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Portugal Vows 2026 Golden Visa Backlog Resolution as Lawyers Denounce “Shameless” Timing

André Miranda characterized the minister's statements as "very offensive and shameless." Madalena Monteiro finds it "hard to believe in any promises."

Ahmad Abbas

IMI
• Amman

Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) will resolve outstanding golden visa applications in 2026, generating 85 million euros in revenue, Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro announced during parliamentary hearings on the 2026 State Budget. 

The promise comes one day after parliament voted to extend citizenship timelines to seven or ten years for new applicants.

Leitão Amaro defended the government’s prioritization strategy during the October 29 hearing.

“Next year we will resolve the outstanding issues that, for reasons of social equity, we left until the end, which are those that pay the most, the ‘golden visas,'” he told lawmakers.

The minister framed the approach as a moral hierarchy. Authorities first processed the poorest and most vulnerable immigrants, then citizens from the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), then those with expired cards unable to visit families. 

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The government deliberately placed golden visa holders last.

Legal professionals reacted with sharp criticism to both the admission and its timing. André Miranda, partner at Fieldfisher, characterized the minister’s statements as “very offensive and shameless.”

António Leitão Amaro

He questioned whether public governance should operate according to what he described as “the scale of moral values of the Minister.” 

The explicit admission of deliberately leaving investors behind could become evidence in legal proceedings, he noted.

The government has made promises of swift resolution before without results. AIMA contacted all investors in early 2025, requesting application resubmissions with expectations of 30 to 90-day approvals. AIMA never met those deadlines, according to Miranda.

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AIMA scheduled thousands of biometric appointments overnight following the minister’s announcement, according to both Miranda and Madalena Monteiro, founder of Liberty Legal. 

They say AIMA is assigning these appointments for the first quarter of 2026, spanning January through March.

The timing raises additional concerns for pending applicants. Parliament’s newly approved Nationality Law extends citizenship eligibility to seven years for EU and CPLP citizens and 10 years for other nationalities. 

Authorities typically take two to three years to issue residence permits, pushing the effective naturalization timeline to 9-13 years for most golden visa holders.

That law includes no transitional regime or safeguard clause for applicants awaiting residence card approvals. 

Miranda pointed to this gap as rendering the minister’s 2026 promise effectively meaningless for those who have waited years.

The minister’s announcement directly preceded this legislative change by a single day. “Therefore, the Minister’s promise will have no impact whatsoever on all those who have been waiting for years for approval,” Miranda observed.

Monteiro agreed with Miranda’s assessment while acknowledging that the situation required attention. The timing appeared too coincidental, coming immediately after the citizenship law vote.

She said that despite the positive elements in the announcement, investor frustration remains high. She noted that applicants “find it hard to believe in any promises” after years of delays and unmet commitments.

Leitão Amaro emphasized the scale of Portugal’s immigration regularization effort during his testimony. 

Amaro says authorities have resolved 93% of pending immigration cases (all types), processing 500,000 criminal records and collecting biometric data from applicants. He characterized this as “the biggest regularization operation” Portugal has undertaken.

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