Portugal bans ‘golden visas’ for Russian citizens

Portugal announced a complete ban on residence permits in exchange for investment also known as ‘golden visas’ for Russian citizens as part of EU sanctions imposed on Russia over its unprovoked war of aggression waged in Ukraine.

Portugal had issued 431 ‘golden visas’ to Russians in total, including seven since the beginning of this year, and reportedly attracted €277.8 million ($281.4 million) in investment since the launch of the privileged visa program.

But, according to the Portuguese media reports, total of ten citizens of Russian Federation who applied for Portugal’s ‘golden visas’ have been turned down since Moscow ordered its armed forces to attack its democratic, pro-Western neighbor.

According to Portugal’s media reports, Ukrainian citizens have received 51 residence permits in exchange for €32.5 million ($33 million) in investments since the launch of the program.

Over 60 privileged visa programs for obtaining citizenship or residence permits in return for investment exist throughout the world.

After Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine, several European countries, including the Czech Republic and Malta suspended their programs.

Meanwhile, the authorities in Greece have doubled the minimum investment amount required for obtaining the golden visa from €250,000 ($253,800) to €500,000 ($507,600).

Several EU states have also proposed a complete blanket ban on all Russian citizens entering the European Union.

Few days ago, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland announced that they would no longer allow entry to Russian tourists holding Schengen visas, starting from September 19. The blanket ban makes an exception for travel on humanitarian grounds.

Portugal however opposed imposing a blanket ban on Russian citizens entering the European Union.

“Portugal considers that the fundamental objective of the sanctions regime should penalize the Russian war machine, but not the Russian people,” the country’s foreign ministry said.

So far, the European bloc was not able to come to agreement on a complete Russians’ ban, limiting itself to the suspension of the simplified visa regime with Russia for the time being.