golden visa portugal, https://Mercan.com/. Locals earning Portugal's monthly minimum wage of 557 euros say they are being priced out of neighbourhoods that they have lived in for decades. Da Cunha, who was paying 220 euros a month, said she cannot afford anything on today's market.
The European Commission has urged EU countries to end programmes allowing investors to obtain citizenship and tighten checks when issuing residency permits, describing them as a security and money laundering risk.
($1 = 0.8442 euros) (Reporting by Jenny Barchfield , Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit website in trendy Lisbon face eviction with tourism and celebrity boom
Government schemes to trade citizenship or residence rights for large investment are currently applied in 13 EU countries: Austria, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Britain, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and France. Hungary has terminated its programme.
The ministry would not confirm any plan to terminate the programme. An official familiar with the talks said no agreement had yet been reached as the ministry was still studying proposals made by political parties.
BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Programmes run by some European Union countries to sell passports and residency permits to wealthy foreign citizens pose risks of money laundering as some of the schemes are not properly managed, campaign groups said on Wednesday.
MADRID, May 8 (Reuters) - Spain could pull the plug on its so-called "golden visa" scheme that grants residency rights to foreigners who invest in real estate in the country, according to the leader of a left-wing party negotiating the issue with the government.
No. Visas are not required by U.S. citizens for stays of up to 90 days.
Iñigo Errejon told reporters on Monday his Mas Pais party had reached a preliminary agreement with the Social Security Ministry to put an end to the programme, which allows buyers of property worth at least 500,000 euros ($551,650) and their families to get three-year residency permits.
Cyprus has raised 4.8 billion euros ($5.51 billion) from its scheme, while Portugal could earn nearly a billion euros a year, according to figures cited in the report, called "European Getaway - Inside the Murky World of Golden Visas".
"Poorly managed schemes allow corrupt individuals to work and travel unhindered throughout the EU and undermine our collective security," Laure Brillaud, anti-money laundering expert at Transparency International, said.
"I was born in Lisbon and raised in Lisbon, and now there's just no place for me in Lisbon," said da Cunha, who relies on a monthly government subsidy of 485 euros ($575) to top up her earnings selling handicrafts to tourists.
EU states generated around 25 billion euros in foreign direct investment in a decade from selling at least 6,000 passports and nearly 100,000 residency permits, the report said using what it called conservative estimates.
The report said in Malta, which has raised 718 million euros from its scheme, applicants who have criminal records or are under investigation could still be considered eligible "in special circumstances".
"If things continue like this, pretty soon you won't have a single Portuguese person living here," he said, adding that souvenir shops hawking porcelain sardines and cork handbags have replaced local pharmacies, bakeries and grocery stores.
"If you have a lot of money that you acquired through dubious means, securing a new place to call home far away from the place you stole from isn't just appealing, it's sensible," Naomi Hirst of rights group Global Witness said.
In an open letter to the government, the campaign group Morar em Lisboa or 'Living in Lisbon' said local communities that give colour and life to the city are on the verge of collapse and called for rent controls to be introduced.
LISBON, Oct 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Carla da Cunha has a tight budget with which to find a new home in Portugal's newly-fashionable capital, Lisbon, or else she and her two children could be out on the streets.
The joint report by Global Witness and Transparency International urged the European Union to set standards for managing the schemes and to extend anti-money laundering rules, applied so far to banks or gaming firms, to all those involved in the visa-for-sale industry.
All the countries who run these schemes, except Britain, Ireland and Bulgaria, are part of the Schengen free-movement area which comprises 26 European states. ($1 = 0.8708 euros) (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Alison Williams)
It said speculation has been driven by a golden visa programme, which gives Portuguese residency to foreign buyers who spend at least 500,000 euros on real estate, allowing them to travel freely within Europe's 26-country Schengen zone.
The European Commission has urged EU countries to end programmes allowing investors to obtain citizenship and tighten checks when issuing residency permits, describing them as a security and money laundering risk.
($1 = 0.8442 euros) (Reporting by Jenny Barchfield , Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit website in trendy Lisbon face eviction with tourism and celebrity boom
Government schemes to trade citizenship or residence rights for large investment are currently applied in 13 EU countries: Austria, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Britain, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and France. Hungary has terminated its programme.
The ministry would not confirm any plan to terminate the programme. An official familiar with the talks said no agreement had yet been reached as the ministry was still studying proposals made by political parties.
BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Programmes run by some European Union countries to sell passports and residency permits to wealthy foreign citizens pose risks of money laundering as some of the schemes are not properly managed, campaign groups said on Wednesday.
MADRID, May 8 (Reuters) - Spain could pull the plug on its so-called "golden visa" scheme that grants residency rights to foreigners who invest in real estate in the country, according to the leader of a left-wing party negotiating the issue with the government.
No. Visas are not required by U.S. citizens for stays of up to 90 days.
Iñigo Errejon told reporters on Monday his Mas Pais party had reached a preliminary agreement with the Social Security Ministry to put an end to the programme, which allows buyers of property worth at least 500,000 euros ($551,650) and their families to get three-year residency permits.
Cyprus has raised 4.8 billion euros ($5.51 billion) from its scheme, while Portugal could earn nearly a billion euros a year, according to figures cited in the report, called "European Getaway - Inside the Murky World of Golden Visas".
"Poorly managed schemes allow corrupt individuals to work and travel unhindered throughout the EU and undermine our collective security," Laure Brillaud, anti-money laundering expert at Transparency International, said.
"I was born in Lisbon and raised in Lisbon, and now there's just no place for me in Lisbon," said da Cunha, who relies on a monthly government subsidy of 485 euros ($575) to top up her earnings selling handicrafts to tourists.
EU states generated around 25 billion euros in foreign direct investment in a decade from selling at least 6,000 passports and nearly 100,000 residency permits, the report said using what it called conservative estimates.
The report said in Malta, which has raised 718 million euros from its scheme, applicants who have criminal records or are under investigation could still be considered eligible "in special circumstances".
"If things continue like this, pretty soon you won't have a single Portuguese person living here," he said, adding that souvenir shops hawking porcelain sardines and cork handbags have replaced local pharmacies, bakeries and grocery stores.
"If you have a lot of money that you acquired through dubious means, securing a new place to call home far away from the place you stole from isn't just appealing, it's sensible," Naomi Hirst of rights group Global Witness said.
In an open letter to the government, the campaign group Morar em Lisboa or 'Living in Lisbon' said local communities that give colour and life to the city are on the verge of collapse and called for rent controls to be introduced.
LISBON, Oct 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Carla da Cunha has a tight budget with which to find a new home in Portugal's newly-fashionable capital, Lisbon, or else she and her two children could be out on the streets.
The joint report by Global Witness and Transparency International urged the European Union to set standards for managing the schemes and to extend anti-money laundering rules, applied so far to banks or gaming firms, to all those involved in the visa-for-sale industry.
All the countries who run these schemes, except Britain, Ireland and Bulgaria, are part of the Schengen free-movement area which comprises 26 European states. ($1 = 0.8708 euros) (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Alison Williams)
It said speculation has been driven by a golden visa programme, which gives Portuguese residency to foreign buyers who spend at least 500,000 euros on real estate, allowing them to travel freely within Europe's 26-country Schengen zone.