The Portugal Golden Visa Biometrics Appointment: What to Expect in 2026

The Portuguese Golden Visa has become one of the most sought-after residency-by-investment programs globally. This program offers investors the opportunity to obtain Portuguese residency by making a qualifying investment. As part of the application process, potential investors need to schedule a biometrics appointment. 

A biometrics appointment is a scheduled session during which a Golden Visa applicant provides physical identifiers like fingerprints, photographs, and sometimes a signature to verify their identity for immigration or legal purposes. These appointments are also commonly required for other visas, permanent residency applications, or citizenship processes. 

During the session, the provided data is securely collected and cross-referenced against databases to ensure there are no security or identity concerns. In this article, we take a closer look at the biometrics appointment for Golden Visa applications in 2026, such as the costs, the entire procedure, and more. 

Portugal Golden Visa Biometrics Appointment: Key Takeaways

A biometrics appointment is required for the Portugal Golden Visa applicants to provide fingerprints, photos, and a personal signature to Portuguese authorities. 

Appointments are scheduled after the pre-approval process and must be attended in person in Portugal. 

AIMA (Portugal’s immigration authorities) chooses a date for your biometrics appointment, which can occur 18 to 24 months after you submitted your Golden Visa application.  

Every applicant attends the biometrics appointment, and in some cases, dependents have their own individual appointment.  

The appointment itself can last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.  

During the biometrics appointment, you pay a €8,418.90 fee per applicant for the residence permit issuance.  

Your physical residence cards are then printed and issued after the final approval, which can take an extra 9 to 12 months.

Aided by its high ranking on the Global Peace Index, relatively affordable and quite diverse options, the Portugal Golden Visa scheme has established itself as one of the most popular worldwide. 

To qualify, you must make a minimum investment of €250,000 in cultural heritage or arts, €500,000 in fund investment or scientific research, €500,000 plus five full-time jobs in business investment with job creation, or no minimum capital purely for job creation (+10 full-time jobs). Some of these thresholds drop by 20 percent in Portugal’s low-density areas.  

As the new rules state, real estate investment is no longer available, but there are many other investment opportunities. 

Fund investment proves popular, particularly with Americans. For this option, you will need to invest in a qualifying Portuguese investment fund, such as private equity funds or venture capital funds. The minimum investment amount varies depending on the chosen route. 

The Golden Visa Program in Portugal offers many advantages, including improved travel freedoms, greater financial security, tax benefits, family reunification, and the ability to live in a high-quality European Union country. 

After five years, you can apply for permanent residency. 

To be eligible for the Portuguese Golden Visa program, you must fulfill the following:

• Be a non-EU, non-EEA, or non-Swiss national 
• Minimum investment of €250,000 (which drops to €200,000 in Portugal’s low-density areas) for specific pathways 
• Hold a clean criminal record 
• Have health insurance 
• Open a local bank account 
• Spend a minimum of seven days in Portugal in the first year, then a minimum of 14 days for each subsequent two-year period.

The capturing of your biometric details is one of the central steps in the Golden Visa application process.  

Before you can have your biometrics appointment, you have to complete:

1. Onboarding: First, you must decide on the Golden Visa investment option and collect the paperwork for yourself and any dependents you want to include in the Portugal Golden Visa application. A law firm can submit the paperwork for review on your behalf. 
2. Set up your bank account and NIF: At Global Citizen Solutions, we can appoint a fiscal representative for you to obtain your personal tax identification number (NIF) in Portugal. You’ll need this to pay taxes and conduct business. Our immigration specialists will also guide you through the entire process. When you have secured your NIF, we can help you open a Portuguese bank account. This can be done remotely before you even come to Portugal. 
3. Make the investment: We begin securing your investment and can guide you through the paperwork that will be required to ensure a successful investment for the Golden Visa. 
4. Online Golden Visa application: You will then need to lodge your application online. 
5. Pre-approval: Your Portuguese Golden Visa application will be pre-approved on the basis that you fulfill all the requirements. 

After your Golden Visa pre-approval, AIMA will schedule your biometrics appointment. 

For your Golden Visa application to be processed, you will need to attend the biometrics appointment. After your file is reviewed and pre-approved, the AIMA’s automated scheduling system will book a biometrics data collection and in-person verification.  

From the time you have your interview, it takes about two months until you can have an in-person Portugal Golden Visa biometrics appointment.  

Based on the AIMA’s backlog and how complex your case is, from submitting the online application to the biometric appointment, the processing times can take roughly 18 to 24 months. After completing your biometrics, expect an extra 9 to 12 months before you can obtain your Portuguese residence permit.  

Note: You can reschedule the biometrics appointment only for a justifiable reason (such as a medical crisis) in the second half of the year. This rule mainly affects Golden Visa applicants, and it is meant to deter them from making frequent or unjustified changes to the schedule so that the AIMA can better manage the current backlogs. 

What to bring: Documents checklist 

You’ll need to bring: 

• A passport that is valid for at least six months, with a copy of the bio-data page 
• Proof of recent entry into Portugal (i.e., Portuguese border stamp, an official Declaração de Entrada if you transit through another Schengen country, or a boarding pass with a hotel receipt) 
• Portuguese NIF (tax number) document and proof of your bank account  
• Proof of investment (i.e., signed fund subscription agreement, bank wire confirmation, and a certificate that confirms your investment is active) 
• Clean background checks (such as an FBI Identity History Summary Check for US citizens or an ACRO Police Certificate for UK citizens)  
• Private health insurance valid for the EU  
• Legalized and apostilled civil documents (i.e., birth certificate, marriage certificate, or adoption papers) 
• AIMA pre-approval notice and application fee payment receipts 

After attending the biometrics appointment, it can take around 9 to 12 months for your Golden Visa to be approved by AIMA. Once your Golden Visa is issued, you will have Golden Visa residency status, and your Golden Visa residence permit will be valid for two years. 

Following this, you will need to renew your Golden Visa until you can apply for permanent residency. The renewal process for your residence permit is quite straightforward, although you will need to present your documents for each Golden Visa renewal. You will then get a new Golden Visa residence card. 

As mentioned previously, it can take quite some time to reach the stage for the AIMA biometrics appointment for the Golden Visa. While getting an appointment is largely outside of your control, there are some strategies that you can put in place to speed up the process. 

• If you are working with a lawyer, they can collect all the necessary documents and check the eligibility criteria on your behalf. They can offer tips about getting the best approval rates so you can avoid delays. We highly recommend having a legal representative in your corner to ensure that everything runs smoothly. 
• If you are traveling to Portugal for a few days or just a couple of weeks, let your lawyer know. Your lawyer can check for any notifications, such as an outdated email address, improperly filed digits, or a missing NIF from your record, which are among the most common mistakes that cause applicants to lose their automated slots.  
• If you are not satisfied with your allocated appointment date, don’t try to reject or reschedule it by yourself. For example, choosing to have your biometrics appointment in Porto instead of Lisbon. If you try to reschedule it, the AIMA system will send your application to the back of the queue.

As part of the Golden Visa process, applicants need to attend an appointment at AIMA to provide the required legal documents and for AIMA to collect their biometric data. 

Once AIMA analyzes the Golden Visa application, they will pick the date and time to schedule your appointment. 

The legal provision (Article 105) states that AIMA has three months to inform the applicant of their decision and indicate the dates available for the applicant to make an appointment (this can be extended to a further 90 business days in exceptional circumstances). 

AIMA foresees a deadline of 10 to 60 days for the scheduling of the biometrics collection. However, it is unclear as to whether this refers to making the appointment or whether the appointment itself should occur within this time frame. 

This process of scheduling an appointment is taking much longer, 18 to 24 months, due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the high number of applications for the program. 

Many investors have taken AIMA (and the former SEF) to court over the delays in obtaining a Golden Visa to speed up the process. It is this deadline provided in the law for appointments that the courts have made favorable decisions for foreign investors, thereby making the delays in the process illegal.