According to a report by IMIDaily, the new text of the programme is “far milder” than the draft which was initially presented on 30 March.

The golden visa will still come to an end in Portugal but now applications will remain open until the new laws are finally promulgated, reversing the rule that had stated that all applications would be cut off from 16 February.

Other rules that have been watered down include the conversion to the D2 visa. According to IMIDaily: “Initial golden visas that have yet to be issued, as well as existing ones up for renewal, will be converted to D2 Entrepreneur visas when they are respectively, approved or renewed. Crucially however holders of these Golden-to-D2 visas will not be subject to the 183-day annual presence requirement that ordinarily applies to the D2 visa class. Instead the government now proposes to retain the seven-days-a-year regime for these visa holders”.

The changes to the text have been welcomed by the industry who have been applying pressure on the government with petitions and protests.