Ireland has the world’s best immigrant investor scheme in the world, with excellent access to healthcare, education, powerful passport attracting large number of UHNW investors from Asia and other parts of the world.
The Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) dubbed as irish golden visa, was introduced in April 2012 to encourage inward investment and create business and employment opportunities in the State.
The programme offers four investment options for potential investors:
- Enterprise Investment: A minimum of €1 million invested in an Irish enterprise for a period of at least 3 years.
- Investment Fund: A minimum of €1 million invested in an approved investment fund for a period of at least 3 years. Such funds must be approved and regulated by the Central Bank.
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT): A minimum investment of €2 million in any Irish REIT that is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, for a period of at least 3 years.
- Endowment: A minimum €500,000 philanthropic donation to a project which is of public benefit to the arts, sports, health, culture or education in Ireland.
Here is the 2019 statistics of the immigrant investor scheme in Ireland.
Ireland received close to €711m investments through IIP scheme since 2015
Under the endowment option, which requires donation to the state, Ireland received such €26m in such donations from 60 approved applications. The enterprise investment remains the most popular route as it involves bringing economic benefit and jobs to Ireland.
| Enterprise Investment | Endowment | Investment Fund | REIT | |
| 2019 | ||||
| Applications | 20 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Approvals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | ||||
| Applications | 315 | 75 | 31 | 1 |
| Approvals | 27 | 12 | 15 | 0 |
| Value of Approvals € | 26,000,000 | 4,800,000 | 15,000,000 | 0 |
| 2017 | ||||
| Applications | 228 | 46 | 50 | 1 |
| Approvals | 197 | 42 | 49 | 0 |
| Value of Approvals € | 197,000,000 | 18,700,000 | 49,000,000 | 0 |
| 2016 | ||||
| Applications | 253 | 5 | 32 | 1 |
| Approvals | 197 | 5 | 31 | 1 |
| Value of Approvals € | 101,500,000 | 2,400,000 | 15,500,000 | 500,000 |
| 2015 | ||||
| Applications | 55 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Approvals | 55 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Value of Approvals € | 27,500,000 | 500,000 | 150,000 | 0
|
The processing times of INIS vary between 6-9 months per application and in some cases 12-24 months (1-2 years)
As of 2018, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) introduced a strengthened the scheme with strict personal background and financial checks. Loans and financing were barred.
