilled and translated.
- Health coverage that satisfies the file, not a travel-insurance card printed at the airport.
- Biometrics in Portugal. That trip is not optional.
That is the paperwork. Here is the sequence it has to travel.
How the application actually runs
- Get a NIF and open a Portuguese bank account. Most people do this through a lawyer with a power of attorney.
- Subscribe to the qualifying fund, or complete the donation / job-creation route, and keep every receipt.
- File with AIMA. Since early 2026, more of the follow-up sits on a digital portal. The first biometric slot is still something AIMA assigns.
- Attend biometrics in Portugal and pay the residence-permit fees charged per person.
- Wait for the first card. The first title is typically two years, then three-year renewals.
The official processing target you will see quoted - often 90 days - is not a promise you can plan a school year around. Our working range for a clean new 2026 file is 12 to 18 months to the first card. Legacy files filed around the 2023 reform have run two to three years. Some applicants on public forums have described waiting through a lawsuit just to get a biometric date. Treat those threads as secondary colour, not as AIMA policy.
What people on the internet are saying, dated and secondary: on the Nomad Gate Portugal Golden Visa board, applicants who sat biometrics in 2025 under the newer fee-at-appointment process have been posting card dates that run from about four months after biometrics to still waiting past 90 business days (thread started 2025, posts read August 2026). That is one community, not a government table. It matches the broader picture: the bottleneck moved from "will they take the file" to "when does the card actually print."
Filing is one problem. Keeping the card is another.
Stay, renewal, family
The statutory stay is 14 days in each two-year renewal cycle. People compress that to "seven days a year." The seven-day line is a shorthand, not a licence to skip a cycle and average it later. Miss the stay and the renewal is the fight, not the original approval.
One file can cover a spouse or registered partner, children under 18, and children 18 to 26 if they are single, dependent and studying. Parents over 65 are usually easier to add than younger parents, who need documented dependency. Each person adds government fees. Children age out - we keep a separate page on those limits.
That keeps the card alive. It does not, by itself, make you a citizen.
The two clocks people mix up
Permanent residence is still available at year 5 of lawful Golden Visa residence. That clock was not stretched by the 2026 nationality reform. Once you hold permanent residence, you can usually exit the fund and keep living in the EU under that status, subject to the permanent-residence rules themselves.
Citizenship is a different clock. Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, in force 19 May 2026, counts 10 years for most third-country nationals and 7 years for CPLP nationals, from the first residence title. EU citizens share the 7-year nationality rule, but they cannot use this visa to start it. Applications for nationality filed on or before 18 May 2026 keep the old 5-year rules. A pending Golden Visa file that had not yet filed for nationality does not.
We will not tell you that living abroad automatically stops or automatically advances that clock. The legal starting point is residence from the first title. Whether your particular pattern of days will satisfy a nationality officer is a question for Portuguese nationality counsel, not a blog table.
Tax is a third clock entirely.
What this visa does not do
- It does not make you a Portuguese tax resident. Tax residence is a separate test, usually built around days and centre of life. A person can be tax resident under more than one domestic law; where a treaty applies, OECD Article 4 tie-breakers may decide treaty residence.
- It does not give you the right to live and work in France or Germany. It is Portuguese residence plus Schengen travel of 90 days in any 180.
- It does not guarantee the fund returns your €500,000. Treat the capital as potentially recoverable, subject to performance, liquidity, market and issuer risk.
- It does not reopen the apartment route. If you already own Portuguese property, that is a home, not a Golden Visa, unless a pre-reform file still sits under old rules.
If the wait is already the thing keeping you up, skip ahead to the stuck-file page. If you are still choosing a country, read the Portugal dossier next, then the fund-register extra.
Related reading
- Portugal Golden Visa dossier
- A CMVM listing is not a Golden Visa fund
- The 10-year citizenship clock
- My Portugal file is stuck
- Is the Portugal Golden Visa worth it?
- Greece Golden Visa requirements
- Greece vs Portugal
Sources
- AIMA - Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo, aima.gov.pt - ARI / residence-permit pages and fee tables.
- Diário da República - Lei 23/2007 (immigration framework), Lei 56/2023 (Mais Habitação, property-route close), Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 (nationality clock, in force 19 May 2026).
- CMVM - Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários public registers. Listing ≠ ARI eligibility.
- Justiça.gov.pt - notice that the 2026 nationality rules entered into force on 19 May 2026.
- Secondary, dated: Nomad Gate community thread "New AIMA Process - Receiving Final Approval/Residency Card" (2025–2026 applicant posts). Not a government source.
Family on the first file
| Person | Usual rule | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse / registered partner | Yes | Marriage or partnership paper, apostilled |
| Child under 18 | Yes | Birth certificate chain |
| Child 18–26 | If single, dependent, studying | Re-tested; see the aging-out page |
| Parents 65+ | Often yes | Dependency file still helps |
| Younger parents | Harder | Documented dependency |
| Grandparents | No | Malta is the program that can include them |
What still qualifies vs what people still try
| Idea | 2026 status | Where it dies |
|---|---|---|
| Lisbon / Porto apartment | Closed to new GV files | Lei 56/2023 |
| Any CMVM-listed fund | Not enough | /countries/portugal/cmvm-funds |
| Qualifying 5-year, 60% Portugal, non-RE fund | The working route | €500,000 + SOF |
| €250,000 cultural donation | Live, money gone | Treat as spent |
| EU passport holder applying | Not eligible | Free movement is a different door |
Would a 2026 Portugal file even open?
Before you subscribe to a fund, see whether the door is a door.
Answer every question for an honest read - not a brochure score.
FAQs
What is the minimum investment for the Portugal Golden Visa in 2026?+
Most applicants use a €500,000 subscription in a qualifying, CMVM-regulated, non-real-estate fund with at least five years' maturity and at least 60 percent invested in Portuguese-headquartered companies. A €250,000 cultural donation still exists; it is not recoverable. Real estate is closed for new files.
Can EU citizens get a Portugal Golden Visa?+
No. EU, EEA, Swiss and Andorran nationals are not eligible for ARI. They already have free-movement residence. The Golden Visa is a third-country route.
How many days must I spend in Portugal?+
Fourteen days in each two-year renewal cycle. That is sometimes described as about seven days a year. It is a statutory minimum stay, not an average you can make up later, and it is not the lowest presence among European investor permits.
How long to Portuguese citizenship?+
Ten years for most Golden Visa applicants, seven for CPLP nationals, counted from the first residence title under Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 (in force 19 May 2026). Permanent residence at year 5 is separate and was not stretched by that reform.
How long does AIMA take?+
Budget 12 to 18 months for a clean new file to the first card. Older backlog files have taken longer. The often-quoted 90-day legal target is not the planning number.
Does the Golden Visa make me a Portuguese tax resident?+
No. A residence permit is not tax residency. Tax residency depends on days, ties and, where a treaty applies, OECD Article 4 tie-breakers. You can hold this visa and remain tax resident elsewhere.