“The 4-star Fontinha Porto, Trademark Collection by Wyndham comprises 49 rooms with areas between 21 and 34m2, over six floors.”
The Portuguese Golden Visa program is still available!
Today the President of the Republic of Portugal has vetoed the project “Mais Habitação” law.
Our advice to all our clients is to move forward as soon as possible with their investments.
The current timelines will allow investors to start and submit their process before the potential end of the Golden Visa program.
The average time to conclude the investment with us is around one week, which – under current timing, provides enough time to invest still and be part of the Portuguese investment program.
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No extra fees
Mercan Group attracts private investors wishing to obtain the Golden Visa Portugal to build new hotels under the brands of the largest hotel groups including Marriott, Hilton, and the Intercontinental Hotel Group.
Mercan was founded in 1989, specializing in development investment projects in the tourism sector. During its work in Portugal, Mercan Group has developed more than 20 projects with a total value of 710 million euros. Mercan has a presence in Portugal, Canada, China, India, United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Vietnam.
CONTACT THE MERCAN MANAGER DIRECTLYGet a Portuguese “Golden Visa” in 2023 by investing from 280,000 euros
Learn more about Portugal's Golden Visa
Let’s do great investments!
with investments from 280,000 euros
in the form of commercial real estate
Simple Processing
on investments from 350 000 euros
Property purchase, management, documentation, reporting
Investment can be refundable after 5 years (Depends on the project)
Calculating costs for Portugal Golden Visa Program
family of 2 or 4 members
Family of 2 members
- Investment €280 000
- Investment cost€1 968
- Immigration Cost
(independant of investment)€24 500 - Other Fees
(Legal, Tax Representation)€12 900 - Program Cost€39 368
- Total Investment
Family of 4 members
- Investment €280 000
- Investment Cost€1 968
- Immigration Cost
(independant of investment)€49 000 - Other Fees
(Legal, Tax Representation)€12 900 - Program Cost€63 868
- Total Investment
“The new Sé Catedral Hotel Porto, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, opened its doors this Monday, March 21st, a new investment of 23.8 million euros by Mercan Properties.”
“Close to Porto and the iconic Rotunda da Anémona, the brand new Four Points Sheraton Matosinhos is ready to welcome guests for their next “bleisure” (business + leisure) trip.”
“O hotel será composto por 163 quartos e suites, restaurante, rooftop com piscina e ginásio. Incluirá ainda um importante centro de conferências”
“Com vista para o rio Douro, o novo hotel de quatro estrelas ficará localizado na Rua do General Torres e será servido por piscina, bar, ginásio e spa”
“Projeto com o selo da cadeia Marriott cria 50 postos de trabalho diretos num país "hospitaleiro e seguro”
“Com 108 apartamentos, restaurante, esplanada e ginásio o Four Points by Sheraton Matosinhos deverá abrir a tempo do próximo Verão”
Grupo canadiano projeta a construção de um hotel em Évora
“A cidade de Évora está na mira de mais um grupo hoteleiro, que pretende criar um novo hotel na cidade património mundial.”
“Hilton today announced an agreement to open Sé Catedral Hotel Porto, Tapestry Collection by Hilton – a unique 77-room property that will bring an exciting new guest experience to Portugal’s second-largest city ”
Learn more about
Mercan projects
and Portugal Golden Visa
You become the owner of a property in Portugal, and the title deed will be issued in your name. The title is registered with the state authorities in Portugal.
In addition to the certificate of ownership, some of our projects offer a full guarantee of your investment and a 3% return in the form of annual income. Our other projects offer a partial guarantee and a higher annual income. For more information please contact us to discuss details.
You can list your wife (husband) and children on your immigration application. Children have to be under 18 years of age or in school and be financially dependent on you (you are paying for their education and other expenses).
Your parents and your spouse's parents can also be included if they are over 65. If they are under 65, you need to show that they are financially dependent on you.
You and your family will receive the status of a resident of Portugal. You will be allowed to live, work, study and conduct business in Portugal.
Your visa will also allow you to make short visits (90 days or less) to any other European Union country as a tourist. This means that you will no longer need a Schengen visa.
The procedure takes 4 to 6 months after your application is submitted to the Portuguese Immigration Service (SEF). At the end of the procedure, you and your family members will receive a residence permit.
The procedure can be divided into 5 steps:
- You have to collect some simple documents to open your personal bank account. You can come to Portugal or do it online. In the latter case, you will need to sign a power of attorney with a lawyer;
- After opening a bank account, you must transfer the necessary funds to your account in Portugal. As soon as the funds arrive in your account, a share in one of our projects worth 280 or 350 thousand euros will be purchased in your name;
- After that, you must collect documents for the Portuguese Immigration Service (SEF), such as certificates of criminal records, marriage certificate, birth certificates of children, etc;
- The set of documents is submitted to the SEF for verification. This step usually takes 1.5 to 3 months;
- Once the SEF has completed the verification of your documents, you and your family must come to Portugal for the SEF to take your fingerprints. This is the last step before the procedure is completed.
Resident cards will be issued approximately 1.5 to 3 months after your fingerprints are taken.
You can do everything online or come especially for this purpose. You can open your bank account in Portugal and buy a share in the project through a lawyer with power of attorney. However, you and your family members must come to Portugal to be fingerprinted at the Portuguese immigration office.
After obtaining a residence permit, you and your family members must stay in Portugal for at least
- 7 days in the 1st year;
- 14 days for the 2nd and 3rd year combined;
- 14 days for the 4th and 5th year combined.
During your visit to Portugal, you can stay free of charge in the hotel of which you are a co-owner. Free accommodation is granted for the period necessary to maintain residency status.
First of all, you automatically become a citizen of the European Union. This allows you, if you want, to settle in any country of the European Union.
Second, the Portuguese passport is one of the most secure passports in the world:
- The passport gives you access to 185 countries without an additional visa (as of March 2019);
- The equivalent of American, British, and Swiss passports:
- Stronger than Canada's passport, which gives you access to "only" 184 countries.
After five years as a resident, you can apply for Portuguese citizenship. Essentially, you must meet two main criteria:
- You must demonstrate that you meet the conditions of your residency status (minimum stay in Portugal 7 days per year with no criminal record);
- You must submit the result of a Portuguese language test showing a basic level.
The citizenship procedure will take 6 to 12 months.
Yes. Unlike Spain and some other European countries, Portugal allows dual citizenship. This means that you can keep the citizenship of your country of origin.
Generally, you will only pay taxes in Portugal on income earned inside Portugal, and there is no income tax on your income outside of Portugal.
The only exception is if you are physically in Portugal for more than 183 days per year. In this case, you become a tax resident in Portugal and must declare all your income in Portugal. At the same time, you can apply for NHR status in Portugal and receive preferential tax treatment. We recommend consulting an accountant in Portugal on this matter.
If you are able to make the investment, your file will only be rejected if you have a criminal record.
Anyone of at least 18 years of age can apply for immigration under Portugal's Golden Visa program.
You do not have to have experience in business or even work at the moment. You just have to be able to prove that the amount of 280,000 or 350,000 euros came from a legal source (e.g. accumulated savings, profit from a company, gift from a family member, inheritance, etc.).
If you choose to live in Portugal, you can live anywhere in Portugal. You are NOT obliged to live in the same city as the property in which you invested.
Yes. Your spouse or children may apply for the Gold Visa on their own. In fact, any child who’s reached 18 years of age or older can file independently. As mentioned earlier, he or she must simply show where the funds are coming from.
and do great investments!
- Signing a cooperation agreement
- Approval of a package of legal services
- Bank account opening
- Purchase of real estate
- Application to the Portuguese Immigration Service (SEF)
- Application approval
- Fingerprinting at the immigration office
- Obtaining a residence card for Portugal
- Renewal of the Portuguese residence card
- Obtaining Portuguese citizenship or permanent residency card
First of all, you need to sign a cooperation agreement with Mercan, after which a lawyer will prepare the necessary package of documents.
- power of attorney from the applicant;
- power of attorney from your spouse
- contract of participation and lease agreement.
Powers of attorney, prepared by a lawyer, are sent to the investor for signing. They can be signed at the nearest Portuguese embassy in the country of residence or at a face-to-face meeting with a lawyer in Portugal.
The shareholding agreement can be signed at the time of arrival in Portugal for fingerprinting at the Portuguese immigration office.
After receiving the signed power of attorney, the lawyer will be able to obtain a tax number for the investor in Portugal (NIF - NúmeroIdentificação Fiscal) and open a bank account.
To open a bank account, the lawyer must provide the bank with:
- Tax number;
- Proof of source of funds of the investor (certificate of income, certificate of receipt of dividends, etc.);
- Tax number from the country of residence.
It takes about a week to open a bank account. After that, a compliance review takes place, which can take 2-4 weeks. When the bank account is available for transactions, you will need to transfer the principal amount of the investment, the amount to pay the municipal tax on the purchase of a real estate in Portugal, notary services, and the fees of the immigration service (SEF).
The transfer must be made from the investor's main account from the country of residence.
Portugal Golden Visa
When the funds are available in a Portuguese bank account, the lawyer will conduct the sale transaction. After that, the lawyer will request the missing documents for filing with the Portuguese Immigration Service. Namely:
- contract of sale;
- Certificate of no criminal record from the country of residence (valid for 3 months);
- Certificate of no criminal record of your spouse;
- Marriage certificate (valid for 6 months);
- Children's birth certificates (valid for 12 months);
- Certificate of no criminal record for children over 16 years of age;
- Proof of financial dependency for children over 18 years of age;
- Birth certificate of the investor, if the parents will also be included in the immigration application;
- Proof of financial dependency if parents are under 65 years of age.
All documents are submitted to the SEF online. The analysis usually takes 3-5 weeks.
The certificate of no criminal record is only valid for three months, so we recommend doing it just before you apply, as SEF often asks to renew the document if it has expired.
After about a month, the lawyer will receive a message from the SEF that the application has been approved. The lawyer will then make an appointment with the SEF to fingerprint everyone involved in the process.
It is important that all participants arrive in the city of Porto, where Mercan'sheadoffice in Portugal is located, at least one business day before the scheduled date. For example, if the SEF meeting is scheduled for Monday, you need to have everyone in Porto by Friday. It is also important to make sure that all required documents are valid:
- Certificate of no criminal record –valid for 3 months;
- Marriage certificate – valid for 6 months;
- Birth certificate –valid for 12 months.
The process usually looks like this:
the day before your appointment at the SEF, you will meet with a lawyer to sign documents and make copies of your passports;
the next day the Mercan representatives will meet with you at the SEF to take your fingerprints and submit all the original documents.
after the meeting at the SEF, you will meet with the bank manager to obtain the bank card and online access to your account.
If the SEF office is not in Porto, the schedule is slightly different: Mercan representatives will meet you in the morning the day before the SEF meeting, you will sign the documents with a lawyer, meet with the bank manager, visit the property, have lunch and be taken to a hotel in the city where the SEF meeting will be taking place.
It usually takes 3-4 months to approve resident cards at the Portuguese immigration office. Once the lawyer receives a positive decision from the immigration office, the lawyer will make the payment for the cards and within 45 days the cards will be received at the Mercan office in Porto. The cards will then be shipped to the investor anywhere in the world by DHL or FedEx delivery services.
After that, the investor and all participants are free to enter the Schengen area and/or live in Portugal.
The residence cards will need to be renewed periodically. To do this, a lawyer will coordinate all necessary actions on your part and set a date for the renewal of the residence when the deadline comes.
Five years after the first residence card is issued, you will be able to apply for Portuguese citizenship or permanent residency in Portugal.
The permanent residence is valid for 5 years, after that it is automatically renewed, but only suitable for those who plan to live in Portugal for more than 6 months per year. This is a prerequisite for the renewal of the permanent residence card.
Get a Portuguese Golden Visa in 2023 by investing from 280,000 euros
If your aim is to immigrate to Europe by obtaining a residence permit through investment, the Portuguese Golden Visa program is worth your attention. This visa can be obtained in Portugal through the partnership and support of the Mercan company and its investment projects.
The main advantages of the Golden Visa program in Portugal are:
- You need to stay in the country on average 7 days a year (Comparison: in Greece for the Golden Visa this period is at least 6 months);
- The minimum investment threshold is only 280 thousand euros (Comparison: Greece requires a minimum investment of 500 thousand euros);
- Possibility to obtain European citizenship after having 5 years of the residence permit in Portugal (Comparison: The residence permit in Greece is 7 years, in Spain - 10 years)
- Estate prices in Portugal are constantly growing. Every year the country is getting more and more attractive as a destination for tourists from all over the world.
and do great investments!
These are the reasons for the Portuguese Golden Visa to be the most attractive visa program in Europe, especially for those investors who want to obtain European citizenship while not living in the country for the better part of a year.
Why should you work with the Mercan company to get the Golden Visa in Portugal?
The company has a rich history
The Mercan Group was founded in 1989 in Canada. Since its very beginning, the Mercan Group specialized in investment and then began to provide investment services for immigration worldwide.
Ideal conditions and environment for investors
The Mercan’s clients are primarily those investors who are interested in obtaining the “Golden Visa”. Moreover, the company supports and accompanies its clients at all stages, up to the moment of obtaining Portuguese citizenship by investors.
2 investment scenarios with an Investment Back Guarantee
The investors interested in obtaining the Portuguese Golden Visa have the opportunity to invest 280,000 or 350,000 euros in tourist properties in unique areas or locations for restoration. In this case, the Mercan group undertakes to buy the property from the investor in 6-14 years at the same price that they invested in this property at the initial stage, which is a 100% Investment BuyBack Guarantee.
Full delegation of all investment management tasks
The Mercan’s activities can be divided into 3 important areas:
Practical realization of development projects, i.e. constructing, building and creating properties in the sphere of tourist real estate, which includes hotel networks such as Marriott, Hilton, Intercontinental Hotel Group, and many others.
Legal support for the clients who wish to obtain the “Golden Visa” in Portugal by investing in the Mercan company’s projects.
Management of the investor’s properties, i.e. management of hotels and other properties, shares in which investors of the Mercan company buy.
The Mercan is a unique player in the market, as it performs all three functions simultaneously. In this way, an investor doesn’t need to interact with a variety of different organizations and any third-party consultants.
By investing with the Mercan company, you can fully delegate all the tasks of managing the acquired assets, and you will be guaranteed permanent legal support until you obtain Portuguese citizenship.
If you thinking about getting a Golden Visain Portugal, we suggest considering the option of participating in the Golden Visa program by investing in the projects of the Mercan company.
Mercan projects and Portugal Golden Visa