Portugal golden visa for Americans
Portugal golden visa for US citizens
Americans apply for the Portugal golden visa on the same terms as everyone else outside the EU, and in 2025, for the fourth year running, they received more golden visas than any other nationality. What is different is US tax: the IRS generally treats units of a Portuguese fund as shares in a passive foreign investment company, so the fund you choose should send you the yearly statement that lets you elect QEF treatment.
What is the same for Americans
You invest €500,000 in a qualifying Portuguese fund, keep a clean record, and spend seven days in Portugal in the first year and fourteen in each two-year period after it. A US passport lets you enter Portugal without a visa, so you fly in for the biometrics appointment like any visitor. Your criminal record certificate is the FBI's Identity History Summary, apostilled by the US Department of State and translated into Portuguese, and it must be less than three months old when you file. Your spouse, your children and parents who depend on you come on the same investment. Everything else, from the requirements to the timeline, is on the Portugal golden visa page.
The US tax on your fund
A Portuguese investment fund is, for US tax purposes, usually a foreign company that earns passive income, which makes it a PFIC. How the IRS taxes it depends on an election you make with your first tax return after you invest.
| Treatment | How you are taxed | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| No election (the default) | Gains and large distributions are spread over the years you held the units, taxed at the top ordinary rate for each year, plus an interest charge. | Nothing, which is why it is the one to avoid. |
| QEF election | Each year you report your share of the fund's ordinary earnings and capital gains, and long-term gains keep their lower rate. | The fund's PFIC Annual Information Statement every year. |
| Mark to market | Yearly gains and losses in the units' value, as ordinary income. | Units that trade on a market, which golden visa funds do not. |
So the practical question for an American is whether the fund issues the PFIC Annual Information Statement. Your tax preparer makes the QEF election on Form 8621 with the return for the year you invest, and files a Form 8621 for the fund every year after.
The Portugal golden visa funds page shows which funds issue it beside everything else that decides the choice.
What else you report
The Portuguese bank account you open for the investment is a foreign financial account. If your foreign accounts together pass $10,000 at any point in a year, you file an FBAR with FinCEN for that year. The fund units themselves are a specified foreign financial asset, so Form 8938 goes with your return once your foreign assets pass its threshold, which starts at $50,000 for a single filer living in the US.
Portuguese tax
The golden visa does not make you a Portuguese tax resident. Portugal taxes you as a resident only if you spend more than 183 days a year here or keep a home here as your habitual residence. As a non-resident you pay no Portuguese tax on the fund's income or on your gain when the units are redeemed, once you give the fund proof that you are resident in the US, so a family that comes for its minimum days is taxed on the fund by the IRS alone. If you later move to Portugal, the treaty between the two countries decides which one taxes what first.
Citizenship and your US passport
Since 19 May 2026, Americans need 10 years of legal residence in Portugal and a test of Portuguese language and culture before they can apply for citizenship. You keep your US passport: Portugal allows dual nationality, and the US does not ask you to give yours up. Portugal citizenship by investment explains how the years are counted.
What it costs an American
The fund, AIMA's fees and the lawyers cost the same in euros as for anyone else, and the full cost of the golden visa sets them out. Add a US preparer who knows Form 8621, since each PFIC return is its own filing every year you hold the units.
Questions Americans ask
Can US citizens get the Portugal golden visa?
Yes, on the same terms as anyone outside the EU: €500,000 in a qualifying Portuguese fund, a clean record, and seven days in Portugal in the first year. Americans received 535 of the 2,685 golden visas Portugal granted in 2025, more than any other nationality.
Do I pay US tax on my golden visa fund?
Yes. The US taxes its citizens on their income wherever it arises, and the IRS generally treats units of a Portuguese fund as shares in a passive foreign investment company. With a QEF election you pay each year on your share of the fund's earnings; without one, gains are taxed at the top rate with an interest charge when you sell.
Will I have to give up my US citizenship to become Portuguese?
No. Portugal lets you keep your other nationality, and the United States does not require you to give up yours when you take another.
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