AIMA has issued 386,000 residence permits in 2025, marking a 60% increase compared to 2024 driven by strong migration inflows and attractiveness of Portugal as major investment destination among foreigners
Golden Visa Statistics
According to AIMA Statistics for 2024, AIMA granted a total of 4990 golden visas in 2025 (2,081 residence permits for investors and 2909 labeled family residence permits. The top investors in golden visa program are Americans followed by Chinese and Russians.
- USA – 406
- China – 296
- Russia – 248
- UK – 147
- India – 140
- Turkey – 128
- South Africa – 100
- Brazil – 98
The Minister of Presidency announced in 2025, AIMA has already committed to AIMA will clear the Golden Visa backlog by 2026 pending residence permit files and renewals under Portugal’s investment-based residency (Golden Visa) that have not yet received a final decision. It includes applications at different stages (pre-approval, biometrics, issuance/renewal).
2023
As of September 2023 the program had resulted in 33,142 residence permits granted, of which 38.4% went to investors and 61.6% to their family members, SEF statistics reveals. 42.5% of the investors who have benefited from the program came from China, other significant countries include Brazil (10%), the US (6.1%), Turkey (4.8%) and South Africa (4.5%).
Around 6.5 billion euros (€) were invested in the acquisition of 11,383 real estate properties (averaging 566,754 €), but only 23 jobs were created.[105] In addition, around 867 million euros (€) were transferred to Portugal.[106] The lack of new jobs led to the end of program in July 2023
In October 2023, Portugal dissolved the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) and replaced it with the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA). AIMA inherited a backlog of unresolved immigration cases. Over 327,000 residence permit applications were pending,[179] later increasing to 400,000–460,000 cases in 2025
Foreign Population
AIMA revises downward the number of foreigners living in Portugal totalling 1,543,697 residents. Brazilians are the most numerous foreign nationality. The 484,596 resident Brazilians represent 31.4% of the total foreign population.[3] Other significant immigrant communities (excluding naturalized citizens) are from other countries of the Lusosphere. In 2024, 258,981 residents were from the 6 PALOP countries (Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde), in addition to 1,845 people from Timor-Leste.[3]
A thriving community of people from the Indian subcontinent (chiefly Indians and Nepalis) numbers 254,177
