According to the official definition provided by European commission, Investor citizenship schemes can be defined as a Member State legislative, policy or administrative initiative aiming systematically to attract investment by allowing investors to acquire citizenship of the Member State concerned. Investor citizenship schemes are often referred to as “citizenships for sale” or “golden passports”. They allow foreigners to be naturalised as a citizen of a country in return for an investment, provided certain criteria are fulfilled.
Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta introduced investor citizenship schemes in 2005, 2007 and 2013 respectively. Malta has the officially active investor citizenship program in the EU, while Bulgaria and Cyprus already shut down their schemes. Malta residency to citizenship program, requires one time €750,000 euro donation to a government fund establishing a residence and genuine link along with the investment.
Non-EU member states such as Montenegro, North Macedonia also operate investor citizenship programs on Europe. Five Caribbean countries also operate Investor citizenship programs in the OECS region requiring contributions to government fund and in real estate. Vanuatu also has one in the south pacific. You can find full list of Investor citizenship and residence programs worldwide.
