UK and Ireland have the most popular golden visa schemes. The popularity of both these schemes is only rising among foreign investors applying for gold visas.

 

• UK tier1 investor visa – £2 million
• Irish immigrant investor scheme – €1 million 

 

United Kingdom

 

The UK’s tier1 investor visa scheme offers gold visas to rich investors a path to permanent residency and then later to citizenship after five years. The initial entry clearance is given for 40 months which can then be extended. This scheme is still open and receiving applications, despite previous announcement of suspending the scheme.  The scheme is expected to be revised and overhauled in the future.

 

 

UK has A total of 376 applications approved for investors during the year 2018, with UK collecting £750 million (three quarter of billion) within a year according to the Home office statistics

 

 

2018	Tier1 Investor Applications	Approved	Refused
Q1	104	96	3
Q2	79	94	2
Q3	107	96	5
Q4	107	92	7
Total	397	378	17

 

Ireland

 

The Irish immigrant investor scheme has attracted more investors as the popularity of irish passport for brexit reasons. The scheme requires creating jobs through enterprise investment.  Investors immediately qualify for ‘stamp 4’ status and can naturalize for citizenship after five years

 

 

Ireland received 420 applications for immigrant investor program in 2018. The IIP was introduced in April 2012 to encourage inward investment to create business and employment opportunities in the State.  The €1 million in projects must be made for a minimum of three years, which may be renewable following a review.

 

 

The IIP scheme collected half a billion euros since its launch in 2012.

 

Application Year	Number of Approved Applications	Total Value of Approved Applications
2012	5	€2,500,000
2013	14	€10,650,000
2014	30	€14,950,000
2015	65	€35,250,000
2016	272	€154,100,000
2017	294	€269,500,000
2018	38 (379 being processed, total applications 420)	€32,000,000
TOTAL	718	€518,950,000