The 50 Residency by Investment Programs Kiss Laszlo

There are 50 countries with even more residency by investment programs to choose from. These really different residency by investment programs created a more comprehensive market than the citizenship by investment industry’s. These solutions are characterized by different requisites and goals. There are well managed and branded programs, on the other hand there are also some solutions which can be marketed as programs, but these are still only solutions or effective structures to obtain the residence permit of the chosen country, through some kind of investment. Some schemes are excellent ways for obtaining temporary residence permits, meanwhile under other legislations, applicants can acquire permanent residency permits or even the citizen status through a fast-track naturalization process.

Which are the most popular residency by investment programs? Without any doubt the United States, Canada and Australia have the most successful schemes. These countries have different solutions for different kind of investors with different processes. The queues and waiting lists are long and the success is not guaranteed for the applicants. Meanwhile in Europe, Hungary and Portugal created the most popular schemes, the Portuguese Golden Visa Program and the Hungarian Residency Bonds Program. But it looks like that a lot of EU member states are attracting successfully new and wealthy residents.

A couple of years ago, there were only a few official residency programs, mainly launched for highly skilled workforce as doctors, engineers, scientists, etc. However, the economical goals changed fast and now almost all countries are eager to have foreign money fast. Perhaps as the global financial crisis has finished, not only the financial value will be important, but “only” talented and skilled applicants can participate and reappear again on the market of economic immigration. Hong Kong and Panama are already officially looking for high skilled or talented brains, even if these candidates are not so wealthy (yet). Of course not only rich people can be investors, retirement schemes are also extremely popular structures even with low, but stable income as a pension.

The following list is far from being complete. Laws and residency by investment programs are changing fast and there is a new solution on the market almost every month.

Global List of Residency by Investment Programs

Americas

Costa Rica Pensionado Visa Program

Nicaragua

Ecuador Investor Visa

United States

Canada

St. Marteen

Barbados Special Entry Permits

Bahamas

Brazil

Turks and Caicos

Montserrat Economic Residence Programme

Panama Friendly Nations Visa

Cayman Islands

Belize Residence Permit Retirement Program

Antigua and Barbuda

Europe

Hungarian Residency Bonds Program

Portugal

Malta Global Resiency Program and Residency Rules 2014

Spain

Bulgaria

Ireland Immigrant Investor Programme

Switzerland

Italy Investor Visa

Monaco

Gibraltar

Guernsey

Jersey

Andorra Passive Residency Proogramme

The Netherlands

Greece

Latvia

UK

Belgium Residence Program

Lithuania

Asia

UAE (Dubai – Hamriyah – Ajman – RAK

South Korea

Hong Kong

Macau

Vietnam

Pilippines Special Investor’s Resident Visa (SIRV)

Japan Investor Visa

Singapore Global Investor Programme

Malaysia My Second Home

Africa

South African Business Visa

Botswana

Seychelles Residency Program

Mauritius

Australasia

Australian Premium Investor Visa

New Zealand

And the first digital solution

Estonia E-Residency