Recently, the Portuguese political scene has focused on the progress of the Nationality Law amendment. The Socialist Party (PS) parliamentary group has formally requested a preventive constitutionality review of the bill by the Constitutional Court. According to Portuguese constitutional procedures, the entire law is suspended during the review period and cannot be signed, promulgated, or enacted by the President.
For Golden Visa investors:
The original policy remains unchanged.
After the submission of a preventive review, the process is transparent, time-bound, and legally binding. Until the Constitutional Court issues a ruling, all policies remain as they were.
In other words, the current Nationality Law policy remains status quo: the suspension of the law once again ensures that the current, more lenient Nationality Law (the five-year rule, including the calculation of AIMA waiting time) continues to be effective.
Next steps and timeline
It is predicted that the Constitutional Court's review cycle will be completed within 25 to 60 days. Previously, numerous constitutional scholars publicly pointed out the risk of unconstitutionality in the amendment, and there is a high possibility that the Constitutional Court will reject it or require amendments to certain clauses.
Two possibilities after the Constitutional Court ruling
• The Court approves the bill. The new regulations (stopping the calculation of the AIMA waiting period) will soon take effect.
• The Court rejects the bill. The new regulations will be completely abolished. The current law will remain unchanged for the long term, which is a positive development for all (existing and future) applicants.
Of course, uncertainty remains: the final outcome still depends on the Constitutional Court. However, the current political landscape means that even if the Constitutional Court approves the bill, future political maneuvering will be more complex. Worldway will continue to monitor the situation closely and will share any new information with you as soon as it becomes available.
Meanwhile, during the review of the Nationality Law, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is also significantly improving its administrative efficiency, bringing substantial benefits to applicants. Recent data shows that AIMA's approval speed has accelerated significantly, and a large backlog of cases is being processed at a faster rate.
Under this positive trend, the overall progress of the Portuguese Golden Residence Visa program continues to improve, with more and more applicants receiving approval notifications. As a professional immigration agency that introduced the "Portuguese Golden Residence Program" to China, Worldway, with its years of professional accumulation and continuous service, is constantly helping clients successfully obtain approval and achieve their family's global identity planning goals. (Please click the link to view Worldway's previous report: Good News! Worldway clients receive group notifications for Portuguese Golden Residence fingerprints)
Currently, through the Portuguese fund investment immigration program, investors can invest from 500,000 Euros to apply for Portuguese Golden Residence status for their entire family of three generations.
In addition, you can also immigrate to Portugal through the Portuguese cultural and artistic donation program. According to the bill, applicants only need to invest 200,000 Euros to apply for Portuguese Golden Residence status for their entire family of three generations, obtaining an EU passport conveniently and at a low cost.
(For details, please click to read: Worldway, along with Huawei, Tencent, etc., honored as one of the "Top 500 Asian Brands")
For more details on Portuguese immigration, please contact us in Mainland China at 400-138-2929, or our Hong Kong Customer Service Center at (852) 2802 8798.