Golden Visas: Anyone been through or going through the process in Italy, Portugal or Spain?

[Anonymous]

Seriously considering pursuing this as both a Trump and retirement strategy. Would love any firsthand experience.

[Anonymous]

As someone who is a dual citizen in another Golden Visa country--Greece--please stay home.

The Golden Visa folks have driven up housing prices hugely in Greece by buying properties, fixing them up, and then making them available for rent on AirBnB, simultaneously shrinking the available housing stock for year-round renters and driving up housing prices in general. I believe that's happening in the other Golden Visa countries as well.

[Anonymous]

Portugal isn’t an option for golden visa in any of the worthwhile areas and the real estate is a terrible value. Poor quality construction, hidden mold problems. And there’s no price history, they just jack up the list price by 50% hoping for some stupid American to drop tons of money on a dumpy property.

[Anonymous]

I am considering it, but I’d want to buy a property rather than make an investment. Portugal is a high investment and requires a full bank account too. Note that real estate purchase is no longer an option to get golden visa there. I was looking at St Lucia, has a real estate option and travel to Schengen and UK. I knew people that did this but they went through Lithuania.

[Anonymous]

Don't go to Italy to escape fascism.

[Anonymous]

We’ve been in the Portugal process for a couple of years. Literally nothing has happened on our application since then as there is a huge backlog (of all the visa categories, not just this one) and so the process is not as described and incredibly frustrating. At the moment the advice is to sue the government in order to get movement on the application, which many people have done. We don’t have any plans to move there anytime soon so for now we will just wait it out but we’ll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been in the Portugal process for a couple of years. Literally nothing has happened on our application since then as there is a huge backlog (of all the visa categories, not just this one) and so the process is not as described and incredibly frustrating. At the moment the advice is to sue the government in order to get movement on the application, which many people have done. We don’t have any plans to move there anytime soon so for now we will just wait it out but we’ll see.

Kickbacks generally help in the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain countries.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve been in the Portugal process for a couple of years. Literally nothing has happened on our application since then as there is a huge backlog (of all the visa categories, not just this one) and so the process is not as described and incredibly frustrating. At the moment the advice is to sue the government in order to get movement on the application, which many people have done. We don’t have any plans to move there anytime soon so for now we will just wait it out but we’ll see.

Welcome to our world dealing with USCIS. Can we sue them too?

[Anonymous]

No one wants Americans. They all think Americans are Trumpers and republicans shooting up elementary schools and criminals.

[Anonymous]

Golden visas tied to buying and rehabbing property are overrated. Many European countries have normal retirement visas (“non-lucrative”) where you just have to demonstrate assets or passive income.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps you already discovered this but most countries in Europe will be ending the Golden Visa program due to the negative impact on the local economy. They had hoped to stimulate economy with foreign investments but all these golden visas did was bring wealthy retirees who had no intention of building businesses, staying full time or contributing to society. It also created a huge strain on the housing market.

Portugal has already axed the program. I have a friend who is currently in litigation due to the lengthy wait periods for those whose cases were pending when program ended. Spain is likely poised to end the program in Jan 2025. Italy will likely be next.

There are other types of non-immigrant visas, of course, but the $500K Euro purchase of a property will not continue.

Contact a reputable atty in Spain or Italy to guide you on this.

[Anonymous]

I would research the governments in some of the countries you're looking at. It's not just the US that is moving far right, OP.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you try Mexico or Africa or Haiti? Why do all the leftists "fleeing" Trump ever go to all the vibrant places they want to import people from? It's always the white countries you guys flee to lol

[Anonymous]

If you want current info, join one of the Facebook pages that deal with the topic (investment/golden/retirement visas) and the country you're looking at.

[Anonymous]

Aside from Northern Europe (to some degree) and maybe Portugal (relative to other parts of southern Europe), the rest of Europe/UK is a crime-infested sh*thole. Stay in the US. Some of Trump's policies - lowering illegal immigration, cutting size of govt, tax cuts - all go to help the country and MC+. The rest of it - targeting people he doesn't like, christian nationalism, no more elections, etc. - I hope are fringe elements and won't see the light of day. This too shall pass.
I've never voted R and did not vote for T, BTW.