Do you want citizenship or residency? Cyprus and United Kingdom have stiff competition for attracting Ultra High Net Worth individuals who can invest 2 million pounds/euro in these countries.
Cyprus requires 2 million in euros while United Kingdom requires 2 million pounds (2.3 mill euro).
The one difference is Cyprus offers full EU citizenship while the UK tier1 investor (golden visa) offers only residence with a path to UK citizenship after five years of living making UK as main home. The key word here is ‘Main home’ which means you have to spend 9 months every year and live in UK to become a British citizen.
Cyprus on the other hand does require you to live only for 6 months and after receiving citizenship you are not required to live in the country. Out of 2 million euro investment you are required to buy a residential home worth 500,000 euros and required to main it for five years without sell.
Another key difference is UK does not have real estate option and expects you to hold funds in bank account or create jobs. Both countries offers government bond/securities option for investment.
If you have more money and interested in UK, you can accelerate UK permanent residence and citizenship path reducing the number of years.
- Over £ 5 million, ILR can be issued after 3 years,
- Over £ 10 million, ILR can be received after 2 years.
If you are HNW investor and your country prohibits dual citizenship, UK residency is an excellent path. But again you have to move to UK and live there, unless you dont want UK citizenship/passport.
UK is an excellent country to live, do business with high quality standards of living.
Malta is the third option as its citizenship is half the price (€1m) compared to UK/Cyprus. Malta does give citizenship and passport but the 650K you pay for Malta is not an investment (it is a donation). This means you wont get the back. This is a big money and rather than paying for donation, you are better off investing in a real estate or in safe government securities.
There are also so many factors to look into such as climate, UK is cold in winters while Cyprus is warm, but then again you have to decide.
All these three schemes have pro’s and cons and you have to weigh it thoroughly to decide on the country.
Good luck in searching for best citizenships!
