The Portugal Golden Visa in 2026: what changed, and is it still worth it?

If you have been reading the headlines, you could be forgiven for thinking Portugal quietly closed its Golden Visa. It did not. As of 2026 the programme is still open and still accepting new applicants. What changed is the way in.

Two big shifts have unsettled a lot of the advice you will find online. First, the property route that made the Golden Visa famous was scrapped back in 2023. Second, a new nationality law in 2026 stretched out how long you have to wait before you can apply for a Portuguese passport. Both are real, both matter, and both are widely misunderstood. Here is a calm, honest walk through what is left, what changed, and whether it still makes sense for your family.

What actually changed

Two separate reforms are usually blurred together, so it helps to keep them apart.

2023: the property route ended. Under the "Mais Habitação" (More Housing) package, Law 56/2023, Portugal removed every real estate option from the Golden Visa in October 2023. That means the old €500,000 residential or commercial purchase, the €350,000 rehabilitation of buildings over 30 years old, and the lower-density variants all disappeared for new applicants. The €1.5 million straight capital-transfer option went at the same time.

2026: the citizenship clock got longer. A revised nationality law extended how long you must be resident before you can naturalise. We cover that in detail below. Importantly, it does not touch your ability to hold or renew the residence permit itself, and it does not close the programme.

So if a website is still telling you to "buy a €500,000 apartment for your Golden Visa", it is out of date. That door has been shut for over two years now.

The routes that still exist in 2026

The programme now rewards investment into the wider economy rather than into housing. As of 2026, according to Global Citizen Solutions, the surviving routes are investment funds, scientific research, cultural or heritage donation, and job creation or business capitalisation. Here is how they compare.

The figures for these routes are drawn from immigration law firm Fragomen, with the fund conditions detailed by Get Golden Visa. One note of caution: some sites claim the scientific research figure can be discounted in low-density areas the way the cultural and job-creation routes are. We have not been able to confirm that against the statute, so treat the €500,000 research figure as flat until a lawyer confirms otherwise for your case.

Why the fund route became the default

With property gone, the €500,000 investment fund has become the route most applicants look at first. To qualify, the fund has to be registered with the CMVM, Portugal's securities market commission, hold at least 60% of its capital in commercial companies with their head office in Portugal, run for a minimum of five years, and carry no direct or indirect real estate exposure. It is a genuine investment with genuine risk, not a fee, so the choice of fund matters enormously and is firmly a job for a licensed adviser.

The new citizenship timeline

This is the change that has caused the most worry, so it is worth being precise. Portugal's revised nationality law, Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, was approved by Parliament on 1 April 2026, signed by the President on 3 May 2026, published in Diário da República n.º 95/2026 on 18 May 2026, and entered into force on 19 May 2026, as reported by Immigrant Invest and confirmed by Portuguese law firm GFDL Advogados. Where the exact dates matter to your case, verify them against the primary Diário da República text.

What it did:

• Extended the general naturalisation requirement from 5 years to 10 years of residence.
• Set a shorter 7-year track for nationals of EU and CPLP (Portuguese-speaking) countries. The 10-year and 7-year figures are corroborated by Global Citizen Solutions and by Sovereign Group.
• Changed when the clock starts. Under the new law the residence period is counted from the date your first residence permit is issued, rather than from when your application was submitted, per Get Golden Visa.

Here is the part that gets missed: this changed the citizenship timeline, not the residency itself. Golden Visa holders can still apply for permanent residency after 5 years. It is only the passport that now sits further out.

Honesty matters here more than anywhere. As of mid-2026 this law is still settling, and it is subject to pending regulation. How the new clock applies to existing Golden Visa holders who have not yet filed a citizenship application is not yet fully clear, official guidance is still awaited, and the change has reportedly drawn legal challenges. A transitional provision keeps nationality applications filed on or before 18 May 2026 under the prior regime (Lei n.º 37/81), but the details are exactly the kind of thing that shifts. If citizenship, rather than residency, is your goal, please treat every timeline you read online, including ours, as provisional and get advice from a licensed Portuguese immigration lawyer before you act.

How much time you have to spend here

One thing that did not change is the reason many people chose the Golden Visa in the first place: you do not have to move to Portugal to hold it. The physical presence requirement remains light, roughly 7 days per year, commonly described as 7 days in the first year and 14 days across each subsequent two-year period, according to the Global Residence Index.

That is the core distinction between the Golden Visa and a route like the D7 visa, which is built around actually relocating and spending most of the year in Portugal. If your plan is to live here full time, the D7 is often the better and far cheaper fit. The Golden Visa suits people who want a foothold in the EU while keeping their life mainly elsewhere.

Who is still using it

The programme is smaller and quieter than in its property-boom years, but far from dead. According to AIMA's Migration and Asylum Report, released in October 2025 and relayed by Immigrant Invest, 2,081 Golden Visa (ARI) residence permits were issued to main investors during 2024, alongside 2,909 permits for their family members. In context, Golden Visa titles made up under 1% of the 218,332 total residence titles Portugal issued that year, a useful reminder that this is a niche route, not the main way people come to Portugal.

The United States was the leading source nationality for Portugal's investment residence permits in 2024, ahead of China, per Global Citizen Solutions. One caveat worth knowing: since 2023, AIMA has stopped publishing granular breakdowns by route and nationality, so the most recent figures are partial rather than complete.

So, is it still worth it?

There is no honest one-size answer, but there is a clear way to think about it. It comes down to what you actually want.

• If you want to live in Portugal, the Golden Visa is probably not your route. The D7 or other residency options are cheaper and designed for people who move here.
• If you want an EU residency backstop while keeping your main life elsewhere, and you can commit €500,000 into a fund at real investment risk, it still does something no cheaper visa does: it asks for almost no physical presence.
• If your main goal was a fast passport, the maths changed in 2026. With citizenship now 10 years out (7 for EU and CPLP nationals) and the rules still settling, the timeline is longer and less certain than it was.

Our honest take: the Golden Visa in 2026 is a narrower, more investment-led programme than the one people remember. It still works well for a specific kind of person, and it is a poor fit for others who would be better served by a simpler route. The worst thing you can do is act on out-of-date advice. Get the current rules confirmed by a licensed specialist, and match the route to your actual goal.