Golden visas and passport for sale industry has seen big growths since couple of years. Portugal’s euro golden visa program has set a benchmark of achieving great success, bringing in over 2 billion euros into the country, causing real estate prices to explode, on the flip side, Golden visa program (GVP) did nothing to create jobs in Portugal.
You can get golden visa in Portugal, without paying 500,000 euros at all, if you can create 30 jobs in Portugal. SEF Portugal statistics show only 5 golden visas issued, each created atleast 10 jobs, compared to 3,405 visas given for real estate.
Likewise, citizenship for sale programs in Europe and Caribbean did nothing to create more jobs.
Malta’s controversial citizenship by investment program also generated over 1 billion euros, but most of them prefer renting an address, no interest to buy real estate in Malta, neither want to create jobs in Malta, all they want is EU passport from Malta by paying 1 million euros, without even knowing where Malta is on the map and not fully integrating socially and culturally with the country. Yes, Malta has raised over 1 billion through IIP, but the program did nothing for job creation and real estate. Times of Malta reported in May 2016, out of 143 who applied for IIP, only 27 purchased real estate, while 116 prefer to rent. These numbers tell quite a story and lately there was another news that millionaires who apply for Malta passport dont like to buy real estate, instead renting a flat just for an address and living modestly! InterestingJ
Cyprus has set the bar high, that only those who have over 3 million euros, creating jobs or buying real estate, can dream about Cyprus passport.
Caribbean citizenship programs have scored big. Many are paying money buying passports from Saint Kitts, Dominica, Antigua etc, without even setting foot in these countries, all just for a passport that gives visa free access to UK, Schengen and over 100 countries. Brexit has surprised the world, and what if overnight, Britain decides decide to impose visas on caribbean countries – the value of their passports will be next to nothing. This despite paying over $200,000 dollars, on top of that over $60,000 as government fees, plus agent fee (they wont tell you), still a lot of money to waste.
I am quite happy with Dominica as it is not too much, costs around $125,000 for their passport, for the same benefits. Yes, caribbean is beautiful, worth visiting for once or twice for holidays, but to be honest, these countries only good for passport, it is impossible to live there for long. Remember hurricane seasons run from Aug-Oct and probably, the worst time to go.
Caribbean real estate industry also has lots of problems. Investing in real estate developments in caribbean qualifies for citizenship, but the problem is real estate sold for sake of citizenship, is way too overpriced . Antigua and St Kitts require 400,000 dollars (value of the properties are never USD 400k) for just a share, no full titles, you pay that money, developer takes care of rentals and taxes, the property pays for itself. You will get 2 weeks to say there for free every year. But all in all, you end up paying more or less 600,000 dollars, for a family, wasting over 200,000 for expenses alone such as share cost, property taxes, government fee etc. Many clients find real estate too expensive, also dont want to own a real estate far away from home, so instead they take donation route – paid and done! This explains why over 80% of clients go for donation route, shunning real estate.
Dominica is doing okay with real estate, as they ask for 200,000 dollars, plus fees only half the price. Grenada and St Lucia ask for 350,000 dollars for citizenship under real estate. Many agents are dishonest and fantasize about Caribbean real-estate making clients buy for the sake of citizenship, but on a long term they will find out it was a bad decision. Many syrians want a second citizenship in caribbean, as their passport from war torn country, is of little value. I was talking to some syrians, they say it is impossible to obtain other visas with their syrian passport.
The documentation required for golden visas is quite a straight forward process, with less burden because it is just a residency. If you decide to apply for citizenship programs, you have to be extremely careful with what you write in the application and requires exhaustive documentation. All the governments are very cautious and they dont want to give citizenship to rotten apples. Citizenship will be refused if you lie about something in the application and if you dont properly declare your source of funds. They will verify all the information provided by you, through detective agencies who will do a background check on you in your home country. Agents will ask for 2x Bank references (less than 3 months old), HIV clearance health tests (less than 3 months old) and Police clearance (less than 6 months obtained from places you have lived in past 10 years for more than 6 months).
Here is my one cent: Dont apply for investment citizenship programs, if you have previous visa denials from Schengen, USA and UK as these countries have signed visa waiver agreements with caribbean nations. Visa denials show a red flag in your citizenship application and is of the most common reasons for receiving a refusal letter. Make sure you clear them well before you launch a citizenship application.
Those who apply for golden visas and citizenship programs, must do proper research before applying, and most agents are not honest with clients and dont tell the real truth.
I have included useful website links in the list, but keep in mind that if you approach government directly, they will ask you to apply through authorised agents. Please contact us and we will help you.
Montenegro Passport
Montenegro opened new citizenship by investment program which entered into force in Jan 1, 2019. This scheme is capped to only 2000 applications. The scheme requires a total of EUR 350,000 investment of which EUR 250,000 invested in real estate development projects and EUR 100,000 contributed to government of Montenegro.
Montenegro is the candidate country for EU membership on or after 2025.
Montenegro passport does not have visa free access to UK or Canada.
Moldova Passport
Moldova opened new citizenship by investment scheme in Nov 2018. It is the cheapest citizenship by investment program in eastern europe.
Moldova just requires EUR 100,000 one time contribution to public fund in exchange for citizenship/passport.
Moldova is not a EU member state and neither participates in schengen area. However Moldova actively pursues EU membership into the future. Moldova passport also does not have visa free travel to UK/Canada
Malta Passport
http://iip.gov.mt/
Malta gives EU citizenship to those who can pay around EUR 900,000 to 1 million euros. They have a strange investment setup, of which you have to donate 650,000 euros to Malta fund, 150,000 euros (bonds) and buying a real estate for 350,000 is only optional, if not one must rent a place. Malta has very high rejection rates and lately, there were reports that 1 out 4 applications were refused, failing background checks. Malta is a schengen country, and dont forget that they have visa waiver with US. Malta does not want to hurt ties with US and they are extremely selective to whom they grant citizenship. Yes, the money of 1 million is not too much for ultra rich, but they can refuse quickly. They also have 275,000 euro real estate residency program, which is much cheaper, they give you residence permit like Portugal gives, but passport only after 5 years of living in Malta. Rich and wealthy from China, Russia, South Africa, India and Middle East are very curious to get Maltese passport. I have visited Malta before, yes it is good visit Malta for holidays (many americans dream it), but i would never live in Malta (too small for me running around in circles). Many Britons live in Malta as their favorite home.
Cyprus Passport
Cyprus, first of all is not even a schengen country. Yes, if you buy their cypriot passport paying 2,000,000 euros, you can live in Schengen and have backdoor access to UK, only with passport as ID, not residence permits or visas. Remember cyprus had banking crisis in 2012 and many lost their money who had over 100,000 euros in their bank accounts and the government offered to give citizenship to those who lost over 3 million euros?. Cyprus has residency program requiring 300,000 euro investment, but it is useless if you are non-EU citizen, you can’t even go to schengen or UK with their visas or residence permits. Remember only their passport has that value! Cyprus has raised over 2.5 billion euros under the citizenship by investment programme (Source). Again, if i have that much money, EU passport for family, looks interesting, but i would never live in Cyprus, instead i would take the cyprus passport and go to France, Germany, Sweden or Switzerland to live in peace. Having said all this, i can only dream about 2.5 million euros, still it is an awful lot of money, to pay for cyprus, just for a passport! No way!
Greece Golden Visa
Greece offers residency against 250,000 euro against property purchase in Greece. Investors from third countries to obtain a resident permit in Greece if they acquire properties adding up to a minimum of 250,000 euros. The Greek program is not smooth, efficient and requires lot of paperwork. I would do my homework before investing in Greece, as Greece economy has not still recovered, so desperate for foreign investment and they still have a huge Government debt of 175% of GDP. Greece may also leave the EU (Grexit), like Brexit, as their future is certainly worrying. If the economy collapses and banks will fail, all the investors would lose money in their bank accounts. Currently, capital controls prevail in Greece, imposing cash withdrawal limits of 420 euro per week with Greek banks.
Belgium Golden Visa
Belgium is a great country to live, and Belgium offers investor visas based on business investment of 350,000 euros or more. The problem is of this money, the expenses alone for 1 first year will come to 200,000 euros with business setup, incorporation, taxes and rentals. Not possible to immigrate to Belgium buying real estate. Belgium lately has become unsafe after all the IS threats and Paris attacks. I would think twice! Belgium is tax friendly, compared to France, but recently they changed the naturalization time for citizenship from 3 years to 5 years. Belgium is the way, to go if you have a good profitable business, to tap into European market as brussels is a international trade hub for Europe.
France Golden Visa
France requires 10 million euro, enterprise investment in french companies and they give 10 year valid residence permit. The real problem with France is, taxes are extreme, super rich who earn over 1 million euros taxed at 75% which is way too high. Safety in France is not guaranteed as france is facing a wave to terror attacks, every now and then. Safety comes first, i would think twice, before taking my 10 million euros to france.
Portugal Golden Visa
Portugal gives you only residency despite paying 3500,000 euros for a property, which of course you can rent it out for income (taxed 28%). The problem with portugal is lately the program is over-promoted and too many people have applied, causing significant backlog, causing waiting time over 6 months. Further, is you need to keep renewing your visa, every 1 year or 2 years which is quite a hassle. If you dont visit Portugal for a year, they will cancel your visa. The fee charged by government is too much. You have to pay 5000 euros for initial residence permit, 28% property transfer tax approx 30,000 euro, 5% transfer service, plus agent fee, all in all you end up paying over 60,000 euros on top of 500,000. Over 80% of those who apply for Portugal ARI are chinese and russians.
Ireland Golden Visa
Ireland requires EUR 1,000,000 euro investment against a residency visa, which is renewed every one or two years. From the views of third country citizen, Ireland is not in schengen and not part of UK. This means even if you secure a residency visa from Ireland, you wont have access to 26 schengen states and part of United kingdom. What good is irish investor visa, if you dont have travel freedom to visit Europe, and United Kingdom, despite paying 500,000 euros, which is still a lot. Yes ireland famous for company setups, business, low taxes, good education for children but all eyes on Brexit negotiations.
UK Golden Visa
UK has tier1 investor program which requires GBP 2 million pounds, in a bank account or invest in businesses. Another route is GBP 200,000 pound entrepreneur program. UK is a great country to live, the only program is if you have british passport in mind, you must live in UK for 9 months every year for 5 years, which is too much. Anti immigrant sentiments is on rise in UK, as many voted for Brexit citing anti-immigration laws. Chances are that these programs may close in the future. British passport will not be a ‘golden passport’ like before, once the Britain leaves the European Union. Many see that falling pound means you pay less, probably the, right time to immigrate to UK.
Bulgaria Golden Visa
Bulgaria is not even a schengen country but has membership with the EU. If you invest 512,000 euros in bonds, they will give you bulgarian investor visa with residency, but what good is bulgarian visa, if you cant even go to schengen countries, paying over 500,000 euros? If you invest over 1 million euro, you may get the Bulgarian passport, they say after two years, but in reality takes over 3 years to get the citizenship. Bulgarian passport (only the passport) has access to EU and UK.
Hungary Golden Visa
Hungary is truly an amazing country to live in eastern europe. Living in Budapest is so much fun. Hungary will give you permanent residency, if you buy 300,000 euros worth of hungarian government bonds and after 5 years, they give you the full money back after 5 years. You pay 60,000 euros as all inclusive fee. Yes, it is a great deal, all in all you end up paying only 60,000 euros. The hungarian program is hit by administrative and bureaucratic failure, as paperwork is cumbersome, not really smooth and efficient. The whole process may take more than 6 months, and way too slow. Hungarian economy is on a downhill and the country is hit by unemployment. Hungarian does not use euro, local currency forint is widely used and very volatile. Other than this, this is a very good program and i would vote for it. I can recommend a lawyer who can help with hungary bond program!
Spain Golden Visa
Spain will give you golden visa if you buy property in Spain for 500,000 euros in major cities such as barcelona, sevilla, or madrid. Another option is 2 million euro bonds or 1 million euro in shares. Spanish real estate prices has fallen significantly and are relatively cheap. The spanish program is under promoted and it seems very quiet, there are no numbers currently available about how many received golden visas in spain. There were reports that many britons are interested in spanish golden visas, post brexit. Those who pay 500,000 euros demand EU citizenship after some years. Spain requires 10 years of living before they grant spanish citizenship. 10 years is too much of time waiting for citizenship. Portugal is better off with 6 years waiting.
Netherlands Golden Visa
The Dutch will give investor visa to foreigners, who can invest 1,250,000 euros in a venture fund or innovative company or in a dutch bank account or create 10 jobs. Investments in real estate property to live in are excluded. Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, Hague are great cities to live and work. This amount 1.25 million euros is still a lot of money to start with and investors will receive a temporary residence permit, valid for 3 years with periodic renewals. You can apply for PR after 5 years of living.
Latvia Golden Visa
Latvia is the cheapest and most successful golden visa program largely popular with Russians. Latvia is a baltic schengen country, and they give you long term investor visa, if you start a business for just 100,000 euros or buy a real estate for 250,000 in Latvia. The property prices in Latvia are quite cheap because of the falling demand, and one can easily afford a property in capital Riga. The only problem with Latvia is it is very cold out there. Latvia issued 11,980 residence permits to foreign nationals who purchased real estate in Latvia. Currently golden visa latvia is the cheapest in Europe. I can recommend a lawyer who can help with Latvia program!
USA Golden Visa
You can have your “The American dream” come true, if you have 500,000 dollars to invest in a business and create 10 jobs, will get you a green card. The federal program currently will take more than a year, to land in the US, as too many people have applied and many are still waiting. Over 10,000 green cards were issued every year and 90% of them go to chinese. This program was hit by fraud as several regional centers came under scrutiny. The only problem with US is you have to live 50% of time in the US, if you have US citizenship on mind, which comes after 5 years of living. Another problem is US taxes on your worldwide income, once you get into the tax net, you cannot escape uncle sam, as he will follow you to collect taxes, for 10 more years after giving up your US citizenship. As many as 4000 americans are giving up their citizenship every year. United States is almost the only country in the world that has what’s called “citizenship based taxation”. Further, carrying an american passport is risky, and not safe in third world countries with terrorism alert.
Canada Golden Visa
QIIP – Quebec immigrant investor program is open for a limited period from May 30th 2016 to February 28th 2017 and will accept only 1800 applications quota wise requires 800,000 CAD investment. This program is the hugely popular, only next to EB5. No quotas apply if you know french. The only problem with this program is, an overwhelming number of people apply to this program, mostly chinese, causing it to run out of limits. All of them want canadian citizenship in about 3 years which is quick. Yes, Canada is great country to live but aint canada too cold during winter?
Now we move on to Caribbean nations, these countries are small islands with small population, but their biggest revenue is from selling passports for cash. St Kitts is leading from the front in the list of 5 countries. The only problem applying for citizenship programs here, you cannot directly contact governments, rather they tell you hire authorized agents. Application forms are not available online to public from government websites, seems only agents have them and you get when you pay $3000 to $5000 initial deposit to agent. All the caribbean passports have access to EU schengen countries and United Kingdom, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. It is not possible to visit Australia, USA, New Zealand, Thailand, Russia without visa using caribbean passports.
St Kitts Passport
You have to pay $150,000 (SGF fund) or $200,000 (real estate) and they give you citizenship in about three months. You have to pay $50,000 government fee, $7500 due diligence fee per adult, for additional persons, plus agent fee St Kitts passport has no visa free travel to Canada, South Africa, Russia, China, Ukraine. St Kitts has beautiful beaches and lots of americans arrive by cruise ships during holiday season. $400,000 real estate investment also qualify for citizenship.
Antigua Passport
Antigua & barbuda requires $100,000 investment and you can get the passport in 3 months. Additional fee $50,000 (government fee), $7500 (due diligence fee) apply per additional adult. Antigua has the business investment option of $1.5 million qualifying for citizenship, besides real estate investment $400,000. Antigua passport is the only passport that has visa free travel to Canada, but visa is required to visit Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Israel, China, Russia
St Lucia Passport
You have to pay $100,000 to apply for St Lucia passport with additional fees. Yes it is cheap, compared to st kitts and antigua but here is a catch: you must have $3 million net worth in order to be eligible. It seems St Lucia dont want to give citizenship to everybody who pays. They give citizenship to very selective individuals. Investing $300,000 in buying a property also qualifies for citizenship. You can also buy Government bonds for $500,000 or do a $3.5 million investment in business and can qualify for citizenship. You will need visa to visit Canada, South Africa, Brazil, China, Russia, Ukraine despite holding St Lucia passport.
Grenada Passport
You have to pay $150,000 for Grenada passport or $350,000 real estate. Grenada is the only country in the caribbean that has visa free travel to china and has E2 visa treaty with USA, which is great for doing business with the US. The E-2 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country (a country with which the United States maintains a treaty of commerce and navigation) to be admitted to the United States when investing a substantial amount of capital in a U.S. business. You will need visa to travel to USA, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine despite holding Grenada passport.
Dominica Passport
You just have to pay $100,000 to get Dominica passport, currently the cheap and best option. You should look at $15,000 additional fees for government and agents. The only problem is too many people are applying, currently it takes about 4-6 months get dominica passport. Dominica does not have white sandy beaches, but the country is full of green forests, mountains and waterfalls. You will need visa to visit South Africa, Argentina, Ukraine, Canada.
Our Verdict: Dominica, St Lucia, Portugal and Latvia are clear winners.
About the Author
Mr. Balakrishnan is a worlds leading expert in investor citizenship programs around the world. He is the founder and CEO of Best Citizenships (BC), the firm assisting very wealthy, talented, high net worth families with global citizenship and residency programs including high end luxury real estate. The company has assisted several high profile firms, rich investors and families relocate to Europe, Caribbean and North America over the past 8 years. More specific information about the programs and how to apply for these programs can be found in the website www.best-citizenships.com
