Golden Visas & Residency
Residence and citizenship by investment programmes, compared on what they actually require and deliver.
Portugal's Golden Visa in 2026: Why It Still Leads the Field
About a week a year on the ground, permanent residence at five years, and a regulated fund instead of an overpriced flat — Portugal's programme outlasted its rivals for reasons worth understanding.
Golden Visas & ResidencyGreece's Golden Visa in 2026: Tiered Thresholds, No Stay Requirement, No Shortcut to a Passport
Greece replaced its flat €250,000 property threshold with tiers set by location, added a minimum flat size, and banned short-term letting. The citizenship question is where expectations most often break.
Golden Visas & ResidencyItaly's Investor Visa in 2026: Approval First, Money Afterwards
Italy's scheme starts at €250,000 and, unusually, does not ask for the money until the state has already approved the application — a structure worth understanding before comparing headline prices.
Golden Visas & ResidencyMalta After the Court Ruling: What Residency Still Buys, and What It No Longer Does
Malta still sells permanent residence through the MPRP, but the EU’s top court ended the passport scheme in 2025 — and the reasoning reaches far beyond Malta.
Golden Visas & ResidencyHungary’s Guest Investor Programme: Ten-Year Residence, Two Live Routes
Hungary reopened for investor residence in 2024 with a ten-year permit and no stay requirement — but one of its three advertised routes was abolished before it ever opened.
Golden Visas & ResidencySpain’s Golden Visa Is Gone: What Closed, and What Is Actually Left
Spain abolished its investor residence permit on 3 April 2025 via a clause buried in a justice-reform law. What remains are two visas that are not investment routes at all.
Golden Visas & ResidencyThe UAE Golden Visa: What Ten Years of Residence Actually Buys
The UAE’s ten-year Golden Visa is a renewable residence permit with real advantages — but it is not, and does not become, Emirati citizenship.
Golden Visas & ResidencyThe EB-5 Investor Visa: Amounts, Backlogs and the Risk of Losing the Money
The US EB-5 programme offers a green card for an $800,000 investment that creates ten jobs — provided the capital is genuinely at risk and the queue moves.
Golden Visas & ResidencyCaribbean Citizenship by Investment: The Price Floor and the Pressure on Visa-Free Travel
Five Caribbean states now sell citizenship from a common US$200,000 floor — fast, with no residence requirement, and under the heaviest external pressure in the programmes’ history.
Golden Visas & ResidencyTurkey's Citizenship by Investment Programme: Speed, Property, and the Valuation Trap
Turkey sells citizenship outright rather than residence, and does it in months rather than years — which is exactly why the price you pay for the qualifying property matters so much.
Golden Visas & ResidencySingapore's Global Investor Programme: Permanent Residence at S$10 Million and Up
Singapore grants permanent residence directly rather than a temporary permit, but the price rose sharply in 2023 and the obligations that follow approval run deeper than the headline number suggests.
Golden Visas & ResidencySwitzerland Has No Golden Visa — It Has Lump-Sum Taxation
Switzerland does not sell residence for a capital sum. What it offers instead is a negotiated annual tax bill, a cantonal decision that may go either way, and no right to work.
Golden Visas & ResidencyWhat a Golden Visa Actually Is (and What It Isn't)
The phrase covers two very different things — a renewable residence permit and an outright passport — and treating them as interchangeable is the most expensive mistake in this market.
Golden Visas & ResidencyGolden Visas: The Risks Nobody Advertises
Programmes close, thresholds jump, funds fall in value, and the people arranging the deal are often paid by the seller — a sober inventory of what can go wrong.
Golden Visas & ResidencyGolden Visas and Tax: Residence Is Not the Same as Tax Residence
An immigration permit and tax residence are separate legal concepts under separate rules, and acquiring one does not automatically create — or end — the other.