Portugal's golden visa program has quietly reopened to Russian and Belarusian applicants who had been subject to a ban since Russia entered Ukraine in early 2022. Unlike previous, well-publicized restrictions, the decision to re-admit them came without any public notice at all.
“Russians and Belarusians were never legally prohibited from participating in the program,” explains Madalena Monteiro from the Lisbon law firm Liberty Legal. “The story begins after Russia enters Ukraine, when Portugal’s interior minister Augusto Santos Silva announced in an interview that golden visas are suspended for Russians and Belarusians.

She noted that Portuguese lawmakers had never passed any law formally suspending those nationalities from the program. "What we're seeing is the Russians' cases being put on hold."

In other words, their applications just weren't being processed. Although their queuing round has arrived and passed, they have not been directly rejected, nor have they been approved.

Madalena Monteiro, who has successfully sued Portuguese immigration authorities more than 170 times over the past two years on behalf of Russian and Belarusian clients, said the government's ban was informal and emboldened her to take action. "At the end of 2022, I decided to file a subpoena on rights, freedoms and safeguards," she said. "This is a special court procedure that I have taken against the authorities, based on the fact that this informal suspension violates fundamental rights in the constitution, such as the right to human dignity, the right to legal security, the right not to be discriminated against on grounds of nationality rights, etc.

One of the initial responses she received during these court proceedings was that the Portuguese immigration agency SEF (later AIMA) pointed to a recommendation by the European Commission urging the suspension of applications by Russian and Belarusian nationals on the sanctions list.
Madalena Monteiro said: "However, in these cookie-cutter responses, AIMA stated that they have decided to suspend the applications of all Russian and Belarusian nationals, regardless of whether they are sanctioned, in accordance with 'superior instructions'." In the case I was responsible for, the judge repeatedly asked SEF/AIMA to explain the meaning of "superior instructions", but never received a response.

Time and time again, judges rule in favor of Russian and Belarusian applicants. Madalena Monteiro pointed out that these cases have become widely concerned for the following reasons:
1. The lack of formal legislation providing for the suspension violates the principle of legality;
2. The European Commission’s recommendations are only recommendations, not laws or regulations, which leave member states free to decide whether to adopt them. Recommendations are not a source of law;
3. Even if the recommendations are adopted, there is still no legal basis for suspending Russians and Belarusians without any sanctions;
4. Even if such a law is passed, it It would also be a clear violation of the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of nationality stipulated in the Portuguese Constitution.
Now, Madalena Monteiro points out, “We see that the moratorium has been lifted. But it’s still the same, there’s no official word on it. There’s no announcement about it within AIMA either. Still, I’m starting to see Several processes that had been on hold for years were suddenly restarted, she said, and several Russian clients had been able to schedule their biometric appointments without any legal intervention or court proceedings. In one such case, the client had been waiting for the issuance of a residence card for more than six months. Finally, on the first day after rumors about the lifting of the moratorium began to circulate, his application process entered Casa da Moeda, which was responsible for producing the residence card.
Now that the ban has been lifted, most practitioners following the matter do not expect any major public announcements to confirm the reopening.
At least two. An investment immigration professional with Russian clients confirmed Madalena Monteiro’s statement.