On Christmas Eve, US President Biden officially signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023. The content of the bill took effect immediately, including AMIGOS ACT, and Portugal officially became a US E1/E2 contracting party..
The new law opens both E1 (Treaty Businessman) and E2 (Treaty Investor) visas to Portuguese citizens, allowing them to trade or make significant investments in the United States.
At the same time, the new bill adds new eligibility requirements for the E-1/E-2 visa : The E-1/E-2 visa can be open to citizens of allied countries who are naturalized by investment ("financial investment"), but only if they have lived in their new country of citizenship for at least 3 consecutive years.
What is the US E1/E2 visa?
E1 and E2 visas are both non-immigrant visas . They are mainly issued to citizens of other countries who have a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation or bilateral investment treaty (bilateral investment treaty) relationship with the United States to conduct business investment activities.
E-1: Engaged in real trading (Trader). The main trade is between the United States and treaty countries.
E-2: It means that you have invested in in , or are actively investing a substantial amount of funds in a real and legal American company (Investor). Businesses seeking to enter the United States for the sole purpose of developing and managing their investments.
The E-1 and E-2 visa programs are important to the United States because they promote foreign investment and create American jobs. The
E-2 visa is a long-term residence visa, valid for 5 years, and can bring many benefits to visa holders like a US green card. Legal spouses of E-2 visas and children under 21 years old can accompany them to the United States to study and live. The spouse can apply for a work permit, and the location of the work industry is not restricted; children can enjoy free education in public schools.
This is why this visa is often called "Not a green card, but better than a green card" .
Currently, there are no more than 100 countries and countries and regions in the world that are treaty countries with the United States and can apply for E visas. However, the validity period of the E visa and the number of times allowed to enter U.S. customs in each treaty country are not the same.
For example, Turkey and Ireland can apply for E-1 and E-2 visas, which are valid for 5 years (60 months) and are allowed to enter and exit U.S. Customs multiple times.
Another example is Grenada. You cannot apply for E-1, but you can apply for E-2, which is valid for 5 years (60 months) and is allowed to enter and exit the US customs multiple times.
Finally, to emphasize again, the NDAA has updated a new requirement that affects citizens who obtained citizenship in an Entente country through financial investment. Citizens who have obtained a passport from a treaty investor country through the Citizenship by Investment Program must reside in the treaty country for no less than 3 consecutive years before applying for an E-1 or E-2 visa. When applying in Portugal, you need to pay attention to whether you can meet the conditions~
Portuguese identity, it is better to apply sooner rather than later
As an established European power, Portugal’s golden residency program purchases a 500,000 euro fund ( can be redeemed after five years) tml6, the actual application cost is only 50,000 euros), your whole family can obtain overseas status, there are no language, education and work experience requirements, the processing speed is fast, the whole family enjoys free education, medical and other high-quality welfare systems, and the card holder can freely travel to 27 Schengen countries in Europe, which is very cost-effective.
However, the news about "Portugal Golden Visa is about to be shut down" and has caused an uproar on the Internet recently. On November 2, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa stated at the Lisbon Web Summit that the authorities were evaluating the survival of Portugal’s golden visa, and all conclusions would be announced after the Portuguese government completes the evaluation.
But fortunately, according to local media reports, the proposal to terminate Portugal’s golden residency program was rejected in the 2023 national budget. In other words, the Portuguese golden residency program will not be terminated for the time being in 2023.
Although the local national budget "extends" the Portuguese golden visa for one year, it does not mean that interested applicants can continue to consider it slowly.
First of all, despite the support of the Portuguese government's Social Democratic Party and right-wing parties, the Portuguese left-wing party alliance is still relatively insistent on shutting down the Portuguese immigration project. In addition, there has been ongoing debate in Europe about the abolition of the "Investment Immigration Program" or the "Golden Passport Program".
It can be seen from this that it is also a general trend for to raise the threshold for Portugal’s golden visa in the future or to shut down , so if you want to apply for European immigration status, you must act early!
