The Portuguese Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has processed 6,000 out of a total of 46,000 applications under the “Golden Visa“ program. This represents around 13% of the backlog of procedures. An additional approximately 30,000 applicants have been scheduled to provide biometric data.
The data was presented by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitao Amaru, before the parliamentary committee on constitutional affairs. According to him, the release of resources from other backlogs of immigration cases has allowed AIMA to direct more staff to family reunification and investment applications.
The average processing time for applications that were finalized in the second quarter reached 50.4 months. In the first quarter, that figure was 43.9 months.
Werner Gruner of Get Golden Visa sees the difference between 30,000 appointments scheduled and 6,000 completed procedures as a sign that the main bottleneck is no longer just biometrics. “Scheduling biometrics is no longer a bottleneck in the process, and the bottleneck is moving to the stage between biometrics and decision,” he says.
João Pedro Oliveira Cunha of MFG Consultants also warns that scheduling an appointment and completing the application are different stages. He said it was too early to conclude that the deadlines would be permanently shortened for all new applicants.
Applications submitted from January 2025 onwards are already going through a fully digital process and, according to immigration consultants, are being processed faster than older paper-based files.
However, expectations for new applicants remain different. Monteiro gives an approximate time frame of 14 months for the first card, while Gruner advises his clients to plan for around 18 months. Oliveira Cunha reports eight to nine months from submission to the invitation for biometric data, but stresses that these are real-life deadlines for specific cases, not a guarantee.
As of February 16, 2026, permit renewals will be done entirely online, and applicants can track the progress of their files via the AIMA portal. Consultants report more scheduled hours and a gradual influx of approvals, but identify the predictability of the procedure as an unresolved problem.
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