Portugal suspends Golden Visas for Russians & Belarusians

Portugal's Foreigners and Borders Service is looking into the possibility of suspending Golden visas issued to Russian citizens because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

So, Russian citizens who are interested in Portugal's Golden Visa scheme must be aware that the scheme is not expected to be in motion within the next few months, as visaoperations.com reports.

In this respect, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva stated that more people from Russia are likely to be sanctioned within the next few days.

"SEF has stopped the acceptance of any candidacy dossier to be able to obtain a residence permit through investment, more commonly referred to as golden visas for Russian residents," Augusto Santos Silva stated in this regard.

According to him, the same applies to Belarusian citizens who want to benefit from Portugal's Golden Visa Program, as said by Resident.

The SEF reported that EUR277.8 million had been transferred into the country through golden visas given to Russian citizens from the time that the program was introduced. However, SEF stressed its belief that golden visas given to Ukrainians resulted in EUR32.5 million into the nation.

With the golden visa, scheme Internationals can get the golden visa subject to certain amounts of investments in any of the countries participating in such schemes to be granted residency.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European countries, including the United Kingdom, also agreed to stop the sale of gold passports to wealthy Russian citizens, allowing investors to invest in Russia as a way of gaining citizenship.

The golden passports allow the holders and relatives to freely move throughout the Schengen Zone countries.

In addition to European countries in addition, as well, the United States and Canada also have agreed to restrict the sale of passports issued to high-income Russian individuals.

It was confirmed by an official statement issued by the Commission of the EU.

"We commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship--so-called golden passports--that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems," the statement of the Commission of the EU reads.

The sanctions imposed on Russia was the removal of certain Russian bank accounts from the SWIFT banks.

Additionally, Russia's incursion into Ukraine caused European Union countries to close their airspace Russian flights.

In a meeting at the Council of the European Union on February 28th, it was agreed to add 26 Russian individuals as well as one Russian organization to the roster of people who are subject to restraint measures.