Sorry, this entry is only available in Tiếng Việt.
Real Estate Changes After the Changes to Portugal Golden Visa
The changes limit the locations where you can invest in a property for a Golden Visa. The minimum investment amounts remain the same, while there are geographical restrictions on the qualifying areas.
You are no longer be able to get a residential property in major cities such as Lisbon or Porto or in coastal towns of the mainland.
Only the property investments inland and possibly rural or low-density areas are eligible.
Capital transfer change
The minimum investment amounts were increased, both for monetary and for the number of jobs.
- Capital transfer amount increased from €1 million to €1,5 million
- Investment Fund minimum subscription amount increased from €350,000 to €500,000
- Research and Development amount increased from €350,000 to €500,000
- Job and Company Creation: minimum incorporation amount increased from €350,000 to €500,000; the number of jobs remain at 5
The changes came into effect as of January 1st, 2022.
What Did Not Change?
The below investment options did not change:
- To launch a company in Portugal and employing at least 10 new local employees,
- €250,000 contribution in arts
The changes will not be retroactive to anyone who submits a Golden Visa application before December 31st, 2021.
There are many ways to apply for legal residency status in the US and to get a US green card, the official US government website below will provide you with all updated immigration categories.
https://www.uscis.gov/…/green-card-eligibility-categories
In general, there are 3 main ways to apply for US permanent residence:
- Through family,
- Through Employment, and
- Through Refugee or Asylee status
Therefore, buying a house as an individual in the US and apply for permanent residence is NOT subject to any immigration categories of the US government.
EB-5 Investor immigration program https://www.uscis.gov/…/eb-5-immigrant-investor-program is part of Employment category. EB-5 program currently have the most number of applications with the USCIS. The program is very simple investor only need to invest (for now $500.000 or $1.000.000) to a US entity in order to create 10 full time jobs. This will be the must condition that investor need for their immigration application with USCIS. There is 2 steps of this procedure:
- I-526 petition;
- Remove condition of I-526 and apply for I-829.
After receving approval of I-526 petition investor usually consider to buy a house for personal use or for an investment. One of the real estate markets currently attracting many foreign investors in the US is Florida. With an amount of about $300.00 – $400,000 investors can buy a newly built house with total area of about 140m2 – 250m2; 3-6 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms in Tampa city, the third largest city in the state of Florida.
Buying house or invest in a foreign market is not the same doing it in your local place and sometime it creates more problems then pleasure. In some particular cases people got ban from entry to US because not knowing the laws. Hence, investors should always get a professional consultant from reputable law firms to avoid potential issues of accidentally break the law when apply for a US green card or conducting an investment in the US.
GH
Although the programme was due to expire on 31st December 2021, but at the last minute, the government decided to extend the programme for a further year. However, the programme as we previously knew it has been amended for 2022 with some tighter rules in place.
Previously, Montenegro’s citizenship by Investment programme required a total minimum investment of €350,000, plus fees. This is divided into two parts, a real estate investment of €250,000 – €450,000, depending on the region, plus an additional government donation of €100,000. The donation requirement has now been increased to €200,000, with the additional €100,000 going to an Innovation Fund. With the new donation requirement of €200,000, plus the real estate requirement, the minimum cost will now start from €450,000, plus fees. Investors must also provide a bank guarantee of at least half of the investment amount to the government within 30 days of initiating the application.
In addition to the above changes, the government also stated that they will not be approving any new real estate projects for the programme, which is great news for the existing developments which still have available units. The current government-approved projects are estimated to be worth a staggering €450 million and should create a minimum of 2,200 new jobs for the country.
A Citizenship by Investment application in Montenegro takes approximately 4-6 months to be processed. Once approved, Montenegro passport holders will gain visa-free travel to 137 countries and territories worldwide. This includes the EU and Schengen Zone, and Russia. Montenegro’s passport value is likely to substantially increase once it is granted EU membership.
Investors who are interested in acquire future EU citizenship with reasonable investment amount can consider this as a golden opportunity for their family.
