Torrem West of the Terreiro do Paço.
Gold visas are the main form of Russian investment in Portugal, after the revocation of the suspension of the attribution to Russian citizens.
Russian Foreign Direct Investment (IDE) in Portugal Increased 49% in the last three yearsreaching 450.6 million euros, even after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to data from Banco de Portugal. By 2024, the Russian IDE stock rose 50 million euros, but the application of these resources has not yet been detailed by the authorities.
One of the main focuses of IDE Russo was obtaining residence authorizations for investment activity (ARI), known as “Visas Gold”. Although the Portuguese government has suspended the granting of “Gold Visas” to Russian citizens after the beginning of the conflict, this suspension was revoked by the agency for integration, migrations and asylum (AIMA) in August 2024, the.
According to Vera Chalaça, lawyer for Valadas Coriel and Associates (VCA), the suspension was raised after court decisions that contradicted the freezing of visas based on a non -binding recommendation of the European Commission. The lawyer states that VCA had several cases between 2023 and 2024 in which “Visas Gold” were granted to Russian citizens through judicial interventioneven before the official end of the suspension.
“The Russian citizens we represented were far from being oligarchs or regime collaborators and made modest investments. We never accepted someone who was subject to sanctions, ”he says.
In 2021, Russia was the fifth country with the most “gold visas” attributed (65 in total), but the figures of 2023 and 2024 were not disclosed. The sanctions of the European Union specifically aim at individuals and entities linked to the Russian governmentincluding banks and companies from strategic sectors.
In the general panorama, the total IDE in Portugal reached 200.3 billion euros in 2024, being the Grande Lisbon The main destination (53% of the total). Spain led as the largest foreign investor, followed by China and Brazil, who stood out outside the European context. Romania also entered the top-10, driven by Digi’s entrance to telecommunications.
In total, the IDE in Portugal grew 19% compared to 2023, reaching 13.2 billion euros, with the real estate sector to receive 3.5 billion of this amount.
