This month the Corporate and Commercial Law Department of Belzuz Abogados, S.L.P. - Sucursal em Portugal hereby informs you about one of the most innovative programmes for attracting and encouraging investment in Portugal - the Startup Visa Programme.
The Minister for Economy’s Office announced the creation of the Startup Visa last 6 November, within the context of the Web Summit 2017 held in Lisbon.
The Startup Visa measure will allow, from 1 January 2018 onwards, to quickly grant residence visas to third party state entrepreneurs who wish to establish innovative businesses in Portugal provided there is investment and creation of qualified employment, thus allowing these entrepreneurs to create or move their start-ups to Portugal.
To this end, the Government expects these companies to be part of the Startup Portugal network incubators, thus benefiting from incentives and support allocated under the Startup Portugal Programme.
The Startup Visa Programme is already considered one of Europe’s most innovative programmes to attract and encourage international investment and talent.
Entrepreneurs from third party states may apply via the online platform available from January 2018. Incubators will receive the relevant projects following their evaluation and criteria and the IAPMEI, I.P. - Agência para a Competitividade [Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation] will oversee the process.
International entrepreneurs who wish to have access to the Startup Visa and obtain a residence must prove that:
(i) they intend to develop a business activity in the production of goods or provision of innovative services in Portugal, and that to accomplish this they will open or relocate companies and/or projects focused on technology and knowledge to Portugal, aimed at producing and developing innovative products; and
(ii) that these projects will help boost the creation of qualified employment.
It will still be necessary to prove that the company has the potential to achieve, three years after the incubation period, an amount of € 325 000 or an annual turnover above € 500 000.
According to the statement released by the Minister for Economy’s Office, the economic potential and innovative assessment is performed based on several criteria, and based on the degree of innovation, business scalability and market potential, the management team’s capacity, potential for creating qualified employment in Portugal and the applicant’s relevance on the team
The programme will be shortly regulated by Joint Ordinance from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Corporate and Commercial Law Department of Belzuz Abogados, S.L.P. - Sucursal em Portugal has qualified professionals to provide legal advice on every aspect of the business to start-ups incorporating incubators of the Startup Portugal network, wishing to benefit from the incentives and support allocated under this programme.
Belzuz Abogados SLP
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