portugal has become the second european country this week to suspend its golden visa programme for wealthy noneuropeans the programme gives the rich residency permits and access to european unions borderless travel zone in exchange for investment golden visas offer the opportunity for wealthy people to essentially buy the right to residency sometimes even without having to live in that country however this practice has been seen as posing risks in terms of security money laundering and tax evasion as well as inflating real estate pricesearlier this week ireland closed its investor visa scheme that provided immigration rights to wealthy foreigners investing at least 1 million euros 108 million following criticism of such schemes by the european union while the scheme did not provide passports investors and qualifying family members could apply for citizenship after five years of residency in irelandthe immigrant investor programme offered irish residence in return for a 500000 donation or threeyear annual 1 million investment in the countrywhy did ireland end the golden visa considering the fact that irelands immigrant investor programme has overseen investments of over 12 billion euros over a decade the decision to terminate the scheme comes due to concerns over security of the country while the decision to terminate the programme will consequently be shutting off a profitable and substantial source of funds the concerns over the programme being utilised as an instrument in illicit acts clearly outweighs the former said pratyush miglani managing partner mvac advocates consultantspoint to note ireland had already suspended the scheme for russian citizens in march 2022 as part of sanctions imposed on the country for the invasion of ukraine in april 2022 the european parliament warned that the programme was vulnerable to tax abuse irelands iip was dominated by wealthy applicants from russia and china according to irish media reports this fact led to justice department officials recommending that new applications be haltedwhile portugal is scrapping the scheme to fight against price speculation in real estate ireland had cited eu warnings over the security implications of such programmesthe moves came a year after britain shut down a similar visa programme for the richcountries like portugal ireland greece and spain launched golden visa programmes to attract foreign investment in the wake of the financial crisis they brought in billions of dollars of foreign money and are credited with rejuvenating real estate markets in cities where demand had been low an estimated net inflow of 1300 millionaires into portugal occurred last year according to data from henley partners and new world wealthwhat exactly is a golden visa residence by investment schemes otherwise known as golden visas offer people the chance to get a residency permit for a country by purchasing a house there or making a large investment or donationgolden visa programs give highnetworth individuals hnwis the option of physically relocating to a favorable jurisdiction either now or upon retirement and becoming residents of that state with full legal rights including the right