1. Why Portugal, and how has The Golden Portugal evolved?
The business started with my own experience as a client. When I moved to Portugal in 2018, I hired a lawyer for my own residency application. I received incomplete and inaccurate information, and when I followed up, the lawyer simply stopped responding.
Coming from international finance, where clients expect transparency, speed and accountability, I found that gap hard to accept. Portugal was attracting serious international families, but the service around them often did not match the level of the decision they were making. I founded The Golden Portugal in 2020 to close that gap.
We began with a clear promise: every enquiry answered within 48 working hours. Since then, we have grown into an end-to-end partner for international families. Today we support more than 800 families from over 40 nationalities, covering Golden Visa applications, renewals, permanent residence and citizenship, as well as real estate, education consultancy, company formation and other relocation services. Portugal remains about 90% of our work, complemented by programmes in Greece, Hungary, Italy, Panama and Sao Tome.
2. What have 800+ families taught you about investor motivations?
The biggest lesson is that very few families are really buying a visa. What they want is a door to Europe that is always open, without having to change the life they have built.
Most of our clients are not planning to move tomorrow. Their careers, businesses and extended families are in the United States, UK, Hong Kong, Taiwan, anywhere in the world. What they want is optionality: the knowledge that if circumstances change, their family has somewhere stable, safe and European to go. The Portuguese Golden Visa fits this exactly, because it requires only 14 days in Portugal every two years.
The second lesson is that the decision is rarely about the investment itself. What it means depends on the stage of life. For parents, it is about the next generation: schools, universities and a long-term path to citizenship. For single professionals, it is about the freedom to live and work in Europe. For older couples, it is often about retirement, healthcare and a secure place to enjoy the years ahead. Whatever their situation, our clients ask far more about the future it opens than about the return it pays.
3. How have investors responded to the removal of real estate?
When the real estate route closed in 2023, many expected the programme to lose its appeal. It did not. Interest remains strong, and AIMA's 2025 report shows 2,685 Golden Visa permits granted to main applicants, up 29% on the previous year and the highest number since the programme began in 2012.
What changed is the profile of the investor. Families who wanted a property in Lisbon with residency as a bonus moved away. Those who stayed were clearer about their goal: residency, mobility and a path to European citizenship.
5. What did you learn from your 2026 outreach in Asia?
This year we engaged mainly with families in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, and it confirmed that Portugal has a very strong reputation in Asia. It is seen as safe, stable, welcoming and, above all, accessible: European residency without having to uproot the family.
The questions have become more sophisticated. Asian investors now arrive well informed about the programme and the nationality law change, and they want precise answers on timelines and costs. Many are thinking in decades: about their children's education, about having a second base, and about protecting family wealth across generations.
The main concern I heard was certainty. Families were less worried about the investment amount than about processing times and whether the rules would stay stable. That is why recent improvements at AIMA matter so much for how Portugal is perceived abroad.
6. What draws US families to Portugal, and how do they differ from Asian investors?
American families are increasingly looking for a Plan B. Political polarisation, concerns about safety and the cost of healthcare and university education have made many of them think seriously about a second home base. Portugal stands out for its quality of life, safety, climate, English-friendly environment and a lifestyle that feels both relaxed and European.
The motivations differ in emphasis. US clients often picture themselves actually living in Portugal one day, perhaps in retirement or for a few years with their children. They ask about the lifestyle, healthcare and how the tax system works for US citizens.
Asian families tend to approach it more as long-term planning: education pathways for their children, diversification of assets and currency, and a stable fallback for the whole family. Both groups, however, arrive at the same conclusion: they want options for their family, built calmly and before they need them.
7. Have security, education and quality of life become more important than the investment itself?
Yes, without question. The investment is the means, not the goal. When families sit down with us, the first conversation is rarely about returns. It is about safety, stability and what kind of future they want for their children.
Portugal answers those concerns unusually well. It is consistently ranked among the safest countries in the world, it is politically stable within the European Union, and it offers a quality of life that is hard to match. For parents, the long-term prize is education and opportunity: children who can one day study and work across 27 EU countries with the same rights as European citizens.
The financial investment matters, of course, and we take it very seriously. But for most families it is the price of entry to something much larger: security and choice for the next generation.
8. How important is long-term guidance in building trust?
It is the heart of what we do. A Golden Visa is not a single transaction. It is a relationship that can last ten years or more, through the first residence card, renewals, permanent residence and, eventually, citizenship.
Many firms focus on the initial application and step back afterwards. We see the opposite need. That is why every family we work with has a dedicated lawyer and a dedicated account manager who follow their case from start to finish, and if anything goes wrong, they can reach me directly. We commit to answering every enquiry within 48 working hours.
Trust is built through consistency over years, not promises at the start. The best measure of it for us is that about one in six of our new clients in 2025 came through a referral from an existing client, and that many families have transferred their cases to us from other firms midway through their journey.
9. How do you assess recent developments at AIMA, and what must improve?
Credit is due: AIMA has made real progress this year. Backlogs from earlier years are being cleared, families are being scheduled together for biometrics rather than months apart, and in one of our recent cases the biometric notification arrived just 19 days after submission. Applicants who completed biometrics in January 2026 began receiving their first residence cards in September.
The challenge now is predictability. Investors can accept a long process; what unsettles them is not knowing. Scheduling patterns have sometimes changed suddenly, which makes it hard for families to plan ahead around their appointments.
Two improvements would make a real difference. The first is published, realistic processing times. The second is a clear and consistent processing order: we have seen some applications scheduled ahead of others that were submitted earlier. Families accept waiting their turn; what they find hard to accept is not knowing where they stand in the queue. Certainty is what turns interest into commitment.
10. Which advantages should Portugal preserve, and where must it improve?
Portugal's greatest advantage is a combination no other European programme matches: a path to EU residency and, over time, citizenship, with a minimum stay of just 14 days every two years. Families can build a European future without giving up the life they have. Add safety, political stability, quality of life and the absence of inheritance tax, and the offer is exceptionally strong.
These are the features to protect. Investors value stability above almost everything, and frequent changes to the rules, even well-intended ones, damage confidence far more than any single requirement.
Where Portugal must improve is execution. Faster and more predictable processing, clear communication and a stable regulatory framework would allow the country to fully capture the interest it already attracts.
11. How important is cultural understanding?
It is essential. The same decision can mean very different things to different families. An American client may want flexibility and a lifestyle option. A family from Hong Kong or mainland China may be thinking about education, security and preserving wealth across generations. A Taiwanese family may be weighing all of these at once.
Understanding those differences changes how we communicate. We work in English, and Chinese, and that matters beyond translation. It means understanding how decisions are made within a family, who needs to be part of the conversation, and how much detail a client wants before they feel comfortable.
Having studied in Canada and built my career in Hong Kong and Portugal, I know what it feels like to navigate a system that was not designed with you in mind. That experience shapes how we guide our clients.
12. How can a Golden Visa grow into a deeper economic relationship?
The Golden Visa is very often the beginning, not the end. Once families have a legal connection to Portugal, many start to engage more deeply: buying a home, enrolling children in Portuguese and international schools, opening companies, or bringing their business activities into the country.
We see this directly in our work. Clients who first came to us for residency return for real estate, education consultancy, company formation and relocation services. Each of these is a further step into the Portuguese economy.
To encourage this, Portugal should treat Golden Visa families as long-term partners rather than one-off investors. Clear information on how to start a business, invest further or relocate, together with a welcoming administration, would turn initial capital into lasting participation in the economy.
13. What have been your greatest challenges, and what are your ambitions?
Building a business in a sector where trust is everything is never easy. Credibility has to be earned one family at a time, and as a woman leading an internationally focused firm, I have often had to work harder to be taken seriously in rooms where I was the only one.
My background in international finance helped. It gave me a way of working that is transparent, efficient and direct, and that is now the standard of the whole firm. Being named one of the Top 10 Women Alumni Leaders from the University of Toronto in 2025 was a meaningful recognition of that journey.
I have now lived in Portugal for eight years, and my connection to the country goes far beyond business. My daughter is half Portuguese, so Portugal is not simply where I work or hold residency. It is part of my family, and it always will be. In recent years I have seen some entrepreneurs come to Portugal and leave again when a more exciting opportunity appears elsewhere. I am not going anywhere, and I think our clients feel that. When a family trusts us with a journey that can last ten years or more, they need to know we will still be here at the end of it.
Looking ahead, our ambition is to be the most trusted long-term partner for international families in Portugal: accompanying them from their first enquiry to citizenship and beyond, and growing our presence across Asia and North America.
14. How should the Golden Visa's success be measured?
The numbers matter. Capital attracted and permits granted show that Portugal is competitive, and the 2025 figures are encouraging. But they only tell us how many families arrived, not how many chose to stay connected.
The true measure is trust over generations. Success is a family that invests through the Golden Visa, sends its children to study here, opens a business, perhaps buys a home, and eventually becomes Portuguese. That kind of commitment cannot be captured in a single year's statistics.
Portugal has already won the attention of the world. The next step is to earn its long-term loyalty, through stable rules, a reliable administration and a genuine welcome. Done well, the Golden Visa will be remembered not as a residency programme, but as the beginning of a lasting relationship between Portugal and families around the world.
