Immigration Office:
5th Floor, Maddox House, 1 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 2PZ

Citizenship by Investment

Citizenship and Residency by investment allows individuals and their family’s to gain the travel, working and living rights of a prospective country by a form of economic investment.

The program can be split in to two distinct categories:

1.     Citizenship by Investment 

This is the type of program that will grant an applicant and their family a direct route to nationality of a country, in some case this can be an instant process. Some programs allow for the purchase of an asset such as a property or a business to count as the economic investment and others allow for only a donation to a specific fund. Some notable examples of these include:

St Kitts & Nevis

This Caribbean commonwealth country will grant nationality to an applicant and his or her family if a donation of circa $250,000 USD is made or a purchase of a property at the value of $400,000. This property can later be sold on for profit. In return the applicant and their family would gain St Kitts & Nevis citizenship allowing rights of residency in the country but more crucially visa free to around 120 counties; these include the UK and Schengen EU counties. This option is perfect for high net-worth individuals whom require global mobility without the delay or cost of visa applications.

Malta

This EEA country will grant nationality to an applicant and his or her family including elderly dependants such as parent’s nationality for an investment of circa €1.2 million. This investment is made in the following way:Property purchase of €350,000 held for 5 years or rental of a property at a   minimum yearly rent of €16,000 per year for 5 years

  • Property purchase of €350,000 held for 5 years or rental of a property at a    minimum yearly rent of €16,000 per year for 5 years
  • Government bonds valued at €150,000 held for 5 years
  • Donation to the Maltese government of €650,000

Upon entering the process and purchasing the property the applicants will be granted a Maltese residency card, this residency card allows the holder to live in Malta and to travel visa free in Schengen EU countries. Upon holding the residency card for one year the holder can apply for the second stage of the process which would require the purchase of the government bonds and the donation to the government in return for Maltese nationality. This nationality allows for visa free travel to around 150 counties including the UK, USA, Australia and Schengen EU countries. Crucially once the nationality has been grated it would allow the holders to live and work in any EU country. This program is perfect for high net-worth individuals whom wish to have residency in the UK or other EU country for more than 6 months but at the same time needs to have visa free travel rights

2.     Residency by Investment

This type of program will allow an applicant and their family the rights of residency in a specific country. Certain programs will also allow for a route to nationality after a prescribed period of being on the program. Additionally and applicant and their family rights such as health care, work and attached travel rights, the most notable example of a residency program is:

Portugal

The Portuguese residency program otherwise known as the “Golden Residency Program” will grant residency to an applicant, his or her dependants and his or her and elderly parents.

The program will be granted in return for one of the following:

  1. Purchase of any type of real estate of at least €500,000
  2. Investment in a business of at least €1 million
  3. Creation of 10 permanent jobs

Once the investment has been made the holders have the right of residency in Portugal, as long as the investment is maintained for a minimum period of 5 years an application for Portuguese nationality can be made, alternatively just the residency can be maintained post the 5 year period providing the investment is maintained. As a holder of Portuguese residency the applicant and their family will have full travel rights of up to 90 days in all Schengen EU countries. This program is perfect for individuals looking to leverage any investment with benefits of residency; furthermore it is ideal for nationals of countries that do not allow for dual nationality, such as China, Malaysia and Kuwaiti.

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