{"id":580552,"date":"2022-05-02T07:01:42","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T05:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=580552"},"modified":"2022-04-29T16:14:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T14:14:42","slug":"heres-how-many-south-africans-are-moving-to-portugal-and-the-changes-for-golden-visas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/580552\/heres-how-many-south-africans-are-moving-to-portugal-and-the-changes-for-golden-visas\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s how many South Africans are moving to Portugal &#8211; and the changes for Golden Visas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africans planning a move to Portugal through a Golden Visa scheme will face increased pressure as the country has made it increasingly difficult to gain access.<\/p>\n<p>Originally created in 2012, the Golden Visa is issued to non-EU nationals who have made a specific investment in the country. Investors can gain Portuguese citizenship through residency-by-absence and gain EU citizenship after holding temporary residency status for five years.<\/p>\n<p>Data from Sable International shows that South Africa is the fourth most popular country that Golden Visa applicants hail from, with over <strong>416 Golden Visas issued to South African investors<\/strong> by the end of 2021 \u2013 excluding accompanying families.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme was\u00a0most recently updated on 1 January 2022 with the Portuguese government upping the visa costs and restricting where people can move:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Investment Fund option increased from \u20ac350,000 to \u20ac500,000 (R8.4 million);<\/li>\n<li>The Capital Transfer option increased from \u20ac1 million to \u20ac1.5 million (R25 million);<\/li>\n<li>Real estate investment for residential purposes will be limited to interior areas of the country as well as Madeira and Azores islands;<\/li>\n<li>Urban areas, such as Lisbon and Oporto, will be available to buy commercial and touristic properties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Clampdown on Golden visas\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The European Union has also raised concerns around \u2018citizenship by investment\u2019 (CBI) schemes, under which third-country nationals obtain citizenship rights in exchange for a sum of money, undermining the essence of EU citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>In a meeting held in March 2022, the EU parliament said that there are potential security risks in handing out citizenship &#8211; citing Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine and the fact that many Russian oligarchs hold dual-EU citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>It added that this practice, which is common in places like Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus &#8211; is a form of &#8216;free-riding&#8217;, as member states sell what was never intended to become a commodity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ep-wysiwig_paragraph\">Noting the less severe risks posed by \u2018residence by investment\u2019 (RBI) schemes, called rules to help tackle money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stringent background checks (also on applicants\u2019 family members and on sources of funds), mandatory checks against EU databases, and vetting procedures in third countries;<\/li>\n<li>Reporting obligations for member states, including a \u201cnotification and consultation\u201d scheme to allow other member states to object; and<\/li>\n<li>Requirements for minimum physical residence (for applicants) and active involvement, quality, added value, and contribution to the economy (for their investments).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/579368\/the-true-cost-of-being-middle-class-in-south-africa\/\">The \u2018true\u2019 cost of being middle class in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africans planning a move to Portugal through a Golden Visa scheme will face increased pressure as the country has made it increasingly difficult to gain access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":518718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-580552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":580566,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580552\/revisions\/580566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}