Since the golden visa scheme was launched in 2012 and up until December last year, 29,666 people obtained a residence permit in Portugal. Under this program: 18,486 obtained a residence permit for family reunification and 11,180 through a residence permit for investment, reports Público. Among investors and family members, 15,620 of people come from one of the 30 most at-risk jurisdictions with regard to money laundering, according to the Basel AML index.

The list of countries most at risk for money laundering are simultaneously the countries that have the most applications for residence permits. The report identifies Vietnam, Pakistan, China, and Cambodia. Of these, China is clearly the country with an overwhelming majority of investors and their families, accounting for 47% of the total (13,861 of the 29,666 people who obtained authorization).

At a time when the Government has put an end to granting new golden visas through new housing measures, data from the Foreign and Border Services (SEF) also show that since 2018, the year in which the European Union (EU) began publishing lists of "non-cooperative" countries in terms of tax transparency, Portugal granted a residence permit to 1,447 family members from countries that were on these EU lists that year.