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PORTUGAL - PUBLIC DISCUSSION ON GOLDEN VISA PROGRAM
On 30th March 2023, the Prime Minister, Mr. António Costa made an announcement regarding the proposal “Mais Habitação” that will be submitted to the Parliament within the next few days.
As updated by our Law firm, notwithstanding the wording and a few changes in the message, the situation remains the same as was presented on February 16th, 2023. In that sense, the government continues to manifest its intention to end the Golden Visa program. However, this time around, the PM clearly stated that the decision on this matter should be taken by the Parliament and by The President of the Republic.
On a connected matter, one of the suggestions presented by the PM mentioned the possibility of converting the current applications in the program to general immigration law – since the GV program is deemed as a special law. Such a position also aligns with the Government’s insistence on attributing a retroactive effect to this matter. Regarding this topic, and after a careful analysis within our team, pairs, and academic professors of Law, we believe that it will not be possible to sustain since it shows clear violations of constitutional principles, namely the principle of Trust in the State.
Notwithstanding the above-mentioned meanings, and as explained in our previous articles, the Government has no legislative power regarding this matter, since the Parliament is the only entity that can approve and introduce the changes that the government wants to put into action. This means that the current version of the immigration law allowing GV investors is still in force and was not changed. SEF is clearly complying with applicable law since it is accepting and processing new applications normally. Moreover, we confirmed directly with SEF yesterday, and no instructions were received to close the ARI portal or interrupt or condition the acceptance of the normal flow of submissions. Moreover, such instructions can only be lawfully given upon a duly approved law by the Parliament and the President of the Republic.
As a last note, we would like to address some speculations that we have been receiving regarding applications submitted after February 16th2023. It came to our knowledge that a message has been spread mentioning that applications submitted after the D date have yet to be granted a processing number/application number. We can assure all investors that we verified our clients that have been submitted after that date and all applications have a processing number/application number, and their applications are being processed normally.
The analysis included above is always preliminary and subject to be complemented by the analysis of the draft of the law presented days gone by.
Lastly, we do not anticipate that there will be any discussions on this matter in Parliament before the last week of April, taking into consideration the current schedule the Parliament presented on Thursday.
Our Law firm will be taking part actively time-to-time and keep our prospective clients informed about the current discussion and decisions on the Golden visa to Portugal.
Bilimoria & Associate is a leading immigration visa service provider in India and has seamlessly assisting thousands of applicants migrate to different countries towards obtaining Residence visas / permit.
Whether you are looking to build your future in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, the UK, or Portugal, we will guide you and do the needful in fulfilling your dream to live and work in these countries. Meanwhile, if you have any queries related to immigration, the visa process or the latest updates, you can call our office on +91 44 2823 9229 / +91 44 2822 7127 / +91 444 350 8191 (or) mail us at neville@bilimoriaassociate.com