HQA Visa Program FAQ

The card is typically sent to the address of the client’s company unless they instead give a residential address.

Even though the current time frame to issue residency permits is 4-6 weeks (about 1 and a half months), on AIMA’s website it indicates that their standard window of issuing permits is 30 –90 days (about 3 months)

Family reunification applications, as of January 2023, can be added to the principal applicant’s file from the very beginning. There may be a short gap between issuance of residence permits for the principal applicant and their family members.

Using Joana Reis law firm for family reunification, the cost per family member/dependent added to the principal applicant’s file is ~€2,500. This covers the initial visa, residency permit application, and residency permit renewals in year 2.

Yes we’ve had clients pay the program cost from their companies. In that situation we would need corporate documents to enable us to understand the connection between the client and the company. 100% ownership would be simplest but other situations could work provided we can become comfortable of the relationship. Mostly it is us that needs to vet the situation so that we can justify the payor’s connection to the individual client if asked. We also need to understand and disclose the relationship to our bank so the wire doesn’t get flagged.

The residency exemption in the regulations is Article 85, Part 4 and it can be found here in AIMA’s database.

No. Issuance of the residence permits to our clients alone should not trigger any tax residency. Instead, spending more than 183 days in any period of 12 months would legitimate the Tax Authority to deem any individual a tax resident in Portugal. However, having an address in Portugal referred to as first residency may also trigger tax residency, even if that individual stays in Portugal for less than 183 days. With this general advice in mind, and knowing that any individual who becomes a tax resident has until the following March 31st to apply for the NHR regime, we encourage all our clients to discuss their particular circumstances with tax advisors before the March 31st following receipt of their first residence permit.

The process of changing the tax residency to Portugal is not automatic. After obtaining the residency card, a request has to be made to the Tax Authority to change the tax residency, which means that having the residency card does not change the tax residency on its own. The Tax Authority might presume that you are tax resident in Portugal because you have a residency card, but that would only happen in case of an eventual tax inspection, which does not mean that the tax residency does not have to be requested by the taxpayer.

Yes, it is not restricted.

Yes.