Affluent families are increasingly treating the residency rights that come with golden visas as part of an inheritance—an insurance policy for healthcare, education and the future freedom to move. It’s also an insurance to protect legal recognition, particularly—the research shows—for LGBTQ+ households.
Golden Visa Programs, As A Right For Future Generations
Golden visa or residency-by-investment programs are no longer just about mobility—it’s about securing a family’s future across more diverse assets and countries in a more politically unstable world. It’s about ensuring future generations the right to live and receive an education in different countries.
Lucia Leite, Regional Director at Citizenship Bay, a citizenship consultancy, is seeing more American parents pursuing European residency not because they plan to move tomorrow, but because they want to create future opportunities for their children and grandchildren. It’s a form of future-proofing. Rather than seeking immediate relocation, many families are looking to create options for where their children may someday live, study, work, launch businesses, or retire.
Golden Visa Programs—The Difference Between Greece and Portugal For Dependents
If you’re looking for a golden visa for future generations, the timeline will be important and depends on when your children become residents of a country and when they may apply for citizenship. Crucially, European golden visa programs fast-track residency, but they all require you to apply for citizenship through the usual process.
Take Greece and Portugal, for instance:
- In Portugal, your children are dependent until the age of 24 if they’re in full-time education, unmarried, and financially dependent. Greece has a 21-year-old limit for dependency; however, students are allowed to be dependent until 24, and there are also ways to navigate this so that the child is the main applicant from the start, say.
- In Portugal, you only need to be resident for seven days a year in order for the year to count towards citizenship. In Greece, however, you have to be a resident for at least 183 days per year. Conversely, Portugal now requires 10 years of citizenship, while Greece requires only 7.
- If your children started that process early, before age 5, for example, then both countries would probably grant citizenship if they’ve met all other requirements by the time they reach adulthood. It gets a little more complicated, though, if they move as teenagers, so they may very well be outside the age range for being a dependent by the time they’re ready to apply.
- The Portuguese citizenship application requires only an A2 language level in Portuguese, whereas the Greek citizenship process requires a much higher B2 level, as set by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Given that Greece has its own alphabet and is a non-Romance language, it tends to be harder for some people to learn than Portuguese. It also has a history and civics exam conducted entirely in Greek.
- Another advantage of Portugal’s Golden Visa Program is that if you already hold citizenship in a Portuguese-speaking country such as Brazil, Angola, or Mozambique, you can apply for citizenship after seven years instead of 10. You don’t have to relocate in those seven years, and you don’t have to do the language test.
- And then there’s the required investment to acquire a golden visa. Greece’s golden visa program requires less capital, with an entry point of €400,000 for property, while Portugal demands €500,000 in fund investment (investment in real estate in Portugal as part of the golden visa program is no longer allowed). The investment in Greece, therefore, is entirely exposed to the Greek market through its real estate holdings, while the Portuguese fund must hold at least 60% of its assets in Portuguese companies. That still means you have 40% that can be invested elsewhere, including outside Europe. That allows for a little more diversification—possibly one of the key tenets you’d be looking for when seeking European citizenship.
All of these factors would need to be considered before relocating to either of these European countries and would be very personal to each family’s situation.
Golden Visa Programs, As A Way For Americans To Secure Healthcare
It’s also about healthcare. With rising healthcare costs becoming an increasing concern for the average American, more Americans are considering relocation strategies as an answer.
An analysis conducted in March 2026 examined three European destinations that are taking center stage in these investment migration priorities. It cites Portugal’s walkable cities, clean air and Mediterranean diet; Greece’s famous blue zones, where residents live into their 90s and are surrounded by strong communities; and Italy’s Sardinian blue zones, where inhabitants regularly live into their 100s. All three have great healthcare, which Americans are choosing for long-term healthcare tourism.
The LGBTQ+ Silent Exodus, As Per New Research
An updated report by GetGoldenVisa shows just how far the situation has changed for Americans over the past couple of years. As the report says, foreign residency and legal options across jurisdictions used to be something that happened after circumstances had changed.
This was certainly true of Brexit, where many people were encouraged after the vote to apply for European passports, where possible.
In 2025, research showed that a ‘silent migration’ was beginning to happen among LGBTQ+ Americans. Over a 20-month period, the fastest-growing cohort of parting Americans was of LGBTO+ households aged 55 or older.
The report highlights that the conversation is no longer just about lifestyle concerns or climate, but questions such as ‘Will I have access to healthcare?’ and ‘Will I still have the same rights as I do today in ten years’ time?’ The report concludes that it is no longer simply where to go, but “where long-term continuity can be trusted most.”
Golden Visa Programs Are Not The Only Option For Relocation
It’s also worth noting that political situations change, which can impact your path to citizenship massively in any of these countries. Portugal recently changed its requirement for five years of residency before applying for citizenship to 10 years. It changed how that’s counted, meaning that timeline could be anything from 12 to 13 years. Brexit is another example of how your rights and rules regarding Europe can change completely overnight after a referendum. The decision by the EU’s highest courts forcing Malta’s Golden Passport program to close is another example of potential overnight change.
It’s also worth noting that golden visas are not the only way to gain European citizenship. It might be an easier way in, but if you relocate and become a tax resident in another European country, such as Ireland or Germany, you can naturalize just as quickly, provided you meet all other requirements, such as language, in five years, say.
It’s also worth noting that Portugal’s D7 visa, beloved by American retirees, has a very low passive income requirement, and if you’re willing to live there and learn the language to A2 level, you don’t need to lay down €500,000 in investment, and you can apply for citizenship in the same 10-year period.
Crucially, where tax planning used to be the primary focus, it is increasingly being replaced by healthcare continuity, family security and legal recognition. And the decisions about which route is best for you are related to your family’s timelines, whether you want to live in the country full-time and how quickly you think you might learn the language.
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