Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has processed 6,000 of 46,000 pending golden visa applications and scheduled appointments for another 30,000, according to the government. Appointments are not decisions, and the 6,000 figure represents about 13% of the queue.
Presidency Minister António Leitão Amaro presented the figures to parliament’s Constitutional Affairs committee on Oct. 7, where golden visas were a secondary item in a hearing largely focused on AIMA’s wider immigration backlog. A year earlier, at an October 2025 budget hearing, he had pledged to resolve the golden visa backlog during 2026.
Applicants have waited an average of 50.4 months, according to a media survey — a record, up from 43.9 months. Lisbon practitioners quote 14 to 18 months for newly filed applications. Portugal has ended the property-purchase route, but applications continue through other investment options.
Why Clearing the Backlog Matters
Portugal’s golden visa program remains open, even though property investment has been unavailable since October 2023. Since then, foreign investors have shifted to other routes, especially €500,000 investments in private equity and venture capital funds.
Clearing the older applications can help prevent new fund-based applications from facing similar delays. During the first five months of 2026, these funds received €283 million (about $330 million) in new subscriptions against €94.7 million in redemptions, according to APFIPP, the Portuguese investment funds association. Redemptions have run at roughly €20 million a month since January, up from historic levels below €5 million, as the nationality bill moved through parliament.
Much of the backlog consists of older paper-based applications filed under the property rules. Processing them will help AIMA complete the shift to electronic processing it began in 2025.
The pending applications also represent money already transferred to Portugal under earlier rules. Processing them helps the government meet its legal obligations to those applicants.
Who benefits?
Pending applicants and their families can resolve their residency status, receive family reunification approvals, and start the residence clock toward naturalization — now seven years for EU nationals and citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), and 10 years for everyone else, under the nationality law in force since May 19, 2026. Applications filed on or before May 18 remain under the previous five-year rule. Whether residence already accrued counts toward the new period is disputed and is the subject of a collective legal action.
Investment fund managers will have clearer timelines to share with international investors. These investors fund Portuguese businesses, technology and research.
New applicants using the fund or cultural donation routes will have their applications processed electronically, rather than through the paper-based process contributing to the backlog.
Current Portuguese Golden Visa Investment Routes
Applicants can invest €500,000 in regulated venture capital or private equity funds. At least 60% of the fund’s investment value must be in commercial companies headquartered in Portugal, and real estate is excluded.
A donation to culture or the arts must be €250,000, or €200,000 in a low-density area. Investments in scientific research must total €500,000 — €400,000 in a low-density area — and support national research institutions.
The job-creation route requires applicants to create 10 permanent jobs, or eight in a low-density area, with no minimum investment. Alternatively, they can invest €500,000 in a business and create five permanent jobs maintained for at least three years.
