Golden Visa Programs Compared: UAE vs Portugal vs Greece vs Spain
For an Indian buyer in 2026, this comparison comes down to three live programmes, not four. Spain closed its golden visa on 3 April 2025. The UAE gives you a tax-free base with almost no paperwork after approval. Greece is the cheapest door into the European Union. And the Portugal Golden Visa is the only one here that still leads to an EU passport, though the wait for that passport has just doubled. If a broker is still pitching you a Spanish "investor visa" tied to a 500,000 euro flat, that product is dead. Cross it off.
Below is the honest side-by-side, then the detail that actually decides whether an Indian applicant can pull this off cleanly.
One note on the rupee figures: they use mid-July 2026 rates of about 26.2 to the UAE dirham and 109 to the euro. Currencies move. Read the INR amounts as ballpark, not gospel.
Golden visa comparison for Indians: the numbers at a glance
|
Programme |
Minimum Investment |
What You Get |
Minimum Stay Requirement |
Citizenship Path |
Status (2026) |
|
UAE Golden Visa |
AED 2,000,000 property (approx. ₹5.2 crore) |
10-year renewable residency |
None |
Not a realistic path to citizenship |
Open |
|
Portugal Golden Visa |
€500,000 qualifying fund (approx. ₹5.45 crore) |
5-year renewable residency, followed by permanent residence or citizenship eligibility |
About 7 days per year |
Yes, after 10 years of legal residence |
Open (Real estate route closed since Oct 2023) |
|
Greece Golden Visa |
€250,000 / €400,000 / €800,000 property (approx. ₹2.7 / ₹4.4 / ₹8.7 crore) |
5-year renewable residency |
None |
Yes, after 7 years of legal residence |
Open (Tiered investment rules since Sept 2024) |
|
Spain Golden Visa |
€500,000 property (former route) |
— |
— |
— |
Closed (Since 3 April 2025) |
UAE Golden Visa: a tax-free base with no stay rules
The UAE's property route asks for AED 2,000,000, around Rs 5.2 crore, in real estate you own outright. A mortgage is allowed if it comes from an approved local bank and your own equity in the property is at least AED 2 million. On a AED 5 million property, that means your outstanding loan cannot top AED 3 million. Those rules come straight from the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism and the Dubai Land Department, not a sales deck. You can also combine more than one property to reach the threshold.
In return you get a 10-year residence permit, renewable, with no minimum stay attached. Leave the country for months and you keep it. You can sponsor your spouse, children, parents, and even domestic staff. Processing is quick once your file is complete, often a matter of weeks rather than months, which is one reason Gulf-facing Indian families like it.
There's a second thing most comparison articles skip, and it's where DU Global's UAE Golden Visa desk spends much of its time: property is not the only way in. Skilled professionals, entrepreneurs, outstanding students and specialised talent can qualify with no property purchase at all. For a salaried Indian professional already earning well in Dubai, that non-investment category is often smarter than locking Rs 5 crore into a flat.
What the UAE will not give you is a passport. Naturalisation exists on paper, but it runs by nomination and is rare enough that you should never buy in expecting it. Come for the residency and the zero personal income tax. Not citizenship.
Portugal Golden Visa: the fund right now that property is gone
Here's the chance people still get wrong. The Portugal Golden Visa no longer accepts real estate. Portugal scrapped the property and capital-transfer routes back in October 2023, so the main entry point today is a 500,000 euro subscription, about Rs 5.45 crore, into a qualifying Portuguese investment fund that holds no real estate. Other routes exist too: 500,000 euro into research, or backing a business that creates at least ten full-time jobs. Applications run through AIMA, the migration agency, and yes, the backlog there is real, so build patience into your timeline.
Why pay the most of any option on this list, and carry fund market risk on top? Because Portugal has long offered the gentlest physical-presence rule in Europe. You need an average of roughly seven days a year in the country, about seven days in the first year and fourteen across each two-year renewal. You barely have to set foot there to keep the card alive.
Now the catch, and it is the big 2026 one. Portugal changed its nationality law. The residency you must clock in before you can even apply for citizenship has been stretched from five years to ten for most applicants, and seven for citizens of Portuguese-speaking countries. Permanent residency at the five-year mark is unaffected. But the "EU passport in five years" pitch that sold thousands of these visas is, for anyone applying now, gone. Portugal granted a record 4,987 golden visas in 2024, a 72 percent jump on the year before. Expect the appeal to shift now that the citizenship clock has doubled.
Greece Golden Visa: the cheapest way into the EU
If your only goal is an EU residence card for the least money, Greece wins. But the old flat "250,000 euro for any property" line is dead too. Since 1 September 2024 the Greece Golden Visa runs on tiers. In the high-demand zones, greater Athens (Attica), Thessaloniki, and popular islands like Mykonos and Santorini plus islands with more than 3,100 residents, the floor is 800,000 euro, about Rs 8.7 crore. Everywhere else in the country it is 400,000 euro, roughly Rs 4.4 crore. Either way the money must go into a single property of at least 120 square metres.
The genuinely cheap tier still survives, but it is narrow. The 250,000 euro entry, around Rs 2.7 crore, now applies only if you convert a commercial building into residential use, or restore a listed heritage property. And a warning that catches out buyers chasing yield: you cannot list a golden-visa property on short-term rental platforms. Do it anyway and you face a 50,000 euro fine and a revoked permit.
Greece sets no minimum stay, hands you a five-year renewable card, and lets you bring a wider family than most. That covers your spouse, children up to 24, and the parents of both spouses. Citizenship is possible after seven years of residence, but that path needs real physical presence and a Greek-language test, so treat it as the long game, not a side benefit of writing the cheque.
Spain Golden Visa: closed, and not coming back
Spain ended it outright. Organic Law 1/2025 stripped the investor-visa articles out of Spanish law, and from 3 April 2025 no new residence permits are issued for buying a 500,000 euro property or making the other old qualifying investments. People who already hold the visa keep their status and their renewal rights. The door is simply shut for new applicants. The Spanish government pitched it as a housing-affordability move, wanting homes to be a right rather than a speculative asset. For an Indian investor the takeaway is one line: it is off the table, and anyone still marketing it is selling you 2024.
How long does each one take?
Timelines matter as much as the price tag, and they vary a lot.
The UAE is the fast one. With documents in order, approvals often land inside a few weeks. Greece historically moved in a few months, though the rush to beat the September 2024 price hike created a queue that is still clearing. Portugal is the slow one. Between the fund due diligence and AIMA's processing backlog, expect well over a year from application to card, sometimes closer to two. If speed is your priority, Portugal is the wrong pick and the UAE is the right one.
Residency now, citizenship later, or never
This is where families get the wrong idea. A golden visa is a residence permit. It is not a passport, and only two of these three even point toward one.
The UAE gives residency and stops there, with no realistic citizenship route. Greece can lead to a Greek passport after seven years of genuine residence and a language test. Portugal remains the strongest passport play, an EU citizenship that opens visa-free travel across much of the world, but it now sits on a ten-year clock for most applicants rather than five.
So if a second passport is the actual goal, Portugal is your only serious candidate on this list, and you should plan for a decade, not a term.
The rupee problem nobody puts in the brochure
Here's the part that quietly decides whether an Indian applicant can even do this. Under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme, a resident individual can send only USD 250,000 abroad per financial year, a little over Rs 2 crore at current rates. A 500,000 euro fund subscription or an AED 2 million property sails well past that on its own.
So these deals get done by pooling. A couple remits under two separate LRS limits, and sometimes adult children are added to the plan. It is legal and common, but it has to be sequenced across financial years, and every rupee must leave through proper banking channels with the paperwork clean.
Then there is tax at the door. LRS remittances above Rs 10 lakh in a year attract 20 percent TCS for investment purposes, which is the position for FY 2026-27. You claim it back as a credit against your income tax, so it is a cash-flow cost rather than a permanent loss. But parking 20 percent of a multi-crore transfer with the taxman for months is real money, and it needs planning. This is the kind of detail that sinks a rushed application, and it is exactly where getting the order of steps right matters more than the visa fee itself.
Tax once you are actually in
A quick reality check on the "tax haven" talk, because it gets oversold.
The UAE is the clean one. No personal income tax, no capital-gains tax on individuals. That is the genuine draw for a lot of Indian entrepreneurs who relocate there.
Portugal and Greece only tax you heavily if you become tax-resident, which broadly means spending about 183 days a year there, and a low-stay golden visa does not force that on you. Greece sweetens things for the wealthy with a non-dom option: a flat 100,000 euro a year on all your foreign income. Portugal's old NHR tax break has been wound down and replaced by a narrower scheme aimed at specific professions. None of this should decide your country on its own, and none of it makes your Indian tax residency disappear just because you hold a foreign card. If you are moving serious money, get individual tax advice before, not after.
So which golden visa should an Indian actually pick?
My blunt take, once the numbers are on the table.
Pick the UAE if you want a tax-free base close to home, minimal friction, fast approval, and you have no interest in a European passport. Around Rs 5.2 crore in property gets you a ten-year card with no stay rules, and there is a non-property route if you qualify on talent or business. For most Gulf-facing Indian families, this is the sensible default.
Pick Greece if you want an EU foothold at the lowest cost and you are buying to hold, not to rent out nightly. Roughly four crore secures a Schengen-area residence card and the option, not the promise, of citizenship later.
Pick Portugal only if an EU passport is genuinely the point, and you can wait ten years and stomach fund risk. It is the priciest and now the slowest to citizenship, but it is the sole real route to that blue passport among these three.
And you cannot pick Spain, so do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
One honest closing caveat: these rules move fast. Greece re-tiered in 2024. Spain closed in 2025. Portugal stretched its citizenship clock in 2026. Whatever you read, including this, confirm the current government position before you wire a single rupee.
FAQs
Which golden visa is cheapest for Indians in 2026?
Greece, at 250,000 euro (about Rs 2.7 crore), but only through the narrow route of converting a commercial building to residential use or restoring a listed property. For an ordinary purchase, Greece starts at 400,000 euro outside the prime zones. The UAE's AED 2 million (about Rs 5.2 crore) and Portugal's 500,000 euro fund (about Rs 5.45 crore) both sit higher.
Does the Portugal Golden Visa still allow buying property?
No. Portugal removed the real-estate and capital-transfer routes in October 2023. The main option now is a 500,000 euro subscription into a qualifying Portuguese fund that holds no real estate.
Is the Spain Golden Visa really gone?
Yes. Under Organic Law 1/2025, Spain stopped issuing investor visas from 3 April 2025. Existing holders keep their permits, but no new applications are accepted.
How long do I have to live in the country?
The UAE and Greece set no minimum stay for the visa itself. Portugal asks for roughly seven days a year. Citizenship, where it exists, is a separate matter and needs genuine physical presence.
Can my family be included?
Yes, in all three live programmes. Coverage varies. The UAE and Greece both let you add parents, and Greece includes the parents of both spouses. Every programme covers your spouse and dependent children.
Do these visas give me a second passport?
Not directly. They give you residence. Only Portugal offers a realistic route to EU citizenship, now on a ten-year clock, and Greece to Greek citizenship after seven years of genuine residence. The UAE does not.
Get the money and the paperwork right before you commit
The visa is the easy part. The hard part is the sequencing: matching a multi-crore investment to your LRS headroom across financial years, keeping the TCS and remittance trail clean, and not chasing a route that no longer exists. That is where applications quietly come apart, months in, after the money has already moved.
DU Global works with Indian applicants on precisely this, handling the UAE Golden Visa end to end and mapping residency options across Europe and beyond. Start with a free eligibility check on the UAE Golden Visa, pull together your visa checklist early, and go in with the current rules confirmed rather than last year's. If you are weighing more than one country, our team can walk you through the exclusive global residency programmes and help you apply for any visa without the guesswork.
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