The group of Golden Visa investors has lodged a collective complaint with the Ombudsman’s Office and intends to meet with the new Ombudsman within the next 15 days.

The investors are asking the new Ombudsman, Luísa Neto, to refer the new Nationality Law to the Constitutional Court and to intercede with the Government so that a solution can be found to protect people who had already applied for citizenship, or who have been waiting for years for a residence permit.

The newspaper ECO reports that the investors are calling for the creation of a transitional scheme, which would count the statutory period from the moment the application was submitted. Should the Government fail to provide a response, the group of 1,260 investors will proceed in September with legal action that could involve 2,000 investors.

The new Nationality Law has not changed the golden visa scheme; however, it has doubled the time required for foreigners to acquire a Portuguese passport from five to ten years. The same publication also reveals that the period for obtaining a passport only begins to run once the residence permit has been received, and not when the application was formally submitted, as was the case in the past.

Changes are on the table that affect investors who began the citizenship process via an investment visa, namely the ARI or golden visa. Many of the investors were caught off guard by the changes and say they are prepared to take legal action against the Portuguese state.

Catarina Almeida Garrett, co-founder of AGPC, quoted by ECO, states that they are ready to initiate legal proceedings in September if nothing is resolved by that date.

AGPC Investments is one of the firms representing the 1,260 gold visa investors mentioned earlier in the article.