Since it launched, Portugal's Golden Visa has granted well over 12,000 investor permits and drawn more than 7 billion euros into the country. This page is the numbers behind the program: how many permits have been issued, how much money the scheme has raised, which nationalities lead the count, and what the real approval rate is. It also shows something no official report contains, which is what our own Golden Visa clients actually do with their money.
Since October 2012, Portugal has issued roughly 12,700 investor permits plus about 20,400 family permits under the scheme, for more than 33,000 total beneficiaries, and 2024 was its busiest year on record. We keep this page to the data. Eligibility, cost, processing times, the citizenship path, and the latest program news each have their own guide, and we link to them where they belong. For the program from top to bottom, see the Portugal Golden Visa complete guide.
How many Golden Visas has Portugal issued?
Portugal has granted roughly 12,700 main-applicant Golden Visas plus about 20,400 family members since October 2012, for more than 33,000 total beneficiaries. Those are the cumulative figures through the last detailed snapshot in late 2023, and the 2024 surge has since pushed the totals higher. The main-applicant count is the headline series the immigration authority has reported since the program began, first through the former immigration service and now through AIMA (aima.gov.pt).
The year-by-year record shows a program that ran steady for a decade, then spiked. The table below tracks investor permits granted each year. Family-member counts before 2023 are estimated. That is because the granular series the immigration authority published (SEF, now AIMA) headlined main-applicant approvals. The honesty section at the end explains which numbers are official and which are estimates.
| Year | Investor permits | Family members (est.) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 2013 | 494 | 800 | 1,294 |
| 2014 | 1,526 | 2,450 | 3,976 |
| 2015 | 766 | 1,250 | 2,016 |
| 2016 | 1,414 | 2,300 | 3,714 |
| 2017 | 1,351 | 2,200 | 3,551 |
| 2018 | 1,409 | 2,300 | 3,709 |
| 2019 | 1,245 | 2,000 | 3,245 |
| 2020 | 1,182 | 1,900 | 3,082 |
| 2021 | 1,297 | 2,100 | 3,397 |
| 2022 | 1,281 | 2,050 | 3,331 |
| 2023 | 1,210 | 1,554 | 2,764 |
| 2024 | 2,081 | 2,909 | 4,990 |
The 2024 spike is the story. In that year, AIMA cleared a large backlog. It issued around 2,081 investor permits plus about 2,909 family permits, roughly 4,990 in total, up about 72% on 2023 (AIMA Relatório de Migrações e Asilo, 16 Oct 2025). Some trade press rounds the total to 4,987, but the difference is rounding and the takeaway is the same. In fact, it was the busiest single year in the program's history.
How much the Golden Visa has raised
The program has attracted more than 7 billion euros in investment since 2012, most of it, historically, through real estate. The cumulative figure sits at roughly 7.3 billion euros across the program's life, and for most of that decade property purchases drove around 85% of the money. However, that balance changed sharply in late 2023.
In October 2023, Portugal removed the real-estate and the large capital-transfer routes under the Mais Habitação housing law (Lei 56/2023, dre.pt). As a result, new money since then has flowed into the routes that remain: qualifying investment funds, capital transfer for research, and cultural or artistic donation. The fund route, with its 500,000 euro minimum, has become the default, a shift our own client data captures in detail further down this page.
The investment minimums are simple to state and sit outside the scope of this page. A qualifying fund starts at 500,000 euros; a cultural donation starts at 250,000 euros, or 200,000 euros in a low-density area (dre.pt). For the full arithmetic, including government and legal fees and per-dependent costs, see the full cost breakdown. For who qualifies and which routes still count, see the Golden Visa requirements.
Since the 2023 reform, most new Golden Visa money has moved from property into qualifying funds.
Which nationalities get the most Golden Visas?
Americans are now the single largest group of new Golden Visa investors, having overtaken Chinese nationals, who still lead the all-time count. That crossover is the most important recent shift in the program's demographics, and it happened as US interest surged while Chinese demand cooled from its earlier peak.
The table below shows the top source nationalities from the last detailed breakdown the immigration authority published, in September 2023. The immigration authority stopped publishing this granularity afterward. As a result, this snapshot remains the most recent official ranking available.
| Nationality | Investor permits (Sep 2023 snapshot) | Share of these top five |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 567 | 37% |
| China | 306 | 20% |
| United Kingdom | 234 | 15% |
| Brazil | 219 | 14% |
| India | 199 | 13% |
China still leads the cumulative count, holding roughly 44% of all permits issued through the program's first decade. Notably, the recent flip reflects a wave of American applicants who now file more Golden Visa applications than any other nationality. We keep the US angle brief here and state only the ranking; the tax and planning detail for American investors lives in Golden Visa for Americans.
Getting help with this Deciding whether the Golden Visa still fits after the 2023 changes comes down to two things: confirming the program suits your goals and choosing a route that now qualifies, which means a fund, a donation, research, or a business, no longer property. Investors comfortable evaluating funds and assembling a source-of-funds file often handle this themselves. Where the assisted route earns its place is matching the right post-2023 route to your situation and clearing the fund due-diligence and lawful-source bar, handled remotely from the US. Roots Global helps clients choose a qualifying route and assemble the file.
Americans now file more Golden Visa applications than any other nationality, though China leads the all-time count.
What is the Golden Visa approval rate?
The Golden Visa approval rate is high, above 90% for complete, well-prepared files. Most refusals trace to a documentation gap or a source-of-funds problem rather than to a discretionary rejection, so a clean file has strong odds. The program was built to attract investment, and the process is designed to say yes to applicants who meet the criteria.
One figure needs correcting, because the whole SERP repeats it. The widely-quoted 98.5% is Portugal's citizenship approval rate, not the Golden Visa rate. The two are different measures of different processes, and copying the citizenship figure onto the Golden Visa is a common error we do not repeat here. State the Golden Visa rate as above 90% and treat any 98.5% "Golden Visa approval rate" as a mislabel.
Approval odds are separate from timing. AIMA's processing backlog affects how long a decision takes, not whether it lands in your favor; the stage-by-stage durations are covered in the processing timeline. If you are checking whether the program is open at all before you apply, see is the Golden Visa still available.
Who actually invests, and how? Our client data
Official statistics stopped breaking down who invests and how after 2023. In practice, our own client data fills that gap. Where the immigration authority went quiet on route and profile splits, our book of Golden Visa engagements still records exactly which route each investor took, their net-worth band, and why they applied. It describes our clients rather than the whole market, but it answers the question the public series no longer does.
What our Golden Visa investor data shows
According to internal client data from Roots Global, a relocation firm that has supported more than 2,200 visa applicants to Spain and Portugal since 2019, 82.9% of its Golden Visa clients have used the investment-fund route since 2024, up from 57.1% across all years.The October 2023 removal of the real-estate option shows up sharply in our book: property, once about a third of route choices, has fallen to zero among post-2023 investors, and the fund route absorbed almost all of that shift. Our Golden Visa clients also skew high-net-worth and Plan-B minded, patterns the charts below make concrete.
A "Plan B" residency option is the single most common reason our Golden Visa clients apply, named by 39.5% of them, ahead of EU mobility for their family at 22.9% and portfolio diversification at 21.4%.On net worth, our investors cluster in the 1 to 5 million euro range, with 37.1% in the 1 to 2.5 million band and 33.8% in the 2.5 to 5 million band.
**Observed processing time: across 151 of our Portugal Golden Visa files since 2023, the median time from application to decision was 415 days, with a middle range of 355 to 487 days.**That is one data point, not the full timeline. The stage-by-stage breakdown, and how AIMA's backlog moves it, lives in the processing timeline.
Source: Roots Global internal client data, aggregated and anonymized from more than 2,200 client engagements (completed visa and residency applications plus consultation records, 2019 to June 2026). These figures describe Roots Global's clients, not all applicants, and are not official government statistics.
Where do these numbers come from, and why are the 2024 splits missing?
Most Golden Visa "statistics" online copy the same September 2023 snapshot. Here is which numbers are official, which are estimates, and why the newest breakdowns do not exist. The short version: the authority that published the program's detailed data changed, and the granular series went quiet after 2023.
Portugal's immigration service, SEF, was dissolved in late 2023, and AIMA became its legal successor. AIMA now publishes the Relatório de Migrações e Asilo, the annual migration and asylum report, and the latest edition covers 2024 (aima.gov.pt). The historical granular series, the year-by-year nationality and route splits, originated with the immigration authority's historical data (SEF, now AIMA). We attribute those older figures to that successor archive rather than to any dead link, and we do not treat them as freshly re-published data.
The genuine gap is what makes our client data valuable. The authority stopped publishing detailed nationality and investment-route breakdowns after 2023, so official granularity for 2024 and later simply does not exist. Every "2024 nationality breakdown" you see online is either the old September 2023 snapshot relabeled or an estimate. This is exactly the void our own investor data, in the section above, is built to fill. On approval, the correction bears repeating once more: the 98.5% figure that circulates is the citizenship approval rate, not the Golden Visa rate.
Key numbers at a glance, and where each comes from:
- Cumulative investor permits since 2012: roughly 12,700 through late 2023 (official, immigration authority historical data), rising past 15,000 with the 2024 record year.
- Cumulative investment raised: roughly 7.3 billion euros (official, historical series; the real-estate share is an estimate).
- 2024 record: about 4,990 permits to investors and family, up roughly 72% (official, AIMA RMA, 16 Oct 2025).
- Top source nationality: the United States, ahead of China, from the September 2023 snapshot (official, but no update published since).
- Golden Visa approval rate: above 90% (estimate; the 98.5% figure is citizenship, not Golden Visa).
- Route and profile mix since 2024: 82.9% fund route (our client data, not an official statistic).
Portugal's immigration authority stopped publishing granular Golden Visa splits after 2023, which is why sources diverge.
See also
- Portugal Golden Visa complete guide
- Golden Visa for Americans
- Golden Visa requirements
- is the Golden Visa worth it
Frequently asked questions
How many Golden Visas has Portugal issued?
Portugal has granted roughly 12,700 main-applicant Golden Visas plus about 20,400 family members since October 2012, for more than 33,000 total beneficiaries, based on the last detailed snapshot in late 2023 (aima.gov.pt). The 2024 record year has since pushed the totals higher, past 15,000 investor permits. Later cut-off dates produce slightly higher figures, which is why sources vary.
How much investment has the Golden Visa raised?
The program has raised roughly 7.3 billion euros since 2012. For most of that period, around 85% of the money came through real estate, until property was removed as a qualifying route in October 2023 (Lei 56/2023, dre.pt). New investment since then flows into qualifying funds, capital transfer for research, and cultural donation, with the fund route now the default.
Is the US now the top nationality for the Portugal Golden Visa?
Yes, for new applicants. The United States is now the single largest source of new Golden Visa investors, having overtaken China (aima.gov.pt). China still leads the all-time cumulative count, holding roughly 44% of permits issued through the program's first decade. The crossover reflects surging US demand alongside cooler Chinese interest.
What is the Portugal Golden Visa approval rate?
The Golden Visa approval rate is high, above 90% for complete, well-prepared files. Most refusals trace to a documentation or source-of-funds gap rather than a discretionary rejection. Note one common error: the widely-quoted 98.5% figure is Portugal's citizenship approval rate, not the Golden Visa rate. The two measure different processes and should not be conflated.
What was the most popular investment option in 2024?
Qualifying investment funds. After real estate was removed in October 2023, funds became the default route for new applicants. Our own client data makes the shift concrete: 82.9% of our Golden Visa clients have chosen the fund route since 2024, up from 57.1% across all years.Capital transfer and donation make up most of the remainder.
Why do Golden Visa statistics differ between sources?
Two reasons. First, different sources use different cut-off dates, so cumulative totals rise the later the snapshot. Second, Portugal's immigration authority stopped publishing detailed nationality and route breakdowns after 2023, so many pages recycle the same September 2023 snapshot or fill the gap with estimates. Always check the as-of date behind any figure.
This article is for general information only and is not legal or tax advice. Visa rules and tax regimes change frequently. Verify current requirements with the relevant authority or a qualified professional before acting.
About the author
Vanessa Mororó is Head of Legal, Portugal at Roots Global. She advises HNWI and US-cross-border clients on Portuguese nationality, residency, and immigration matters, including the Golden Visa. LinkedIn.
Author bio is a placeholder pending Vanessa's final review. Years of experience, alma mater, and complete Person-schema fields will be confirmed before publication.
