Blog Farming Will Not Save the Portugal Golden Visa Program

Was just reading how around 500 Portugal Golden Visa applicants are preparing lawsuits against the Portuguese government because of the legislative changes and delays. Honestly, I was wondering — how exactly is this entirely the government’s fault?

Portugal was showing signs of serious problems for years. The so-called “short delays” somehow became 5 years waiting just for biometrics. That alone was already a massive warning sign that the program was no longer functioning properly and that changes were inevitable. The government itself repeatedly stated that the program was not achieving its intended goals.

The original idea behind the fund route — similar to the Bulgaria Golden Visa today — was to develop the local fund ecosystem, strengthen the stock exchange, and improve the economy through foreign capital inflows. Instead, in Portugal, the fund route largely became a money-printing machine for intermediaries.

Why do you think most Portugal Golden Visa funds are closed-end structures? Simple — because closed-end structures protect the commission model. Investors pay huge upfront intermediary commissions, then continue paying annual management fees, often for weak or completely unimpressive performance, while having almost no liquidity or flexibility. The problems of the Portugal Golden Visa funds are many.

How did this happen?

While the Portuguese government was already signaling restrictions and trying to reduce the number of new applicants, many fund managers, law firms, and intermediaries — including some very well-known names in the industry — kept aggressively promoting the story that “everything is fine” and delays are “short.” To reinforce this narrative, there were influencers, blog farms, sponsored publications, and endless stories about applicants getting approvals “in record time,” while thousands of real applicants were sitting in queues for years waiting for biometrics.

Then comes the blog farming

You can clearly see coordinated marketing campaigns disguised as independent discussions. Some profiles are real people, others are obviously artificially generated accounts constantly repeating how Portugal is superior to every other program — despite the reality that Portugal was barely issuing biometric appointments in the last couple of years.

And more ..

At the same time, you have people promoting specific funds because they generated 2% annual return on a EUR 512,000 investment, as if this is somehow an amazing investment opportunity. Seriously — how exactly is that considered a good investment after fees, inflation, illiquidity, and years of uncertainty?

What I find particularly interesting is that after reading openly false information about the Bulgaria Golden Visa program, I created an account to respond and correct the misinformation. My post was initially marked as pending, and a few hours later it quietly disappeared. Apparently, certain truths about the Bulgarian golden visa program are not very welcome.

As for Nomad Gate, they are either heavily biased or strongly disconnected to reality. I do not follow them closely, but it is not difficult to notice how often “successful applicants” conveniently recommend the same investment structures and the same funds that actively benefit from aggressive online promotion and blog farming.

The truth about the Bulgaria Golden Visa program

As for the anonymous people constantly posting misleading information about the Bulgaria Golden Visa program simply to generate traffic to their forums and blogs, shortly:

1. There are no physical stay requirements for permanent residency holders based on investment in Bulgaria.
2. Permanent residency renewal in Bulgaria is a straightforward administrative process that usually takes around 3–5 working days — compared to years of delays and uncertainty in Portugal.
3. You are not required to renounce all your citizenships when applying for Bulgarian citizenship. You only renounce the citizenship used for the application itself. This is still far more realistic than blindly consuming false blog information and hoping to apply for Portuguese citizenship after potentially 20 years of delays.
4. Bulgaria offers actual investment opportunities compared to many Portugal “hotel funds” paying 2% annually, or other heavily promoted structures managed by people with supposedly decades of financial experience yet underperforming basic bank deposits. Bulgarian Golden Visa funds are open-ended, operate with low or no subscription and redemption fees, and follow government objectives aimed at developing the local economy, capital markets, and investment ecosystem.

When did the Portugal Golden Visa problems actually start?

The problems started the moment almost every participant in the ecosystem began monetizing the program, while neither the government nor the investors themselves were achieving the program’s original goals. Law firms, international consultancies, fund managers, intermediaries — everyone started splitting massive commissions while the actual purpose of the program slowly disappeared.

A very similar situation happened with the previous Bulgaria Citizenship by Investment program.

At the time, Bulgaria had a fast-track citizenship option (2013 – 2022). The model was simple: invest around EUR 512,000 into Bulgarian government bonds, maintain the investment, then double it after one year and obtain Bulgarian citizenship in 18-24 months. Back then, similar programs existed in Malta and Cyprus, and such structures were not viewed as especially controversial or unethical.

Then came the “financial engineering”

Certain firms, started promoting financed options where applicants would supposedly invest only EUR 300,000 while the intermediary finances the rest up to EUR 1 million. This was probably one of the most irresponsible things an investor could participate in because financed investment structures were clearly prohibited by the Bulgarian legislation.

You can imagine what happened next.

Some applicants managed to pass before the authorities reacted. Others faced serious difficulties once the government realized what was happening and started tightening controls around these financed applications and the firms that assisted in the financing.

This is exactly why reputation matters when choosing advisors, law firms, and investment structures. There is a major difference between firms that create long-term value for clients while respecting government objectives, and firms that aggressively maximize commissions while damaging the credibility and sustainability of the entire program.