Golden visa options

[SpartacusF]

I’ve just spent 90 minutes in the non-Schengen lepers’ queue at Faro airport, only to get back to this grey, cold, depressed UK. I’m also bumping up to the 90 days out of 180 that I can spend in Europe. I was dimly aware that there are ways to get residency, or at least an ID card, for any one of a number of EU countries that allow unlimited travel in Europe. Has anyone any recent experience or advice?

[Before the music stops]

Not sure these will give you unlimited free movement around the EU, just unlimited stay in that particular country. Obviously, as there are few fixed borders within the Schengen zone, who's to know where you are moving about, but it something to consider.

Also consider the tax position. If you remain somewhere for more than 6 months of the year, you will need to pay your taxes there.

Portugal is a pretty good shout as they have a NHR (non habitual residency) scheme which is VERY tax efficient for 10yrs.

[Griffith4ever]

Spend 250k Euros min on a house in Greece for their golden visa.

[rdjohn]

I have a Spanish visa, that gives me 180-days there, but I can also use the general 90-day allowance within Schengen. Buying the property is only one-step, we also have full 12-month health insurance at about €3500pa and I paid the lawyer about another €3500 to process our application. The Golden visa lasts for 3-years, then we have to reapply.

As I was living there at Brexit, I also have a 10-year visa for France, but similarly, that only gave me the 90-days in Spain.

If Starmer could achieve anything then reciprocity for the 180-days that we allow for EU citizens would be a win for most people.

[JEA1K]

SpartacusF said:

I’ve just spent 90 minutes in the non-Schengen lepers’ queue at Faro airport, only to get back to this grey, cold, depressed UK. I’m also bumping up to the 90 days out of 180 that I can spend in Europe. I was dimly aware that there are ways to get residency, or at least an ID card, for any one of a number of EU countries that allow unlimited travel in Europe. Has anyone any recent experience or advice?

I'll tell you what two options I have for Spain currently:

Digital nomad visa
Work remotely in Spain, for a Uk company, cannot earn more than 20% if your income from Spanish company. Can be extended up to 5 years at which point you can apply for full residency. I run my own business and can work remotely ... this gives us the breathing space to settle into Spanish life before we comit to buying a house.

Golden Visa
500k euro in terms of investment into the ecomony, which in our case would a house purchase

Each country has their own rules. Portugal have suspended or ended their goden visa programme. Many countries are seeing property prices increase because of the golden visa as a lot of people don't have any intention of living in said country. A yearly visit retains their visa status. Greece is 250k, Netherlands is 1m euro

[Griffith4ever]

You don't even have to visit Greece, ever, for their Golden Visa. I'm there now looking at villas! :-)

( Explains why a lot are getting scooped up by Russians, and apparently, Chinese. Russians for sure as sat next to a most unusual (Russian) couple last night for dinner, in a tiny Taverna in the middle of nowhere!, and also friend was here recently and was told the Russian influx is a big thing)

[Guyr]

Golden Visas only give you the ability to stay in that specific country and claim tax residency there. The 90 day rule still stands for non-EU citizens, but days spent in the country of the visa are excluded from the calculation. It is only an EU citizenship/passport that gives 365 days access across the EU.

However in practice, if you are allowed to stay in one mainland EU country all year, they don't track movements across Schengen so they'd never actually know if you exceeded the limits in other countries unless you flew between them.

[Griffith4ever]

Correct. But, if I buy a house in Greece I'm not going to need / want to stay in any other country in the EU for more than 90 days... I'm going to want to be in my dream house in .... Greece.

ith the correct applications you can become, an EU citizen at 7 years after moving over.

[SpartacusF]

Thanks all, I’ve narrowed it down to the Portuguese route via property. This gives me a residence permit, and then after five years can apply for citizenship, which comes with a passport. I’m not too clear on what freedoms the residence permit gives. I know I can stay in Portugal, but can I use it to travel around Schengen Europe without my British passport being stamped and the 90/180 rule applying?

[Before the music stops]

As has already been said, residence visa will not give you right of free movement around EU so your 90/180 will still apply for all of the EU aside from the country that is giving you residency (as you remain a UK citizen). If you are in mainland Portugal and you travel across the border, noone will probably notice, but if you get yourself into a spot of bother, it might goes a little sideways on you.

[PF62]

SpartacusF said:

I’ve just spent 90 minutes in the non-Schengen lepers’ queue at Faro airport, only to get back to this grey, cold, depressed UK. I’m also bumping up to the 90 days out of 180 that I can spend in Europe. I was dimly aware that there are ways to get residency, or at least an ID card, for any one of a number of EU countries that allow unlimited travel in Europe. Has anyone any recent experience or advice?

I assume before going through that hassle you have checked you or your spouse have no ancestry that would give either of you EU citizenship, Irish citizenship being the most common because it can be inherited from a single grandparent, but there are possibilities with other EU countries.

And a lot of people don't realise that if one person in a married couple is an EU citizen then the other is not constrained by the 90 day rule when traveling with them (they are constrained when traveling on their own).

[rdjohn]

Until he has a Portuguese passport the OP will still be standing alongside all the other non-EU citizens in the leper queue waiting to have his passport stamped.

And then only 90-days in other Schengen countries

[languagetimothy]

SpartacusF said:

Thanks all, I’ve narrowed it down to the Portuguese route via property. This gives me a residence permit, and then after five years can apply for citizenship, which comes with a passport. I’m not too clear on what freedoms the residence permit gives. I know I can stay in Portugal, but can I use it to travel around Schengen Europe without my British passport being stamped and the 90/180 rule applying?

I’m a Brit in Portugal. Have traveled within Schengen several times but only by air. There is no passport control for these flights. I only use my Brit passport as ID at the gate and when booking the tickets. It’s maybe possible to use my residents card but haven’t tried that yet, maybe next time but I’ll have my PP on me anyway just in case. In theory, if travelling by road and there is any border check, I could just show my residents card. When coming back to PT from a trip “outside” the area, I try the E gates first with UKPP and if not I join the EU queue and hand over residents card and PP so it’s not stamped.

[Griffith4ever]

So in theory you could stay as long as you wanted in other EU countries as there is no stamp in your passport... you could have "arrived the day before", by land border

[rdjohn]

I read yesterday, that the implementation of the Schengen-wide electronic passport control has been delayed and will not now come into effect until May 2025.

So not very relevant if you become a permanent resident of an EU-Schengen country, but if you remain tax-resident in the UK, then it could become something of a barrier. Only time will tell.

[PF62]

Griffith4ever said:

So in theory you could stay as long as you wanted in other EU countries as there is no stamp in your passport... you could have "arrived the day before", by land border

Like many things, that's a fine approach to take unless the authorities decide they want to investigate you for some reason, and then it isn't because it is really really hard to not leave a paper trail of where you have been.