Golden Visa eligibility:who the ARI is opento, and the edge cases

Who can apply

The Portugal residence permit for investment (ARI) is open to nationals of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who make a qualifying investment with funds transferred from abroad and who meet the conditions on criminal record, entry, health insurance and Portuguese debts.¹ The conditions are:

• nationality of a third country, outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland;¹
• no conviction for a crime that is punishable in Portugal by more than one year of imprisonment;¹
• no entry ban and no alert in the Schengen Information System;¹
• health insurance recognised in Portugal for the period of residence;¹
• a certificate showing no debt to the Portuguese tax authority or Social Security, issued within the previous 45 days;¹
• lawful entry and lawful stay in Portugal at the time of the biometrics appointment;¹
• a declaration on honour to keep the investment for at least five years.¹

There is no language test for the permit and no requirement to become tax resident in Portugal.¹ Those come later, and only for those who choose to move or to seek citizenship.

Who cannot apply

Three groups are outside the ARI regardless of the investment: citizens of an EU or EEA member state or Switzerland, people with a conviction for an offence that Portugal punishes with more than a year in prison, and people subject to an entry ban or a Schengen alert.¹ A fourth group is excluded by the investment itself: anyone whose money would end up, directly or indirectly, in real estate.¹

Dual nationals with an EU passport

A person who holds an EU passport alongside a third-country one is an EU citizen for the purposes of Portuguese immigration law, which governs third-country nationals and leaves EU citizens to the free-movement rules.² The ARI is not the instrument for that person; registration as an EU citizen exercising free movement is, and it is a separate procedure under a separate law that this site does not cover.

The question for an adviser is which regime the applicant is in and what that regime gives them, rather than whether the other passport can be used. An adviser who says the ARI is available should be asked for the article that says so.

Applicants with a conviction

The bar is a conviction for a crime that is punishable in Portugal by imprisonment of more than one year.¹ The test looks at the maximum penalty the Portuguese Penal Code attaches to the equivalent offence, not at the sentence actually served abroad, and not at whether the record is spent in the home country.

An applicant with any conviction should ask the adviser to map the offence to its Portuguese equivalent and state the maximum penalty in writing before the investment is made. Criminal-record certificates are required from the country of origin and from any country of residence of more than a year, so the record will surface in any event.¹

Applicants already in Portugal on another permit

A person who already holds a Portuguese residence permit of another kind meets the lawful-stay condition without difficulty.¹ The questions are about time, because the Nationality Law counts residence from the grant of a residence permit.³

• Does time under the existing permit count towards the five years for permanent residence, and towards the ten for naturalisation?
• Does switching to the ARI interrupt anything, or is it a change of basis within continuous legal residence?
• If the existing permit carries a higher presence requirement, does the ARI's lower one apply from the switch?

UK nationals

The United Kingdom is outside the EU and the EEA, so a UK national satisfies the nationality test on that passport.¹ A UK national who also holds Irish or another EU citizenship is in the dual-national position above.

Investing through a company

The investment may be made personally or through a single-shareholder company of which the applicant is the sole owner.¹ The vehicle does not change who the applicant is; it changes the evidence, because the commercial registry certificate of the company joins the file.¹ Ask why a company is being proposed and what it costs to maintain for five years.