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She's Helping 1K Portugal Golden Visa Investors Sue · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Portugal Golden Visa is in chaos.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Property options are scrapped, tax regimes are ditched, new citizenship rules are enforceable.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you have investments in Portugal or if you are planning to invest, make sure you know this.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Madalena Monteiro.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the founder of Liberty Legal.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've sued the government multiple times and I won.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: As most of you know, the property option in the Golden Visa space in Portugal has been scrapped since 2023.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So now we have a program that is relying only on other types of investments like fund investments, cultural contributions, which have been quite popular lately.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: There has been some restrictions on the tax regimes that are available for people that want to relocate to Portugal.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now they are much more restricted and applicable only to very specific situations.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And regarding the citizenship law, for since last year, we have been monitoring very closely all of the developments in the parliament.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We are assisted to several meetings in the parliament, understanding the legislative process since over a year ago.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: We do believe that the whole process was filled with a lot of political moves.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: We feel that this was influenced by the growth of the most extreme right wing of the parliament that influenced a little bit the activity of the government who is trying to get all the voters of this extreme right wing of the parliament.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a process that was, in my opinion, made with not a lot of sense.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So on May 19, finally the new rules started to exist in the legal system.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were approved, signed by the president.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: They are applicable to everybody that is in currently.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: The new rules, in general terms, in what concerns Golden Visa alone, mean an increase of the number of years in order to reach the naturalization requirements.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if previously we were expecting to have a five-year timeline, and now we have a different timeline, seven years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and citizens of the European Union, and ten years for all the remaining citizenships.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is no brand fathering, no transitory regime, and it's applicable immediately.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Also, one of the changes that the new law did to the previous regime was to change the way the clock starts counting.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the past, before the law, the clock for the citizenship used to start counting from the moment of the submission of the application, which was very convenient because there are significant delays in the Golden Visa program in Portugal.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that time was already clocking for citizenship.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Under the new rules, the citizenship clock will only start to count when the residence permit is issued.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: An additional rule is regulated with knowledge of the Portuguese culture and history.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the introduction of a new test that is going to be regulated by a new regulamentation of the citizenship law within 90 days.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: We are not sure that the government will manage to approve these regulations within this time frame because, in average, in the since there was modifications to the citizenship law, we are speaking about a year or a year and a half to update regulations, which creates a little bit of uncertainty around the specific requirements, especially of this test.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very vague wording in the law, so nobody knows exactly what means Portuguese culture, or Portuguese history is a little bit more detailed, but cultural that needs to be defined.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of language requirements, we maintain the same as before.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have to either pass an A2 Portuguese level test or attend a course, 150-hour course that does not require a test.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is applicable to pending applications and to new applications as well.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, these changes left many people surprised.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think overall the changes represented the last drop.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: The glass was full, and this is the last drop of water that made all the everything collapse.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So people are very impatient, especially with the timelines of decisions in the residence permits applications.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are speaking about delays, sometimes can reach six years of delay without residence cards in the most extreme cases that I have received.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of situations that are very complicated to manage according to the new law, especially related with minors that are growing up within the families.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Investors passed away before receiving the residence permit, and this is also creating some issues in issuing the permits.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is everything that me, together with other law firms that join in a consortium, want to address a holistic litigation approach against the Portuguese state.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Regarding the collective initiative, that uh different law firms, now we are eight law firms in the consortium organizing a strategy.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: There has been a very big number of people interested in participating in this initiative collective.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: We basically set up an holistic approach that addresses all the different situations of each individual because not all situations fit on the same box.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: They have uh different details, different particularities, and all of those need to be considered in a lawsuit.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we develop this uh four-pillar strategy.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first pillar is related with public advocacy.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very important step.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: We will be contributing for articles in the Portuguese media, writing opinion pieces in newspapers in Portugal, trying a little bit to change the mentality of the average Portuguese person that, as we believe, it's not aware of the particularities of these changes and the impacts that it has on people that are applying for residence permits in Portugal.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: We believe that there's a very general misconception in Portugal about this kind of residence permits, about the individual situation of each one of applicants of a residence permit in Portugal.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we think that the public opinion is very important to address.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: We need to make sure that all the small details, all these little situations are public and known by the Portuguese overall.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: The second pillar is about rights recognition.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we plan to file a lawsuit, a collective lawsuit.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, we already have almost more than 1,000 power of attorneys to submit in the lawsuit to ask the court to recognize some rights, because we believe that in this uncertainty is creating a lot of unsafety in the Portuguese system and in people's lives.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we think it's important at some points receive some clarifications regarding how the clock starts counting, because the new law is not particularly accurate and doesn't define exactly.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: We assume that they are going to count the clock from the moment of the issuance of the residence permit, but we are not sure because that's not exactly what the law says.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: We think that's gonna happen because that's the way public administration is used to do things.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean it's the proper way.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we we plan to address that on a collective litigation to recognize some rights, to address the permanent residency timelines as well.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we are currently mapping all the different situations so that we can address each one of them in particular.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: We will file also a complaint in the Portuguese Ombudsman as well, because this is a public entity in Portugal that has some institutional powers.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: They relate with other uh entities of the government and other entities of the state.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have also a very important power, which is to request the fiscalization of the constitutionality of the law after the law becomes enforceable in the system.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a preventive constitutionality analysis.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we will address these points through the ombudsman.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first step of action.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was we plan to conclude it in just a few days.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We already have everything prepared to conclude it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's international arbitration treaties that impose some obligations to the states uh regarding stability of investment, protection of legitimate expectations.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we also plan to use those international uh bilateral investment treaties to activate the Portuguese state in the arbitration centers in Washington.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's where these cases they run.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we are already preparing for that.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have individual lawsuits because all these changes and the increase of timelines will create additional damages to people that are already inside the program.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: They will have to continue to renew their golden visa, which is not cheap.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the renewals they cost approximately 3,700 euros per person.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's already a significant cost.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that people need to maintain their investments locked for a higher period of time, that is also considered.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that impacts financially the applicants that are in the process and are affected on these new rules will be addressed on this civil liability responsibility uh lawsuit against the Portuguese state for damages.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we also plan to activate uh the human rights courts.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are some obligations because Portugal is part of the European Convention of Human Rights, so there are some obligations that are imposed through the state in order to treat with dignity and to exercise with efficiency the administrative power.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we will also address that matter through the European Court.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, we are already eight law firms.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: The consortium starts with four founding members.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are already eight.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have more law firms joining the movement, and we think it's time for everybody to seriously consider adhering to this strategy because as much people are involved in the strategy, the higher the impact, and the more chances we have in the future to be able to produce some legislative change.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the ultimate goal of this collective lawsuit.