As the world has become increasingly globalized, the need for greater travel freedom has grown steadily creating a new demand for investment based citizenship and residency programs.
Today Citizenship Investment (CBI) industry is already grown to $5 billion industry, while the RBI/golden visa industry has already grown to $10 billion market, making both the markets whopping $15 billion market. Both CBI/RBI programs have brought significant revenue for Governments.
CBI Schemes
The concept of Citizenship by investment first started in St Kitts and Nevis in 1984 and the country started offering citizenship to foreign investors against donation and real estate investment. Dominica, Antigua, Grenada and St Lucia later followed running CBI programs. It even expanded to Malta and Cyprus in Europe.
In the simplest terms, The Citizenship By Investment (CBI) offers full citizenship/passport to vetted candidates and their families in exchange for their substantial economic contribution in the form of donation, real estate or capital investment.
RBI Schemes
Residence By Investment (RBI) also known as ‘Golden visas’ offer permanent or temporary residence, with a path to citizenship subjected to immigration conditions. These are purely visa by investment schemes that does not come with a perk of citizenship and passport. Another advantage is no requirement to visit or live in a country,except for few days or weeks. For example residence cards issued by EU member states, is more than enough to travel freely in schengen zone, without becoming a citizen. RBI programs do lead to citizenship but it is usually a slow process takes many years to naturalize for citizenship. For example, the naturalizing period is 6 years and for Greece 7 years. For some investors, citizenship is not a requirement at all.
The most popular citizenship program are Grenada, Vanuatu, Dominica and St Kitts. Dominica, Antigua are the cheapest passport schemes. Grenada, St Kitts and Vanuatu may be slightly expensive, but they are the best passports. Cyprus has twice the investment ceiling requirement of Malta. Both are highly valuable EU passports. Turkish citizenship scheme is popular with Arab investors.
Greece and Portugal remain the leaders in Golden visa market attracting interest from Chinese, Turks and Middle east investors. Malta and Cyprus compete offering EU citizenship to highly qualified investors and their families with strict vetting requirements. Spain is popular with Russian property buyers.
Citizenship schemes are usually cheaper and less expensive than golden visa schemes. The application process is also very friendly, requires no visit to country and zero residence conditions. All investors including family members given citizenship certificate with passport. Identity cards such as permanent residence card are optional.
Citizenship Programs
These programs offer instant passport through fast track naturalization against investments.
| Citizenship Program | Document Issued | Minimum Investment Requirement | Visa free | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malta | EU Passport | EUR 1 million (donation) | 183 | Approximately 12 months |
| Cyprus* | EU Passport | EUR 2.15 million (real estate) | 173 | in 7 months |
| Antigua and Barbuda* | Antigua Passport | USD 100,000 (donation) or USD 200,000 real estate | 149 | 3 to 4 months |
| Grenada* | Grenada Passport | USD 150,000 (donation) or USD 220,000 real estate | 142 | 3 to 4 months |
| St. Kitts and Nevis* | St Kitts Passport | USD 150,000 (donation) or USD 200,000 real estate | 154 | 3 to 4 months |
| Vanuatu* | Vanuatu Passport | USD 150,000 (donation) | 130 | 1.5 months |
| Saint Lucia | St Lucia Passport | USD 100,000 (donation) or USD 300,000 real estate | 145 | 3 months |
| Moldova | Moldova Passport | EUR 100,000 (donation) Applications open | 119 | 3 months |
| Turkey | Turkish passport | USD 250,000 (real estate) or USD 500,000 bank deposit or bonds | 112 | 3 months |
| Montenegro | Montenegrin passport | EUR 350,000 (open for applications end of 2019) | 122 | 3 months |
| Bulgaria | Bulgaria passport | EUR 1 million (government bonds) | 170 | 18 months |
| Jordan | Jordan passport | EUR 1.5 million (bonds, business) | 49 | 3 years |
| Samoa | Samoa passport | USD 1.5 million | 131 | 3 years |
| Egypt | Egyptian passport | USD 250,000 (real estate) | 49 | 3 months |
| Dominica* | Dominica passport | USD 100,000 | 137 | 3 months |
The Caribbean is the most popular for cheapest and fastest second passport programs, starting from $100,000. Donation route is the most popular route, as it is a straight forward application process, while real estate is expensive and takes a little more time, but it is the best.
Buying a real estate proves greater ties to the country, thus a genuine/valid reason to hold a passport. You also have your permanent home and address when buying a property. For example if you buy a property in St Kitts and Nevis, you St Kitts passport comes with your home address in St Kitts. Property ownership is also a valid genuine reason/link to hold a passport. This is not the case with donation option and the address printed in the passport is the address where you currently live (a foreign address outside the country that issued the passport).
* Most popular CBI/CIP schemes
Golden Visa Programs
These programs offer instant residence rights against investments. Most of these scheme have minimal residence requirements having no requirement to live in the country.
| Golden Visa Program | Visa free | Capital Requirement | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal* | EU Residence permit | EUR 350,000 (real estate) | 3 to 5 months |
| Malta | EU Permanent Residence permit | EUR 250,000 (Government bonds) for Malta Residence Visa / Financing option costs EUR 150,000 | 3 months |
| Thailand | Residence Visa | THB 500,000 (USD 15,000) | Less than 1 month |
| United Kingdom | Residence permit | GBP 2 million (investor) / GBP 100,000 (innovator entrepreneur) | Less than 2 months |
| United States | EB-5 Green card | USD $900,000 (from Nov 21, 2019) | 12 to 24 months |
| Switzerland | Residence permit | Annual lump-sum tax payment of between CHF 150,000 and CHF 1 million dependent on the canton of residence | 2 to 6 months |
| Canada Quebec | Permanent residence | CAD 1,200,000 ($250K financing) | 4 months |
| Cyprus | Residence permit | EUR 300,000 (real estate) | 2 months |
| Greece* | EU residence permit | EUR 250,000 (real estate) | 3 months |
| Spain* | EU residence permit | EUR 500,000 (real estate) | 3 months |
| Ireland* | Residence permit | EUR 500,000 (endowment) or EUR 1 million (business/bonds) | 2-3 months |
| Cayman Islands | Permanent residence | USD 1 million (business or real estate) | 3 months |
| Italy | EU residence permit | EUR 500,000 (startups) | 3 months |
| Czech Republic | EU residence permit | USD 3 million (business) | 3 months |
| The Netherlands | EU residence permit | EUR 1.25 million (capital investment) | 3 months |
| Latvia | EU residence permit | EUR 100,000 (business) or EUR 250,000 (real estate/bonds) | 3 months |
| Bulgaria | Residence permit | EUR 300,000 (real estate) | 3 months |
| Australia* | Investor visa | A$ 1,500,000 | 2 months |
| New Zealand | Investor stream | N$ 3,000,000 | 1 month |
| Luxembourg | Investor permit | EUR 500,000 (business) | 3 months |
| Anguilla | Permanent residence | USD 150,000 (donation) or USD 750,0000 (real estate) | 3 months |
* Most popular Golden visa (GV) schemes
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