Portugal Golden Visa 2026: Still Open, and How to Qualify Through the €500,000 Fund Route

Yes. Portugal's Golden Visa is open to non-EU nationals in 2026, including UK, US, Indian and South African citizens, and its light stay requirement keeps it attractive to international investors. The most common route today is a €500,000 investment in qualifying Portuguese investment funds. It needs no property purchase, no business to run and only 7 days in Portugal in the first year. The one thing that has changed is property: since 7 October 2023, buying a home no longer counts towards the Golden Visa.

At Golf Homes International, many of our international buyers ask about residency alongside a home in Portugal. This guide sets out what qualifies in 2026, how the fund route works, what the Golden Visa gives you, and how residency and a home purchase fit together.

Facts in this article were last checked against official Portuguese sources on 23 October 2026. Rules change, so confirm the position with a qualified lawyer before you act.

Portugal's Golden Visa, formally the Autorização de Residência para Investimento (ARI), launched in 2012. For a decade the best known route was buying property, usually from €500,000. The Mais Habitação housing law (Lei n.º 56/2023) removed every real estate route, along with the €1.5 million capital transfer route, from 7 October 2023.

The rule is now explicit. Portugal's immigration agency, AIMA, states that a qualifying investment cannot be aimed, directly or indirectly, at real estate. That applies to the investment funds as well: a fund that buys property does not qualify.

People who applied under the old property route before the change were protected by transitional rules. For anyone starting today, residency and a home are simply two separate decisions, and many Golden Visa investors do both: they qualify through funds, and buy a home they want to spend time in.

AIMA lists the current investment routes on its Golden Visa page. None of them involve buying property. The minimums below were last checked on 23 October 2026.

For most private investors the fund route is the natural choice. There is no business to run and no property to buy, manage or let, the amount is clear, and the investment is handled by a regulated fund manager. The research, culture and job creation routes tend to suit people who already have a specific project in Portugal.

One point causes confusion. The €250,000 route is for arts and cultural heritage, not funds. Some funds accept subscriptions from a lower amount, but a Golden Visa through the fund route still needs a total of €500,000.

Who is eligible?

The Golden Visa is for nationals of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. Since Brexit that includes UK citizens, alongside buyers from the US, the UAE, India, South Africa and elsewhere. EU citizens do not need it, because they can already live in Portugal.

Alongside the investment, applicants generally need:

• a clean criminal record, with no entry ban in the Schengen Area;
• the investment made with money transferred from abroad, and evidence of where it came from;
• a Portuguese tax number (NIF);
• to keep the investment for at least 5 years;
• to meet the minimum stay rule, set out below.

Your lawyer will confirm the full document list, which can vary with your nationality and family.

The €500,000 can sit in one qualifying fund or be spread across several, as long as the total meets the legal minimum and the money arrives by transfer from abroad. Each fund manager provides a declaration confirming the fund meets the rules. There is no official public list of “Golden Visa funds”, so every fund needs checking on its own terms. Fund managers in Portugal are supervised by the securities regulator, the CMVM.

In practice, the process tends to run in this order. Your lawyer will confirm the exact documents for your circumstances.

AIMA does not publish a processing time and demand is high, so plan the timing with your lawyer rather than to a fixed date. Since February 2026, renewals have been handled through AIMA's online renewal portal.

The Golden Visa is a residence permit, and a valuable one: it gives you the right to live in Portugal while asking for very little time there. It is also worth being clear about what it does not do.

The citizenship change comes from Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, in force from 19 May 2026. Two details matter for new applicants. Time spent waiting for a residence permit no longer counts automatically towards the 10 years, and applicants must now show knowledge of Portuguese culture, citizens' rights and how the state is organised. Applications already pending on 19 May 2026 stay under the old rules.

On tax, the Golden Visa does not make you tax resident in Portugal, and it does not bring tax benefits by itself. If you later move to Portugal full-time, your tax position changes. The former Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime closed to new entrants in 2024. Its replacement, IFICI, covers qualifying work income in specific sectors, so it does not help retirees or most passive investors. Take tax advice in both countries before you move.

Golden Visa funds are investments, and they differ in strategy, fees, risk and how long your money is committed, so choosing well matters as much as qualifying. These are the questions we would expect any careful investor to put to a fund manager and to their own adviser.

The Golden Visa is popular because of the country behind it. Portugal was named Economy of the Year for 2025 by The Economist, ahead of the other 35 economies in its annual ranking, for combining strong growth, low inflation and a rising stock market. It is regularly placed among the safest countries in the world, and has a well-established international school sector around Lisbon, Cascais and the Algarve.

For many of our buyers, the lifestyle is the real draw. The Algarve has a long, mild season, sandy beaches and some of the best-known golf in Europe, from Monte Rei in the east to Vilamoura and its Old Course, Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago. Faro airport puts most of the coast within a short drive, and Lisbon has direct flights to North America and Brazil.

With a stay rule of only 7 days in the first year, the Golden Visa suits people who want a foothold in Europe now, while keeping their current home, work and tax base. Others use it as a first step towards moving later.

How does the Golden Visa compare with the routes an international investor has to live in the UK, France or Spain in 2026? Of the four, Portugal is the only one that gives you European residence without moving there or running a business.

Where Portugal stands out

It is the only route here that gives you European residence without moving there or running a business. Your money is professionally managed, and the stay rule is days, not months.

Where it doesn't

Buying a home does not count, the money is committed for at least five years, and citizenship takes ten. If you plan to move and build a business, France or the UK can lead to citizenship sooner.

UK citizens already have the right to live in the UK, so that column is for investors from elsewhere, and UK settlement rules are under review. This is a general comparison only, and each route carries conditions not shown here. Take legal advice in the country concerned.

Not everyone needs a Golden Visa. If your main aim is to live in Portugal, rather than keep a foothold while living elsewhere, a standard residence visa is often the simpler route, and it sits alongside a home purchase without any investment requirement.

The D7 and D8 thresholds are tied to Portugal's minimum wage, so they rise each January. The D7 figure increases by 50% for a spouse and 30% for each child. Both visas expect you to live in Portugal, so you become tax resident there, which is a very different position from the Golden Visa. Check the current figures with the Portuguese consulate in your country before you apply.

UK nationals who simply want to spend time at a holiday home can stay up to 90 days in any 180 without a visa. Beyond that, they need one of the routes above.

Many Golden Visa investors also buy a home in Portugal. That is a perfectly sensible plan, as long as the two are treated as separate decisions. The home does not count towards the €500,000, the fund cannot invest in property, and nothing about one should be presented as part of the other.

If you are thinking of doing both, two practical points are worth knowing before you start.

Purchase tax for non-residents changed in 2026. Under Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026, which added a new rule to Article 17 of the IMT Code, a buyer who is not tax resident in Portugal now pays a flat 7.5% IMT (property transfer tax) on homes used only as housing, with no exemptions or reductions, whatever the price. The difference can be refunded if you become tax resident within 2 years of buying, so the timing of any move can affect what you pay. Stamp duty of 0.8% is also due. Ask your lawyer to confirm how the rules apply to the specific property, especially resort units with tourist classification.

Keep the money flows separate. Your lawyer will want a clear record that the Golden Visa investment came from abroad and went into qualifying funds, with the property purchase funded and documented on its own.

For a full breakdown of purchase costs, see our guide to how much it costs to buy a property in Portugal, our practical guide to whether foreigners can buy property in Portugal, and six financial questions to ask before you buy in Portugal.