The Golden Visa being sold to you ended three years ago
If someone is offering you Portuguese residency in exchange for buying an apartment, stop the conversation there. That route closed in October 2023 — and the fact that it is still being advertised tells you most of what you need to know about who you are talking to.
What follows is the honest state of the programme in 2026, including the change most brochures still leave out. It matters far more than the investment threshold.
What disappeared
Lei 56/2023, the "Mais Habitação" package, removed property from the Golden Visa entirely. Buying a flat, renovating a ruin, or parking money in a Portuguese bank account no longer qualifies anyone for residency. The programme itself survived; its most popular door was bricked up.
Worth being blunt about, because the property route is the reason most people had heard of the Golden Visa at all.
What is left in 2026
Investment funds — €500,000. Venture capital or private equity funds qualifying under the ARI rules. In practice, this is now the main route.
Scientific research — €500,000. Into accredited research institutions.
Arts, culture and heritage — €250,000. The lowest threshold on the list.
Job creation. Creating employment in Portugal, with requirements varying by region.
Figures indicative. Confirm the exact eligible instrument before committing funds — the list of qualifying funds is narrower than it looks, and "Golden Visa eligible" in a fund's own marketing is not the same thing as confirmed eligible for your case.
The part that actually changed the maths
Here is what most people are still not being told.
On 3 May 2026 a revised nationality law was promulgated. It extends the qualifying residency period for citizenship from five years to ten for most applicants, and from five to seven for EU nationals and citizens of Portuguese-speaking countries (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and others).
That alone doubles the timeline. But there is a second change underneath it, and it is the one that hurts.
A 2024 rule allowed your qualifying clock to start from the date you submitted your residency application. The 2026 law revoked it. The clock now starts only when your residence card is actually issued — and with AIMA's current backlog, people wait 18 to 24 months for that card.
Who is fighting it — and what that means for you
This has not gone quietly. A consortium of nine Portuguese law firms filed a formal complaint with the Ombudsman on behalf of 1,260 Golden Visa investors, an amicus curiae brief went to the Constitutional Court, and more than 500 holders have moved to sue the Portuguese state, arguing it changed the terms of a deal they had already paid for.
One point is settled, and it matters more than the litigation: applications submitted before the new law came into force are processed under the old five-year regime, and the Constitutional Court has confirmed the law cannot apply retroactively to pending citizenship applications. If you are already in the queue, your position is materially different from someone starting today. Establish which side of that line your file falls on before you accept anyone's timeline.
So does it still make sense?
For a specific person, yes — and that person is more particular than the marketing suggests.
The Golden Visa's real feature was never speed to a passport. It is the minimal physical presence requirement: you hold residency while living elsewhere, counted in days per year rather than months. If what you want is an EU residency option you can keep without moving your life, that logic survives the 2026 changes intact.
If your goal is to live in Portugal, this is the expensive door. The D7 (passive income) and D8 (remote work) routes cost a fraction, move faster, and land you in the same naturalisation queue — now under the same ten-year rule. Paying half a million euros to join a queue you could have joined for the price of a visa application is a decision worth making deliberately, not by default.
The honest alternative nobody sells you
Portuguese property is still a perfectly good investment. It simply no longer comes with residency attached.
Those were always two separate decisions, and bundling them is exactly what made the old programme so easy to mis-sell. Buy property because the numbers work — in that market, in that city, at that price. Choose a residency route because it fits how you actually intend to live. When one purchase is asked to do both jobs, it usually does neither well.
A practical filter
Next time someone pitches you the Golden Visa, listen for two things.
If they mention property as a qualifying investment, they are describing a programme that ended in 2023. If they quote five years to citizenship without first asking when your file was submitted, they have not read the law that passed in May.
Either one is enough to end the meeting.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules verified July 2026 — thresholds and nationality rules are moving targets, and this one moved twice in three years. Confirm your case with a licensed Portuguese lawyer before committing funds.
Re-locant.com is a free, independent guide.
Guidance, not legal or tax advice — verify your case with official sources.