After a two month period of downtime, the SEF will be working with new Golden Visa rules as from Thursday 3rd September.
The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) suspended the Golden Visa programme on July 1st as there had been a distinct lack of joined up thinking when the old legal framework was upgraded.
This caused so many grey areas that the SEF decided simply to suspend the programme and work with government on tidying up the system so that the granting of Golden Visas was legal and seen to be legal.
Following the publication today of the regulatory decree, two months after the new Golden Visa laws were published in the official gazette, the scheme is back on track and can start to deal with the backlog of applications.
On 23 February this year, the deputy prime minister Paulo Portas, whose baby this scheme is, presented changes to the system of Golden Visa residence permits for investment activity and extended investment by foreigners to areas such as urban rehabilitation and scientific research.
On 30 June, the amendments to the law were published but it was soon clear that all was not well with loopholes and anomalies so the SEF suspended the Golden Visa scheme on 1 July, to the intense irritation of Portas.
Among the new rules is the buying of property to refurbish, that is at least 30 years old and is located in an urban regeneration area, for the total amount equal or more than €350,000.
Other areas include the transfer of capital in the amount not less than €250,000 to invest in and support artistic productions; the recovery or maintenance of national cultural heritage; and the transfer of €500,000 for the purchase of investment fund units or venture capital shares geared to the capitalisation of small and medium enterprises.
Also, the transfer of €350,000 to be invested in research activities undertaken by public or private scientific research institutions and the investment in scientific and technological systems.
Between October 8, 2012 and July 31, 2015 2,430 Golden Visas have been awarded with applicants spending €1.474 billion - money the government always refers to as 'investment' but in fact is simply money paid to a house owner who may or may not live in Portugal and may or may not bank the cash in a Portuguese bank, the latter being particularly unlikely.
The state's take is from the property transfer tax so the treasury has benefitted only by about €100 million.
China led the rush with 1,957 Golden Visas issued, followed by Brazil with 87, Russia with 79, South Africa with 60 and Lebanon with 36.
The changes that were made came in response to 5 high profile arrests in Operation Labyrinth in November 2014 with 11 defendants questioned for alleged corruption in the issuing of Golden Visas.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Miguel Macedo resigned while at the same time saying he had done nothing wrong.
Comments
Just last week we learn that a great many properties bought to supposedly anchor these Golden Visa types in Portugal are now on the market. And anyone with a minimal grasp of international finance will know that this 1 1/2 billion could be anywhere in the world now. Just like the Golden Visa type only now armed with a Portuguese EU passport. So, within the EU Schengen area - no questions asked.
And their money now kept elsewhere ? Only an imbecile would risk storing it in a Portuguese bank with them all at junk status as investments. And then finding some other bank doing a BES depositor scam on them before going t**s up!