SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE:  Portugal is working to speed up its Golden Visa program, which had been facing long delays. These delays were damaging the program's reputation, as it Is one of the most popular residency-by-investment programs in Europe.

The country’s Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA) has announced that it will switch from a paper-based system to a digital one. There are currently around 45,000 to 50,000 Golden Visa applications waiting to be processed. The new online system will allow applicants to move their papers over to it.

This change aims to reduce the large backlog of cases. It comes after many investors took legal action, asking AIMA to speed up the process. Some applicants had been waiting for years to schedule their mandatory biometric appointment, where fingerprints and other personal information are collected.

Under the new system, AIMA will automatically schedule biometric appointments 30 to 90 days after applicants complete their online forms. They will also accept documents in English, Spanish, and French without the need for translation.

The Golden Visa program, which only requires participants to spend about seven days a year in Portugal, has raised over Euro-7 billion (USD7.2 billion) since it began in 2012. Most applicants come from China, Brazil, and the United States. However, a sharp rise in immigration after the Covid-19 pandemic led to even more delays in processing applications.

Portugal’s foreign population has more than doubled since 2018, reaching a record one million people, about 10% of the total population.

While Portugal ended the real estate-based Golden Visa option in 2023, non-Europeans can still apply for fast-track residency through other investments, such as a minimum Euro-500,000 investment in certain funds.

Other European countries are also seeing high demand for Golden Visa programs. For example, Spain plans to end its program in April. Greece and Italy also offer similar programs to non-European nationals.

Meanwhile, The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the registration period for H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2026 will start on March 7, 2025. This period will close on March 24, 2025. The H-1B visa is very popular among Indian IT professionals. It allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in jobs that need special skills or knowledge.