Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Do you want EU residency, globaltravel freedom and potentially
European citizenship, but youdon't necessarily want to move
somewhere full time just yet,while the Portugal golden Visa
may be just your ticket.
But unfortunately there havebeen some major changes
recently.
And I'm about to tell you aboutsome of those changes in this
(00:25):
video to help you make up yourdecision as to which country
makes the most sense for you tomove abroad.
Hi, I'm Justin.
And if you haven't been.
Following this channel for awhile on Entrepreneur Expat, we
talk about everything related tomoving abroad, establishing
global citizenships, and livingthe life of your dreams in a
(00:46):
country that might not be theone that you were born in.
If that's something you'reinterested in, make sure you
click that subscribe button and.
Don't miss out on any of thecool content we're coming out
with every single week about allthe popular countries for expats
around the world, especiallyMexico, where my wife Amanda and
I currently live.
(01:07):
And if you're interested indiving in even further and
learning more about how to moveabroad, you're definitely gonna
want to check out our movingabroad checklist, where we go
through the most importantthings that you wanna make sure
to bear in mind when you'reactually making that leap.
And if you're ready to take.
Even more steps and you're like,Hey, I've been watching you guys
for a while.
(01:28):
I'd like to get some one-on-onehelp.
You can actually go toentrepreneur expat.com/consult,
and you can request a consultwith myself, Amanda, or our
team, where we'll talk youthrough your individual
requirements and the processthat's going to be the easiest
for you, as well as maybe someof the countries that would be
easiest for you to become anexpat in.
(01:51):
So with all that said, let'sjump right into it, which is.
We get asked all the time.
By our high net worth investorclients, you know, what are some
of the best visas to get?
And in fact, we even had oneclient recently who was
considering this program, butthey kind of pulled the rug
right out underneath from himbecause he didn't quite move in
(02:12):
time and all of these newchanges happened.
And he ended up actually justsaying, you know what?
Mexico's a little bit of themore straightforward visas.
They don't have the same typesof requirements.
So we ended up saying, you knowwhat, maybe you should just look
into Mexico.
It might make more sense foryou, but based on your unique
requirements, your, your income,your net worth, different sorts
of things like that, uh, thoseare gonna really determine what
(02:35):
country and what type of visareally is the best fit for you.
But no matter what, this is notgetting easier.
Right.
As time goes on, it's gettingmore and more complicated,
whether you're in here in Mexicolike we are, whether you're
looking at countries likePortugal, whether you're looking
at countries like Spain orperhaps, uh, even.
(02:57):
Southeast Asia, for example.
I mean, Malaysia, Singapore.
So many countries in SoutheastAsia, for example, have gotten
more and more difficult toimmigrate to because of all
these restrictions, uh, thatthey're putting on people.
Because those countries,frankly, they're getting their
shit together.
Right.
The US seems to be going alittle like this, and a lot of
other countries in the world aregoing a little bit like this,
(03:20):
uh, in terms of just increasingtheir quality of life and
becoming better places to live.
So the requirements are gettingharder and harder.
So the key is, regardless of.
Where you wanna move to or whatyour financial or net worth
situation is, the time to act isnow.
So again, you can go toentrepreneur expat.com/consult.
(03:42):
Obviously you can watch our freevideos and free content as well
if you're not quite ready tomake that leap.
We do work with very select,high net worth individuals
through our consulting programsand relocation assistance
programs.
If maybe that's not you orthat's not you yet.
Definitely still check out someof our free content as well as
some of our guides, because wealso have resources on making
(04:02):
money online and things likethat to actually help get your
income up to the level where youcan qualify for some of these
visas Now, what specifically isthis Portugal Golden Visa from
the beginning?
Well, the Portugal Golden Visawas launched in 2012 to help.
Ease the burden of, of that hugeeconomic impact that happened in
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2008, uh, with that, that globalfinancial crisis all around the
world.
They wanted to bring investorsinto the country, and they've
been very successful in doingthat.
Up until this point, over sevenand a half billion dollars have
been raised through the PortugalGolden Visa program.
And the cool thing is it alsoallows these non-EU residents.
(04:45):
To get EU residents and then apath to citizenship in five
years by spending a very minimalamount of time in the country.
In order for you to keep thisgolden visa, you only have to be
in Portugal for seven days ayear, which is really cool.
And of course, one of the thingsthat this Visa gives you is Visa
free access to 29 countries inthe Sheen territory, so you can
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travel all around the sheen partof Europe completely visa free
without having to get like anyother entrance permits or
anything like that.
That's obviously.
One of the top benefits.
You don't have to spend verymuch time in the country to keep
that visa.
So if you're just doing it,let's say, as a path to, to a
citizenship, not only do you nothave to be there, you can just
(05:27):
kind of wait out those fiveyears and then get your, your
European, uh, citizenship inPortugal.
But you're also not considered aresident, a tax resident in
Portugal unless you spend over183 days per year in the
country.
And then after those five years,once you have that Portuguese
citizenship, not only will youhave Visa free access to all the
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countries in the Sheinterritories, but you'll also
have Visa free access to 191countries with that Portuguese
passport all over the world,which is also really cool in
terms of travel freedom.
So those are some of the basicbenefits and reasons to get the
Portuguese golden visa.
Now, what are the changes thatjust happened in the last two
years specifically?
(06:10):
Right now, we're in about themiddle of 2025, and they
recently introduced changes.
The biggest changes here werethat.
They no longer count real estatetransactions and capital
transfers.
So that means if you were justplanning on funding a business
or you were buying a piece ofproperty that was worth around
500,000 euros, you used to beable to get credit for that, to
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go towards that Portuguesegolden visa.
Unfortunately, now they'remaking it much stricter and
those sorts of things are nolonger counting.
There's a whole bunch ofdifferent alternative routes,
but for the most part, they.
Involve not necessarily handingyour money to the government,
but putting it in investmentswhere it is tied up, and it's
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not the same as a real estatepurchase where you're getting
the full benefit of also owninga property.
Now, one of the reasons thatwe've heard for this, of course,
is there have been in certaintowns and cities.
A lot of residents have beencomplaining that, hey, they're
being displaced, or propertyvalues are going up because of
all the people coming in on theGolden Visa program.
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So that was one of the thingsfor sure that Portugal wanted to
curtail.
So here are some of the otherpathways that you can use to be
able to qualify.
Still for the Visa, you couldinvest 500,000 in what's called.
An alternative investment fund.
So that's a qualifyinginvestment that the Portuguese
government says, uh, you caninvest your money in.
So 500,000 euros and aqualifying fund that is not real
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estate based.
And you can actually choosebetween low, medium and a high
risk, depending on your riskprofile.
But you do have to keep that inthat investment fund for a
certain period of time.
You could also create 10 or morefull-time jobs in Portugal as a,
as a business owner.
But it's not just, Hey, we'llopen like a shell company there.
You have to actually create.
Full-time jobs, you're creatingreal employment in the country.
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You can donate 500,000 or invest500,000 euros to accredited
institutions.
You can create a business, butyou need to actually put in
500,000 euros into that businessand also hire five permanent
staff.
So the difference is jobcreation.
You, you have to create at least10 or more full-time jobs in
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Portugal or in a business.
You need to invest that 500,000Euros into that business in
Portugal, and then also hirethose five permanent staff.
So depending on the type ofbusiness or the inve, uh.
Or the investment profile ofthat company, the financial
profile, one of those optionsmight make more sense for you.
You can also donate 250,000euros, or in some cases 200,000
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euros to cultural production.
So these are like philanthropic,uh, types of cultural funds that
you can donate to.
But you can no longer do the oneand a half million Euros capital
transfer where you're justmoving money from the US or
Canada or wherever your homecountry is, to Portuguese bank
accounts.
And you can no longer qualifywith real estate purchases or
real estate funds as well,because they're trying to
(09:07):
protect those, for the mostpart, for people, uh, that are
native Portuguese.
In terms of the process forapplying and getting approved
for this visa, it is relativelystraightforward.
You need a criminal backgroundcheck.
You need your passports, proofof actual investment in
Portugal, and there'sapproximately a six month period
of time from when you apply towhen you actually have that Visa
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issued, you wanna renew thisevery single year.
So their annual renewals forfive years After those five
years are up, there's a fewthings you need to know.
So first of all, those fiveyears, fortunately because the
Portuguese process forcitizenship and residency and
everything else is very slow.
Um, the.
Five years starts at the time ofthe application date, which
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means let's say that you applyfor this Portuguese golden visa
now, and maybe they take four orfive or six months or more to
process that visa.
The good news is the citizenshipwill actually start at the day
that you applied.
So that's kind of a nice littleperk, especially when you're
dealing with certain European.
Bureaucracies, which may not bethe most efficient, uh, in terms
(10:14):
of time and things like that,you do need to ha demonstrate a,
uh, level of Portuguese that'sat the A two level.
So perhaps you're taking a, atest or a certified course to
demonstrate that you have metthat language requirement.
You've gotta have a clean, cricriminal record, and of course,
no outstanding taxes to thePortuguese government.
(10:36):
It's really prettystraightforward with those
things.
In five years of yourapplication date, you should be
able to get Portuguesecitizenship for you and the rest
of your family as well.
So some of the eligibilityrequirements are you've gotta
have all the documents legalizedand translated in some cases of
parcelled, you've gotta havethat qualifying investment.
You must have a clean criminalrecord in your country of
(10:58):
origin, and you must be a non-EUnational, although if you were
already.
An EU national, I don't reallysee a reason why you would need
Portuguese citizenship in thefirst place.
So those are the newrequirements along with all the
changes and things that theyhave put in place to perhaps
make this more difficult forsome people, but still
accessible for others dependingon what you would like to do,
(11:22):
your lifestyle, uh, as well as,hey, you know, maybe living in
Europe is really important andunfortunately for people, uh,
that might not quite meet thoserequirements.
The requirements in the EUtypically tend to be higher,
let's say, than in LatinAmerica.
So let us know in the comments.
Do you think that these changeswill, let's say, prevent you or
someone you know from applyingfor that Portuguese golden visa?
(11:46):
Are you interested in applyingfor this for another country
perhaps?
And also, if you're looking toget started on this today, we
have immigration consultants andlawyers all over the world,
including Portugal in ourextensive network.
So you can go to entrepreneurexpat.com/consult, book a call
with our team there, and maybeit's Portugal, you end up going
to, maybe it's Mexico, where weare.
(12:08):
Of course we're a little biased.
Um, maybe it's Columbia, Panama,Costa Rica.
There's so many other countriesin the world.
Maybe it's somewhere inSoutheast Asia.
So we're gonna help to guide youin that free consultation.
Thanks so much for watching, andas always, stay tuned for the
next video.
We're pumping out excitingcontent about being an expat all
over the world every single day.
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And, uh, follow us on Instagramas well if you're not already.
Definitely reach out to us ifyou're interested in moving
forward with one of theseresidencies, and we'll see you
again very soon.
Bye for now.