Task group to assess end to gold foreign residence permits

  • Lusa
  • 10 November 2022

The government is setting up a working group with the ministries of the economy, foreign affairs and home affairs to assess the end of the gold foreigners' residence permits scheme.

Portugal’s ruling Socialist government is setting up a working group with the ministries of the economy, foreign affairs and home affairs to assess the end of the gold foreigners’ residence permits scheme, following the prime minister’s announcement, the economy minister said.

“Following the announcement by the prime minister, a working group is being set up with the ministry of the economy, the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of home affairs,” António Costa Silva, the economy and maritime affairs minister said on Wednesday, adding that “at this time, there is no decision” taken.

The minister was responding to questions from the PSD (Social Democratic Party), in a joint hearing of the parliamentary committees for Budget and Finance and for Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing, as part of the committee stage debate of the draft state budget for 2023 (OE2023).

The prime minister said last week that the government is evaluating the continuity of the gold visa regime for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal, admitting that its maintenance may no longer be justified.

António Costa was speaking to journalists at the end of a nearly two-hour visit to the Web Summit exhibition area at the Lisbon Industrial Fair (FIL), after being asked about the special tax regime aimed at so-called “digital nomads”.

The prime minister defended the continuity of the policy of attracting investors to Portugal, especially in the technological area, but made a distinction in relation to the regime of gold visas, in which you get a residence permit in the country following, for example, the purchase of a high-value property.

“There are programmes that we are currently re-evaluating and one of them is that of gold visas, which, probably, has already fulfilled the function it had and that at this moment it is no longer justified to maintain,” said the leader of the executive, with the minister of the economy, António Costa Silva at his side.