[7] Annually, an estimated 50,000 people, including family members of those who apply, obtain citizenship through investment programs, worldwide.
[3] Dominica implemented its program in 1993 to provide investors the opportunity to gain Dominican citizenship via a contribution to its Economic Diversification Fund or the purchase of an alternatively approved project along with a fee.
[13] It requires a minimum of $240,000 as an contribution to the National Economic Fund (main applicant + 3 dependents) or at least $300,000 into an approved real estate development.
Citizenship of Montenegro could be obtained within a year through an investment of €250,000 into approved development projects and a €200,000 government fee,[15] until closed in 2022.
However, the person may eventually be able to apply for citizenship using standard naturalization procedures after residing in the country for a required amount of time.
Many users of such programs are wealthy Chinese and Russian citizens seeking legal security and a better quality of life outside of their home country.
Introduced in 2013, the Greek Golden Visa program offers residency to non-EEA nationals in exchange for specific direct investments in real estate or financial instruments, as an incentive to attract international capital flows.
The program originally requires a minimum investment of €250,000 in real estate or €400,000 in securities or a bank deposit in Greece.
[19] The investors' close family members also receive a residence permit without further investment requirements, including their spouse, children up to 21 years old, parents and parents-in-law.
As of September 2024, Greece's revised Golden Visa Program requires a minimum real estate investment of €800,000, except on islands with fewer than 3,100 residents, where the threshold is halved to €400,000.
Naturalization requires seven consecutive years of tax residency (minimum 183 days annually), a Greek language and culture exam, and, for males aged 18–45, completion of compulsory military service unless exempted.
[21] For comparison, ordinary residence visas are available, such as for Financially Independent Persons, or Freelance remote workers, that have a minimum income requirement with private medical insurance, and do not involve investment.
Investing €155,000 in any completed residential property in Hungary or creating a local company to provide services, or to trade in goods, will give the investor a temporary residence permit for themselves and their family.
Seven years residency and passing a language exam will open the opportunity to acquire citizenship and a Hungarian passport.
[citation needed] It provides the opportunity to gain permanent residency in Russia for the applicant and their direct family.
[citation needed] To apply, one has to either sponsor a social project, purchase real estate, invest in a business, or start their own company.
On 8 April 2024 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that his government would terminate the Golden Visa, but without specifying an exact end date.
[37] Golden visa holders are allowed to sponsor their family members which includes spouse, children and support staff.
[43] The program is designed to encourage foreign investment in infrastructure projects, particularly in Targeted Employment Areas (TEA) with high unemployment.
RIA allows concurrent filing which permits investors to live and work in the USA while waiting for the adjudication of their EB-5 applications.
[44] The E-2 visa investor program allows foreign nationals of specific treaty countries to invest in a start up, buy a business or a franchise to reside legally in the U.S.[45][46] The initial visa term varies from three months to five years depending on the U.S. reciprocity schedule with the applicant's country of citizenship.
As per recent changes made to the US regulation, individuals holding a passport from a treaty country are required to be domiciled there for a period of three years before being eligible to apply for the E-2 investor visa.
Money laundering scandals involving banks in Malta and Latvia have made citizenship schemes more contentious by drawing attention to the lack of controls on Russian funds entering EU countries.
[64] In 2023, the security problems caused the United Kingdom to withdraw visa-free travel from Dominica, Honduras, Namibia, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu, citing “clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK”.
[65] In 2023, the European Commission proposed revising the rules on visa-free travel from countries with golden passport programs.