Portugal's Immigration Visa

choi

蘇珊娜·門東薩, 記者來鴻：「中國錢」的利與弊. BBC Chinese, Mar 21, 2014
www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/fooc ... l_visa_scheme.shtml

, which is translated from

Susana Mendonca, Portugal Attracts Chinese Investors With Golden Visas. BBC, Mar 18, 2014 (video)
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26636829

Quote:

Portugal's Golden Residence Permit programme "gives foreign investors who spend 500,000 euros on a property here the right to live in Portugal. They are also free to travel around all the EU countries in the Schengen area and after six years they can apply for Portuguese citizenship.

"Since the residence scheme began in 2012, the Portuguese government says it has issued 734 so-called 'Golden Visas' and that's generated more than 440m euros. Not all of that has come from property sales though, because foreign investors can also get a Golden Visa by investing a million euros in capital or creating 10 jobs in Portugal. The vast majority of the people signing up - 578 ['80%'] of them - have come from China. * * * Foreigners only have to be in Portugal for seven days in the first year of residency.

"race to the bottom": "Foreign investor residence schemes have long existed in the UK and other parts of the world. But Europe's new wave has lower price tags. In Portugal and Spain investors have a minimum spend of 500,000 euros on a property to get a permit, in Cyprus it is 300,000 euros, and in Greece it is 250,000 euros.

Note:
(a) "Brian TANG, from Hong Kong, got a Golden Visa last year. He says demand is so high in China, that he's opened a branch of his immigration agency CBIEC, in Lisbon, to put people like Li in touch with Portuguese estate agents."
(i) I can not find the Chinese name, if any, of Mr Brian Tang.
(ii) It turned out that Mr Tang is not the owner, though he might "opened" the Lisbon branch.

CBIEC  华商移民
www.cbiec.com/huashangyimin/
has offices in Shenzhen (opened 16 years ago; doing business as [dba]: Shenzhen Chinese Business International Exchange Center Co, Ltd [CBIEC] 深圳市华商国际文化交流有限公司; owner 林海滨),
Shanghai (opened in 2011) and Portugal (2013).

(b) "Socialist MEP Ana Gomes"

MEP = member of European Parliament

(c) "Back in Cascais [a 'seaside town'], as we watch the boats sail by, [real estate agent] Nuno Durao from the property firm Fine & Country, tells me Golden Visas have saved the real estate industry here, and everyone benefits."
(i) Cascais
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascais
("30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Lisbon, with about 35,000 residents")
(ii) Nuno (given name)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_(given_name)