Most foreigners qualify for NHR (Non Habitual Resident) status, that means they don’t pay income tax for income generated outside Portugal for 10 years and pay a reduced (20%) income tax on their Portuguese income.
Residents are entitled to use public health system, which is cheap (emergency consultation fee of 20 Euros in public hospitals) and can also subscribe a health insurance policy, amongst the cheapest in Europe, that extends the coverage to a well equipped network of private hospitals.
You can find great international schools throughout Portugal, with a good choice of English, French and German speaking schools, particularly in the Lisbon, Porto and Algarve areas. The Portuguese public school system is also open to foreign residents.
The Golden VISA allows you to live and work in Portugal and to travel freely within the EU, and can last for 5 years. After 5 years you are eligible for Portuguese citizenship, which allows you to live and work anywhere in the European Union.
Apart from the normal documentation from their home country, applicants are required to present proof of an investment (real estate, venture capital or creating a new business) in Portugal, with the amount starting at 350,000 Euro.
Residents in Portugal can enjoy the freedom of circulation and are allowed to travel anywhere to the European Union. Portugal is also part of the Schengen zone, which includes 25 EU states and Switzerland, meaning that residents can travel freely to any of the 26 countries that signed the Schengen agreement (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland).
The requirements for maintaining a Golden Visa include a stay of 7 days within the first year of residency and 14 days for every 2 year period after that.
Yes, the application can include your spouse, children and parents over the age of 65, who are able to work and live in Portugal even if they don’t reside there permanently.
Yes, the OECD does keep a blacklist of visa programs that provide insufficient transparency, that includes some EU members (such as Malta and Cyprus), but Portugal is not and has never been included in the list.
If you are interested in investing in Portugal or at least considering it as a possibility we’d be happy to provide you with an initial consultation, free of charge, to see if our partner network can provide you with the services and assistance you will need in the whole process, from handling official requests and registration to procuring an investment that not only meets Visa requirements but is an excellent opportunity by itself.