In the context of COVID-19 pandemic, and after the State of Emergency having been declared in Portugal, the Portuguese Government has been passing legislation on multiple areas to assure the continuity of important services and the rights and obligations of all citizens during this period.
As part of the set of measures which have been implemented by the Portuguese Government, the authorities have decided to suspend attendances in person at the SEF offices until 1st July 2020.
This was determined by Government Resolution no. 3863-B/2020 of 27th march 2020, which also decided that the appointments that had been scheduled until 27th March will be re-scheduled from 1st July 2020 onwards in chronological order.
The above resolution also decides that all people with pending residency applications that are living in Portugal will be considered legal and will be able to access the public services such as hospital, schools, enter into work contracts and lease agreements, and others.
The Golden Visa programme has not been subject to specific legislation and it is important to mention that all applications, both initial ones and renewals, are being processed as usual. The standard timeframes for processing applications have not been affected by the current situation.
As any legislative is a continuous and complex process, we will be monitoring daily any regulations which may have implications on the Golden Visa Programme and we shall be updating our clients promptly.
On March 14th 2024 the Moving to Portugal Show in central London saw a notable attendance, indicating a growing interest among British buyers in relocating to Portugal.
After our successful trip in February, Edge is returning to the USA this April to continue to provide expert legal advice for Americans looking at Portugal for investment and residency. This time we will be again in Los Angeles and San Francisco but we will also be adding New York and Miami to our roadshow.
Following our previous articles on the recent changes to the Portuguese Law of Nationality, we can now inform that the President of Portugal has now signed off the decree from Parliament that approved the said changes. This was the final act in the legislative process and consequently the law will now be published in the official gazette and become effective.