Nigerians seeking European residency through Portugal’s Golden Visa programme now face tougher conditions, with property purchases permanently off the table, a €500,000 minimum investment on the primary route, and a fresh parliamentary move that could double the waiting period for citizenship.
The changes, introduced in phases between January 2022 and October 2023 and finalised in the first quarter of 2026, eliminated the real estate route that once accounted for roughly 75 per cent of all Golden Visa approvals since the programme launched in 2012.
Pinch reports that under the current regime, investors can no longer purchase residential or commercial property anywhere in Portugal to qualify for residency. The €1.5 million capital transfer option which allowed applicants to simply deposit funds in a Portuguese bank was also scrapped.
“Get Golden Visa” also reports the most significant development came this week. On April 1, 2026, Portugal’s parliament approved a revised Nationality Law by a two-thirds majority. The law has now been sent to the President, who may sign it, veto it, or refer it to the Constitutional Court for further review. If it takes effect, it will extend the current five-year pathway to citizenship to ten years for most applicants, and seven years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries with no grandfathering protection for those who have already started the process.
For Nigerians still interested in the programme, the fund investment route is now the dominant pathway. Applicants may invest €500,000 in scientific research, donate €250,000 to cultural heritage projects, incorporate a company worth €500,000 that creates at least five jobs, or directly create ten permanent jobs.
Punch reports that Nigerian uptake of the programme, while modest, has been growing. Data from Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum showed that 44 Nigerian nationals, alongside 77 dependents, received Golden Visas between 2019 and April 2025, with applications doubling each year since 2022 driven by naira devaluations that made euro-denominated residency permits attractive as a hedge against currency risk.
A further blow for high-earning Nigerian applicants: a Nigerian investor earning significant foreign income who would have paid zero tax under the old Non-Habitual Resident regime may now face standard Portuguese income tax rates of up to 48 per cent, unless they qualify under the narrow new scheme targeting professionals in science, technology, and innovation.
