# Residence by Investment in Europe: Programmes and Requirements

> European investor routes as of August 2026: entry thresholds, timelines, presence, tax effect and reform risk across ten jurisdictions, from the ARI fund to Malta's MPRP.

Author: Alena Dunaeva — Lawyer, Family Office (https://wiki.private.law/en/authors/dunaeva)
Last modified: 2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wiki.private.law/en/investor-routes-europe
Publisher: wiki.private.law (https://wiki.private.law)
Version: a8f28269ebd0ff8b3260f2b25ae369d0c19e1abbc1d9c0432b8ac4babcc830b2
Cite as: Residence by Investment in Europe: Programmes and Requirements. wiki.private.law. https://wiki.private.law/en/investor-routes-europe. Version a8f28269ebd0ff8b3260f2b25ae369d0c19e1abbc1d9c0432b8ac4babcc830b2.
Topics: migration
Jurisdictions: eu, portugal, greece, italy, malta, cyprus, spain, ireland, luxembourg
Product tags: residence-permit, permanent-residence, relocation, investment
Semantic tags: residence-permit, permanent-residence, relocation, investment

---

## How Europe's investor perimeter works in August 2026

Europe has not closed the door to capital — it has changed the model of entry. Over three years, property has been methodically squeezed out of investor programmes: three jurisdictions struck it from their routes and Spain abolished the investor permit altogether.

| **Jurisdiction** | **What was removed** | **Instrument** | **In force from** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Portugal | property struck from the ARI | the "Mais Habitação" law | autumn 2023 |
| Spain | the investor residence permit abolished altogether | Ley Orgánica 1/2025, twenty-first final provision | 3 April 2025 |
| Hungary | direct residential purchase struck from the relaunched programme two days before that option was due to open | Act LXXXIV of 2024, Magyar Közlöny 2024/131 of 20 December 2024 | 30 December 2024; the option was to have applied only from 1 January 2025 |
| Latvia | property purchase and the subordinated bank deposit | a new Immigration Law, finally adopted on 20 August 2026 | 15 September 2026 |

Greece kept property but made it expensive and awkward: zonal thresholds of €800,000 and €400,000, a minimum of 120 m², a single property only, and an outright ban on short-term letting under a €50,000 fine with revocation of the permit. What is left on the market in August 2026 fits into three constructions: a stake in a regulated fund, a real business with jobs, and a non-refundable contribution — to culture, science, a university or a philanthropic project. These are precisely the models set out in the generic article on [investment migration: contribution, fund, property, business and deposit](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-models); the difference is that the choice among them is now made for the investor by the legislator rather than by the investor.

If the region is not settled yet and the question is broader — which entry model to pick at all, and in what order to read the rest — the overall frame is assembled in the [investor cluster map](https://wiki.private.law/en/investor-hub).

The second change runs deeper than the first. The value of European investor status is less and less determined by the residence permit itself — a resident card with Schengen access has stopped being scarce — and more and more by two other parameters: the time to citizenship and the tax linkage. That is why the map below compares jurisdictions not by "price of entry" but along seven axes at once, and why the "path to permanent residence or citizenship" column matters more than the threshold column.

The Portuguese route always cost more than the Greek one and always lost on the headline figure, but it won on horizon: five years to a passport application on seven days of presence a year. Since 19 May 2026 that advantage is gone — Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 raised the naturalisation period to ten years and moved the start of the clock from the date of application to the date the first residence card is issued. The Italian route, conversely, was always weak on citizenship (ten years) and strong on tax: the investor visa under Article 26-bis dovetails with the flat-tax regime for new residents. Cyprus and Malta sell not a path to a passport but a stable status with a legible tax contour around it.

The headline conclusion for the region: in 2026 what is bought in Europe is not a residence permit but a place in the queue for something else — for citizenship, for a tax regime, or for a European operating base for a business — and that "something else" is governed by a separate statute which changes faster than immigration law does. The thread running through all of it is retroactivity. Portugal's recalculation of the naturalisation clock hit people who had already spent two or three years in the AIMA queue; the Court of Justice's judgment in Case C-181/23 (Commission v Malta, 29 April 2025) brought down the Maltese passport programme around which an entire industry had been built. Not a single European investor route today can be planned on the rules in force at the date of filing: it has to be planned against the worst of the scenarios described in [closure and amendment of investment migration programmes](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-status-risk).

## Comparison along common axes

The comparison is split into two tables. The first is entry: what you pay with, when you get the card and how many days a year it costs you. The second is what the status gives you: where it leads, what it does to your tax position and how likely the rules are to change underneath you. Thresholds are stated as at 14 August 2026 and exclude associated costs: fees, due diligence, legal support and transaction taxes are counted separately under the full-cost framework in [investment migration models](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-models).

| **Jurisdiction** | **Entry and threshold** | **Time to status** | **Presence** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Portugal, ARI](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-golden-visa) | fund €500,000; culture €250,000 (€200,000 in low-density areas); research €500,000 (€400,000 in low-density areas); business €500,000 plus 5 jobs; 10 jobs (8 in low-density areas). Property excluded | de jure months, de facto 12–36 months because of the AIMA queue | 7 days in the first year, then 14 days per two-year period |
| [Greece](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-golden-visa) | property €800,000 (zone A) / €400,000 (zone B), from 120 m², a single property; €250,000 for conversion of a commercial building or restoration of a listed one; securities and deposits €500,000; AIF €350,000; start-up €250,000 | official target 4–6 months, in practice longer | — |
| Italy | start-up €250,000; limited company €500,000; government bonds €2,000,000; philanthropy €1,000,000 (non-refundable) | nulla osta in 30 days by regulation, 3–4 months in practice; the investment is made after entry | none for renewal; actual residence for PR and citizenship |
| Hungary | real-estate fund certificates of €250,000 held for 5 years; or a €1,000,000 contribution to a state university | about 5 months: visa, 93 days for the investment, 21–30 days for the card | — |
| Cyprus | €300,000 plus VAT in a new-build from a developer, a commercial property, units in a Cypriot fund or shares in a Cypriot company; foreign-source income of €50,000 a year (+€15,000 for a spouse, +€10,000 per child) | 2–4 months | one visit every 2 years |
| Malta, MPRP | payments of €99,000 (administrative fee €60,000, contribution €37,000, NGO donation €2,000); plus purchase from €375,000 or lease from €14,000 a year; capital test of €500,000 (of which €150,000 liquid) or €650,000 (€75,000 liquid) | 3–7 months of due diligence, property within 8 months of approval in principle | — |
| Latvia | share capital €50,000 (small company) or €100,000 (large) plus €10,000 to the budget; a new fund route of €150,000 plus €10,000 — the vehicle does not yet exist; property from €250,000 and the subordinated deposit from €280,000 closed to new applicants on 15.09.2026, and permits already issued on them can be renewed | up to 4 months under the new law | actual residence for PR and citizenship |
| [Spain](https://wiki.private.law/en/spain-hub) | no investor route; the entrepreneur visa under Ley 14/2013 with no investment threshold but a mandatory ENISA opinion | ENISA 4–8 weeks, UGE up to 20 working days; 2–4 months in total | actual residence; absences of more than 6 months a year break the clock |
| Ireland | no investor route; STEP — €50,000 into an innovative business; Stamp 0 — income of €50,000 per person (€100,000 per couple) plus reserve capital | STEP — months; Stamp 0 — an annual permission | STEP — actual residence; Stamp 0 — residence without the right to work |
| [Luxembourg](https://wiki.private.law/en/luxembourg) | €500,000 into an existing company (employment maintained for 5 years); €500,000 into a new company with 5 jobs within 3 years; €3,000,000 into a management structure with substance; €20,000,000 on deposit for 5 years | two stages: ministerial approval of the project, then the card; months | actual residence |

| **Jurisdiction** | **PR and citizenship** | **Tax effect** | **Reform risk** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Portugal, ARI](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-golden-visa) | PR at 5 years; citizenship at 10 years (7 for EU and CPLP nationals) counted from card issue | creates no residency by itself (183-day test); [IFICI](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-ifici) covers a narrow list of professions | high: Lei Orgânica 1/2026 in force from 19.05.2026; applications up to 18.05.2026 under the old rules |
| [Greece](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-golden-visa) | PR under the general rules; citizenship after 7 years of actual residence | creates no residency by itself; the [non-dom regime at €100,000](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-non-dom) is available separately | medium: Law 5100/2024 plus Law 5275/2026 (in force from 06.02.2026), ministerial acts issued through 2026 |
| Italy | PR (EU long-term) at 5 years; citizenship at 10 years | creates no residency by itself; dovetails with the [Article 24-bis TUIR flat tax](https://wiki.private.law/en/italy-flat-tax): €300,000 plus €50,000 per family member on a transfer of residence from 01.01.2026, €200,000 plus €25,000 for transfers from 10.08.2024 | low on parameters; intake suspended for Russian and Belarusian nationals since July 2023, and for dual nationals holding a Russian or Belarusian passport since March 2024 |
| Hungary | PR after 3 years of actual residence; citizenship at 8 years plus an examination | creates no residency by itself (183-day test) | medium: the programme has been relaunched twice in two years, the fund list is administrative |
| Cyprus | status is indefinite; citizenship after 7 years of actual residence out of the last 10, the final year continuous | creates no residency by itself; on relocation, [non-dom](https://wiki.private.law/en/cyprus-non-dom) status and the 60-day rule | low on migration, medium on tax: the reform is in force from 01.01.2026 |
| Malta, MPRP | PR immediately; citizenship only by ordinary naturalisation, there is no passport programme | creates no residency by itself; the [GRP](https://wiki.private.law/en/global-residence-program) and the corporate [6/7ths refund](https://wiki.private.law/en/company-malta) sit separately | high at the level of principle: the passport programme was repealed by Act XXI of 2025 after the CJEU judgment; the MPRP was rebuilt by LN 146/2025 |
| Latvia | PR after 5 years of continuous residence; citizenship at 10 years plus examinations | creates no residency by itself | very high: the new Immigration Law, adopted by the Saeima on second review on 20.08.2026 after the presidential veto of 19.06.2026, took effect on 15.09.2026 and closed property at €250,000 and the €280,000 deposit to new applicants |
| [Spain](https://wiki.private.law/en/spain-hub) | PR at 5 years; citizenship at 10 years (2 years for a number of Latin American countries) | residency arises almost inevitably; the general regime plus wealth tax | the reform has already happened: LO 1/2025, repeal from 03.04.2025 |
| Ireland | STEP: long-term residency after 5 years; Stamp 0 does not count towards naturalisation | residency at 183 days; the [corporate contour](https://wiki.private.law/en/company-ireland) is separate | the reform has already happened: the IIP closed on 15.02.2023 with no replacement |
| [Luxembourg](https://wiki.private.law/en/luxembourg) | PR at 5 years; citizenship at 5 years plus a language examination | residency under the ordinary tests; there is no preferential regime for investors | low: a niche route with single-digit volumes |

"—" means the parameter does not exist in the design of the programme.

### Capital residences outside the programme list

Three European residences compete for the same capital as the ten routes above without being investor programmes in the strict sense. Andorra writes an asset test into statute, Switzerland admits a non-working third-country national through a cantonal file backed by a lump-sum tax ruling, and Monaco asks only for evidenced resources and real housing. The table keeps the axes of the two tables above; the last column is the public outlay a family of four (two adults, two minor children) cannot recover, before housing, advisers and living costs.

| **Jurisdiction** | **Entry and threshold** | **Time to status** | **Presence** | **PR and citizenship** | **Tax effect** | **Non-recoverable outlay, family of four** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Andorra](https://wiki.private.law/en/andorra-residence-permit) | €1,000,000 in Andorran assets from 13.02.2026 (Law 2/2026); €400,000 via the Housing Fund; property above €800,000 per unit; income above 300% of the minimum wage | investment within 6 months of the grant (+6 for force majeure); quota and document review first | 90 days a year | renewals of 2, then 3 years, 10-year renewals after 7 years; outside the EU and Schengen | the card does not settle tax residence; IRPF capped at 10% | AFA payment €50,000 + €12,000 × 3 = €86,000 |
| [Switzerland, lump sum](https://wiki.private.law/en/switzerland-residence-permit) | no statutory capital figure; FNIA art. 28 (retirees) or art. 30 (important public interest), supported by a cantonal ruling | 3–6 months from filing with the cantonal migration office | actual residence; tax residence from 90 days without work | C permit after 10 years (5 for settlement-treaty nationals); passport realistically in 12–15 years | tax on a deemed expenditure base: federal minimum CHF 435,000 for 2026, cantonal floors up to CHF 600,000; open in 14 cantons | no programme fee; the annual lump-sum tax, CHF 150,000–200,000 in practice, is the entry price |
| [Monaco](https://wiki.private.law/en/monaco-tax) | no statutory threshold: "sufficient means" (Sovereign Ordinance 3.153 of 1964) shown by a Monaco bank attestation; about €500,000 on deposit is bank practice; owned or registered rented housing | 3–6 months | real residence; a card is required above 3 months a year | carte temporaire, ordinaire after 3 years, privilégiée after 10; naturalisation from 10 years, discretionary and rare | no personal income tax, except for French nationals | card fees of €80 per adult; children under 16 need no card |

None of the three leads to an EU passport on a programme clock: Andorra and Monaco sit outside the Union, and Swiss naturalisation takes twelve to fifteen years. What they sell is a tax residence the ten programme routes do not — the Portuguese, Greek or Hungarian investor card creates no residency by itself, whereas here residence and the tax result are the point of the move. The honest comparison is therefore with Italy's Article 24-bis flat tax and the Greek and Cypriot non-dom regimes, which is why Monaco, Andorra and the Swiss forfait also sit in the zero- and capped-tax table of [special tax regimes](https://wiki.private.law/en/special-tax-regimes).

The family column inverts the programme logic. Andorra's €86,000 is the only non-recoverable public ticket of the three and is smaller than Malta's €99,000 in MPRP payments, but its €1,000,000 asset test is twice what most programme routes ask. Switzerland and Monaco have no ticket at all and charge instead through annual tax or bank-held liquidity, so a family's real cost is set by the canton's ruling or by Monaco housing, not by a fee schedule. Worked full-cost examples for the programme routes, with the mark-up over the headline threshold, are in [investment migration models](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-models).

## Jurisdiction profiles

### Portugal: an ARI without property and a ten-year clock

**What is bought and under which rule.** The ARI (autorização de residência para atividade de investimento) lives in Article 90-A of Law 23/2007. After the "Mais Habitação" amendment of October 2023, property purchase and capital transfer disappeared from the list — historically they accounted for roughly three quarters of approvals. Five options remain: €500,000 into a Portuguese regulated fund that does not invest in real estate (at least 60% of assets in Portuguese companies), €250,000 into cultural heritage or the arts, €500,000 into scientific research, €500,000 into incorporating a company with five permanent jobs, and the creation of ten jobs with no minimum sum.

The thresholds themselves sit not in article 90-A but in article 3(1)(d) of the same Act; article 3(2) allows them to be 20% lower for subparagraphs ii), v) and vi) — job creation, research and culture — which in low-density territories means 8 jobs, €400,000 and €200,000 respectively, while the fund and business routes get no reduction. Article 3(3) refers to the low-density territories delimited by Portaria n.º 208/2017 of 13 July, with fewer than 100 inhabitants per km² or GDP per capita below 75% of the national average. The fund route has become the default: it is administered rather than built, and it is easier to document on source of funds.

**Timelines and procedure.** Formally a decision takes months. In practice AIMA holds a backlog which minister Leitão Amaro publicly promised in October 2025 to clear during 2026; at that point tens of thousands of files were involved, and the real spread from filing to card ran from 12 to 36 months, with a separate pause for biometrics. The promise to clear the queue came a day before the parliamentary vote on citizenship, and the legal community read that coincidence as a signal: the queue will be cleared, but the benefit will not go to those who stood in it.

**Presence and renewal.** The requirement is minimal and unchanged: seven days in the first year and fourteen days in each subsequent two-year period. The first card is valid for two years and is renewed for further two-year periods (article 90-A(2) of Lei n.º 23/2007) provided the investment is maintained.

**Tax effect.** The ARI does not create tax residency by itself: the Portuguese test is 183 days or a permanent home used as a main residence. The former NHR regime is closed; its successor [IFICI](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-ifici) kept the 20% rate for ten years but is open to a narrow range of professions and rarely fits an investor who has simply subscribed to a fund.

**Reform status and what to check.** Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 was published on 18 May 2026 and applies from 19 May 2026: naturalisation at ten years instead of five, seven years for EU and CPLP nationals, the clock starting on the day the first residence card is issued, tests on Portuguese culture, history and national symbols and on citizens' rights and duties alongside the A2 language requirement that predates the reform, and a solemn declaration of adherence to democratic principles. Applications filed up to and including 18 May 2026 are decided under the previous rules; the Constitutional Court struck down part of the provisions in December 2025, but the ten-year period survived. One thing has to be verified before filing: from which date the clock runs in your file, and whether that date is documented. The detail sits in the [programme profile](https://wiki.private.law/en/portugal-golden-visa).

### Greece: zonal thresholds and a letting ban

**What is bought and under which rule.** Article 64 of Law 5100/2024 (Government Gazette A 49 of 5 April 2024), which rewrote Article 100 of the Immigration Code (Law 5038/2023), replaced the single €250,000 threshold with a three-tier scale by zone, applicable from 1 September 2024: €800,000 in the Region of Attica, the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, the Regional Units of Mykonos and Thira, and on islands whose population according to the latest census exceeds 3,100 inhabitants; €400,000 in the rest of the country. The criterion for the top tier is demographic: the statute carries no closed list of islands, and any island count quoted in commentary is the result of applying the criterion to census data rather than the rule itself.

Both tiers require a single property of at least 120 m² — combining several flats is no longer possible. The €250,000 threshold survives in two narrow cases: conversion of a commercial building into residential use (the conversion must be completed before filing) and restoration of a listed building. Alongside property there are portfolio routes: €500,000 into shares, bonds or deposits, and €350,000 into units of a Greek AIF. Law 5275/2026, in force from 6 February 2026, added a €250,000 route into a start-up from the Elevate Greece register — with a stake of no more than 33% and an undertaking to maintain two jobs for five years.

**Timelines and procedure.** The government states a target of 4–6 months against the previous 9–12; the national backlog runs to tens of thousands of files, so the target remains a target. The permit is issued for five years and renewed while the property is retained.

**Presence and renewal.** There is no presence requirement at all — that is the core sales point of the Greek route. But Law 5275/2026 changed an important detail: the five-year term now runs from the date the card is issued rather than from filing or from completion of the investment. For someone who waited a year for a decision, that is a year of status lost.

**Tax effect.** The status creates no tax residency. Separately and independently, the [Greek non-dom regime](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-non-dom) is available — a fixed payment of €100,000 a year on foreign income. A different restriction matters more: the property underpinning the permit may not be let short-term. Breach means a €50,000 fine and revocation of the permit, which switches off by law the familiar "the flat pays for itself through the platform" model.

**Reform status and what to check.** The zonal map is tied to administrative boundaries and census data; before a transaction, check which zone the specific municipality falls into, whether the property meets the floor-area rule, and whether any conversion is complete as a matter of law rather than of fact. Ministerial acts under Law 5275/2026 were issued throughout 2026. The thresholds and procedure are set out in the [programme profile](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-golden-visa) and in the analysis of [buying property in Greece](https://wiki.private.law/en/greece-property-purchase).

### Italy: the Article 26-bis visa and its flat-tax pairing

**What is bought and under which rule.** The investor visa was introduced by Article 26-bis of the Consolidated Immigration Act (Legislative Decree 286/1998) and is administered by the Investor Visa for Italy Committee at the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy. There are four options: €250,000 into an Italian innovative start-up, €500,000 into an Italian limited liability company, €2,000,000 into government bonds, and €1,000,000 as a non-refundable contribution to a philanthropic project. The design is unusual in that the money goes in afterwards, not before: the applicant gives an undertaking, obtains the nulla osta, takes the visa, enters the country and makes the investment within three months.

**Timelines and procedure.** The Committee's statutory review period is 30 days; the practical benchmark for the full cycle to a card is 3–4 months. The first residence permit is issued for two years and renewed for three on confirmation that the investment has been maintained.

**Presence and renewal.** There is no minimum presence for renewal — on this axis Italy sits alongside Greece and Hungary. But EU long-term resident status after five years and citizenship after ten require genuine residence, language and a tax history, so the "paper" trajectory here breaks off in year five.

**Tax effect.** The visa itself creates no residency. The value of the route lies elsewhere: it dovetails neatly with the [flat-tax regime for new residents](https://wiki.private.law/en/italy-flat-tax) — a fixed charge on foreign income under Article 24-bis TUIR. The amount turns on the date the person transfers residence to Italy (Article 43 of the Civil Code), and the two cohorts must not be conflated.

Those transferring from 1 January 2026 pay €300,000 a year plus €50,000 for each family member — Article 1, paragraphs 25 and 26 of Law No. 199 of 30 December 2025 (the 2026 Budget Law, Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 301 of 30 December 2025, in force 1 January 2026). Those who transferred after Decree-Law No. 113 of 9 August 2024 came into force (10 August 2024, Article 2; converted by Law No. 143 of 7 October 2024) and before the end of 2025 pay €200,000 plus €25,000 per family member; those who transferred earlier, €100,000 plus €25,000. It is that pairing, not the residence permit, that makes the Italian route interesting to substantial capital: the investor gains the right to live in the country while capping tax on worldwide income at a fixed sum. Anyone considering an Italian passport should first check for descent — that path is shorter and cheaper.

**Reform status and what to check.** The programme parameters are stable and the risk of change is below the regional average. The critical caveat is different: since 14 July 2023 intake has been suspended for Russian and Belarusian nationals, and since March 2024 also for holders of a second citizenship who also hold a Russian or Belarusian passport. The general logic of such restrictions sits in the material on [applicants from Russia](https://wiki.private.law/en/russian-applicants-investment-migration).

### Hungary: fund certificates and a ten-year horizon

**What is bought and under which rule.** The Guest Investor Programme was launched in 2024 to replace the earlier bond scheme. The statute originally offered three options; by 2025 two were left: the purchase of real-estate investment fund certificates worth at least €250,000 with an undertaking to hold them for five years, or a non-refundable contribution of €1,000,000 to a Hungarian state university managed by a public-interest foundation.

The €500,000 direct residential purchase (§ 16(3)(b) of Act XC of 2023) did not disappear at the relaunch: applications opened on 1 July 2024, and under § 286(18)–(19), inserted by Act XXV of 2024, that option was to apply only from 1 January 2025. It was deleted from § 16(3) by Act LXXXIV of 2024, published in Magyar Közlöny 2024/131 on 20 December 2024 and in force from 30 December 2024 — two days before it would have opened, so it never operated for a single day. The fund must be licensed by the regulator and cleared by the Constitution Protection Office, and must hold at least 40% of net assets in Hungarian residential property; in practice the entire flow runs through two accredited funds.

**Timelines and procedure.** The guest investor visa is issued for six months; after entry there are 30 days to apply for the card, the investment must be completed within the allotted period (about 93 days), and the card decision is taken within 21 days. The practical cycle is around five months.

**Presence and renewal.** The permit is issued for ten years at once and renewed once for a further ten. There is no compulsory presence — measured by length of status against a zero presence requirement, this is the most generous construction in Europe.

**Tax effect.** The status creates no tax residency: the Hungarian test is the ordinary 183 days plus centre of interests. There is no preferential regime for investors; the appeal of the Hungarian tax system sits in the corporate contour (a low corporate income tax rate), not the personal one.

**Reform status and what to check.** The programme has changed configuration twice in two years, and its weak point is administrative: the list of eligible funds and the requirements applying to them are set by secondary legislation and change without amending the statute. The second point is the gap between the length of the card and the path to permanent status: the national permanent residence card requires three years of actual residence with limits on absences (no more than four months at a stretch and no more than 270 days in total), so a ten-year permit with no presence requirement leads nowhere on its own. Before filing, check the current fund list, the redemption terms for certificates in year five, and the real liquidity of the instrument.

### Cyprus: indefinite PR and the 2026 tax reform

**What is bought and under which rule.** Category 6(2) of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations grants an immigration permit for an investment of €300,000 plus VAT. Eligible assets: one residential unit or two in the same development bought from a developer (first sale only — the secondary market does not qualify), commercial property, units in a Cypriot investment fund, or shares in a Cypriot company with genuine activity and employees. The second mandatory element is proven annual income from sources outside Cyprus: €50,000 for the applicant, plus €15,000 for a spouse and €10,000 for each child.

**Timelines and procedure.** A decision takes 2–4 months. The May 2023 amendments simplified one part of the requirements and tightened another: the former three-year €30,000 pledged deposit and the annual income confirmation were abolished, but the applicant's parents were removed from the family unit — they are left with the slower Category F. Student children are included up to the age of 25.

**Presence and renewal.** The status is indefinite and does not need renewal. The only maintenance condition is to visit Cyprus at least once every two years; there is no minimum stay.

**Tax effect.** PR alone creates no residency, but Cyprus is where the joint between immigration and tax status pays off most. The reform that took effect on 1 January 2026 reshaped both sides: the corporate rate rose from 12.5% to 15%, the personal income tax exemption threshold rose from €19,500 to €22,000, the defence contribution on dividends fell from 17% to 5%, deemed dividend distribution was abolished for profits from 2026 onwards, and stamp duty was repealed. For [non-doms](https://wiki.private.law/en/cyprus-non-dom) the nil defence rates on dividends and interest survive and the status still runs 17 years, while the reform introduced two paid five-year extensions at €250,000 each, raising the theoretical ceiling to 27 years. The 60-day rule remains and has been softened: the condition of not being tax resident elsewhere has been removed. The corporate side sits in the [Cypriot holding profile](https://wiki.private.law/en/company-cyprus).

**Reform status and what to check.** Migration parameters are stable; tax parameters changed radically and in both directions. Before filing, verify that the property really is a first sale from a developer, that the source of the €300,000 is documented outside Cyprus, and that the post-relocation income structure has been reconciled against the new rates rather than the pre-reform ones.

### Malta: the MPRP after the passport programme disappeared

**What is bought and under which rule.** The Malta Permanent Residence Programme grants permanent status for a package of payments plus a property test. The 2026 contributions are unified and no longer depend on whether the home is bought or leased: an administrative fee of €60,000 (€15,000 on filing, €45,000 after approval), a government contribution of €37,000 and a €2,000 donation to a registered NGO — €99,000 in total. Property: purchase from €375,000 or lease from €14,000 a year. Plus a capital test at the applicant's choice: €500,000 of total assets of which at least €150,000 liquid, or €650,000 of which €75,000 liquid. Crypto-assets are expressly not counted towards the liquid portion.

**Timelines and procedure.** Due diligence takes 3–7 months; the property, contribution and donation must be in place within eight months of the letter of approval in principle. Legal Notice 146 of 2025 added an interim one-year temporary residence permit for the processing period and allowed the purchased property to be let short-term — a rare relaxation against the regional trend of tightening. Applicant vetting here is traditionally among the most rigorous in the EU; the logic is set out in the material on [due diligence](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-due-diligence).

**Presence and renewal.** There is no compulsory presence and the status is permanent.

**Tax effect.** The MPRP is an immigration status with no tax content: it does not make the holder a tax resident and grants no preferential rate. Anyone who needs a tax status is sold a separate product by Malta — the [Global Residence Programme](https://wiki.private.law/en/global-residence-program), with remittance-basis logic and a minimum tax. The corporate contour with the [6/7ths refund](https://wiki.private.law/en/company-malta) exists independently of both.

**Reform status and what to check.** Malta is the principal illustration of regional risk. On 29 April 2025 the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice held in Case C-181/23 that granting citizenship in exchange for payments without a genuine link to the state is incompatible with obligations under Article 20 TFEU and the principle of sincere cooperation. Malta repealed investor naturalisation by Act XXI of 2025, published on 24 July 2025, replacing it with a merit-based framework with no fixed sum — assessment is carried out by an independent board against a test of "exceptional interest to the Republic".

Passports already granted are untouched. The new framework is analysed in the material on [Maltese citizenship for exceptional services by direct investment](https://wiki.private.law/en/malta-citizenship-merit). For the MPRP the judgment has no direct consequence: the Court was dealing with citizenship, not residence. But the planning conclusion should be read more broadly — if the investment character of a route has been held incompatible with EU law at the level of citizenship, further pressure on residence programmes is a political question rather than a legal one.

### Latvia: a route being rewritten right now

**What is bought and under which rule.** The historic design of the Latvian residence permit under Article 23 of the Immigration Law rested on three pillars: property from €250,000, a subordinated deposit with a Latvian bank from €280,000, and an investment in a company's share capital. The new Immigration Law (Imigrācijas likums), adopted by the Saeima on second review on 20 August 2026, closed the first two options to new applicants when it took effect on 15 September 2026; until then both were grounds under Article 23(1) of the previous Immigration Law in its redaction of 23 April 2026 (in force 20 May 2026), with 5% of the purchase price paid into the state budget on the first permit for property and €25,000 for subordinated capital.

What remains is the share capital investment: €50,000 into a small enterprise or €100,000 into a large one or a subsidiary, plus a €10,000 payment to the state budget — while the permit granted on this ground is cut from five years to two. In their place comes a new route: €150,000 into a state alternative investment fund for five years plus the same €10,000 to the budget, with a permit of up to five years.

**Timelines and procedure.** The new law sets a maximum review period of four months from receipt of the documents and abolishes the annual registration of the permit: the card's validity now coincides with the validity of the permit.

**Presence and renewal.** There has historically been no presence requirement for maintaining the residence permit; permanent residence requires five years of continuous residence, and citizenship ten years plus examinations in language, history and the constitution.

**Tax effect.** The status creates no tax residency, and Latvia offers no preferential regime for investors.

**Reform status and what to check.** This is the jurisdiction on the map where the rule changed most recently, and the dates have to be kept apart. Third reading was on 11 June 2026; on 19 June President Edgars Rinkēvičs declined to promulgate the law and returned it to the Saeima for reconsideration under Article 71 of the Satversme; on 20 August 2026 the Saeima adopted it a second time, the President promulgated it on 1 September, and it took effect on 15 September 2026, replacing the Immigration Law of 2002. From that date property from €250,000 and the subordinated deposit from €280,000 are closed to new applicants.

On the second review the Saeima rejected the Minister of Economics' proposal to add property purchase from €300,000 to the new law. One reason for the President's return remains unresolved and sits outside the Immigration Law itself: the fund vehicle that is supposed to receive the €150,000 does not yet exist in law and requires a separate act, so the opening of the new route need not coincide with the date the law took effect. Transitional rule: applications filed before 15 September 2026 are decided under the previous law, and permits already issued remain valid until their registration or expiry date, after which holders of property and deposit permits may apply for a repeat permit of up to five years while the investment still qualifies, subject to a payment into the state budget. Latvian parameters are verified directly with the PMLP before any step: since 15 September 2026 new applicants have only company capital and the fund.

### Spain: no investor route, the entrepreneur route survives

**What is bought and under which rule.** The Spanish investor visa no longer exists. Ley Orgánica 1/2025, published on 3 January 2025, repealed the investor residence permit by its twenty-first final provision; the repeal took effect on 3 April 2025 and reached not only new applications but renewals and modifications as well. The former €500,000 property threshold left the market on housing-affordability grounds. Three routes survive from Ley 14/2013 — unattractive to passive capital but functional: the entrepreneur visa (Articles 68–70), the highly qualified professional visa and the digital nomad visa. The entrepreneur route has no investment threshold at all — instead of a sum, substance is tested: a favourable ENISA opinion is mandatory, confirming that the project is innovative, scalable and of special economic interest to Spain. Without that opinion the immigration authority cannot approve the application.

**Timelines and procedure.** ENISA reviews the business plan in 4–8 weeks and the UGE takes up to 20 working days with positive administrative silence; a realistic cycle is 2–4 months. The permit is issued for three years and renewed for two if the business is trading.

**Presence and renewal.** Here lies the fundamental difference from the passive routes on this map: Spanish permits require genuine residence, and absences of more than six months a year break the count for permanent residency and naturalisation.

**Tax effect.** That is precisely why the Spanish route almost always brings tax residency with it: the general IRPF regime with progressive rates, plus [wealth tax](https://wiki.private.law/en/spain-wealth-tax) and the solidarity levy. The Beckham regime is open to employees and, with qualifications, to part of the entrepreneur population — but not to someone who has merely placed capital.

**Reform status and what to check.** The reform has already happened, and the risk of further change has shifted into tax and housing policy (the mooted surcharge on property purchases by non-EU non-residents). Holders of former investor visas should separately check the rules on renewal and on switching to another ground. The overall map of Spanish routes sits in the [Spain cluster](https://wiki.private.law/en/spain-hub), the transactional side in [buying property](https://wiki.private.law/en/spain-property-purchase).

### Ireland: after the IIP, business and "independent means"

**What is bought and under which rule.** The Immigrant Investor Programme closed to new applications at the end of 15 February 2023 — over its life it attracted around €1.25bn into social housing, hospitals, universities and sport. No replacement was created. For anyone wanting to enter Ireland with capital, two constructions of different natures remain. The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme (STEP): at least €50,000 of funding, an innovative business idea with the potential to create ten jobs and €1m of revenue within three to four years; retail, catering and personal services are expressly excluded. Stamp 0 is the status of a person of independent means: proven income of at least €50,000 a year per person (€100,000 for a married couple) from acceptable sources such as pensions and savings (speculative holdings are generally not accepted), access to a reserve sum for unforeseen expenses, and full private medical insurance.

**Timelines and procedure.** STEP grants a permission for two years, renewable for three, and admits family members. Stamp 0 is issued for a year and renewed annually while the conditions hold.

**Presence and renewal.** STEP presupposes running a business in Ireland, that is, actual presence. Stamp 0 permits residence but forbids employment and business without separate permission, and gives no access to state benefits or services.

**Tax effect.** Neither route confers any tax advantage in itself; at 183 days of presence, ordinary Irish residency arises. The country's corporate appeal, with its [12.5% rate and participation exemption](https://wiki.private.law/en/company-ireland), has nothing to do with personal status.

**Reform status and what to check.** The main trap in the Irish perimeter is not the thresholds but the clock. Stamp 0 is not reckonable residence for naturalisation: years spent in that status do not count towards the five-year requirement for citizenship. Anyone considering an Irish passport usually gets there faster through descent — the grandparent rule works more widely than is generally assumed. It is also worth checking whether the chosen option leads to long-term residency after five years: STEP has that path, Stamp 0 does not.

### Luxembourg: a niche route for operating capital

**What is bought and under which rule.** Luxembourg does maintain an investor ground for third-country nationals, and as at August 2026 it is working. There are four options: €500,000 into an existing Luxembourg company with the investment and employment level maintained for five years; €500,000 into incorporating a new company with an undertaking to create at least five jobs within three years; €3,000,000 into a management or investment structure with genuine substance in the country; and €20,000,000 on deposit with a Luxembourg financial institution held for at least five years.

**Timelines and procedure.** The procedure has two stages and is stricter than the thresholds suggest. Before entry: approval of the investment project by the responsible ministry, then an application for a temporary authorisation to stay and, if required, a visa (valid 90 days). After entry: a declaration of arrival within three days, a medical check, and the residence permit application within three months.

**Presence and renewal.** The card is issued for a maximum of three years and renewed while the conditions are maintained; the renewal application is filed no later than two months before expiry. The rules set no explicit minimum number of days, but the condition of maintaining the investment and employment presupposes involvement rather than absence in practice.

**Tax effect.** Luxembourg offers no preferential tax regime for investors: residency arises under the ordinary tests and personal income tax rates are high. The point of the route lies not in personal tax but in access: the country remains a European fund and holding platform, and a manager's presence in the jurisdiction of their [funds](https://wiki.private.law/en/luxembourg-sif-raif) and [holding companies](https://wiki.private.law/en/luxembourg) has value in its own right.

**Reform status and what to check.** The risk of change is low and application volumes are in single digits — the programme is not a mass product and is not under the political pressure bearing on Portugal or Malta. What needs checking before filing is not the thresholds but whether the project can be approved: ministerial approval here is discretionary and substantive, which in logic places it closer to [business owner routes](https://wiki.private.law/en/business-owner-routes) than to buying a status.

> 🍓 **The map in summary.** Who in Europe is suited to what. If the goal is an EU passport and you are prepared to wait, the remaining choice is narrow: Portugal on a ten-year clock counted from card issue with minimal presence, or a genuine move to Spain, Luxembourg or Latvia with five to ten years of actual residence. If the goal is a status with maximum freedom of movement and zero presence, the best constructions are Greece (five years, no day requirement), Hungary (ten years with one renewal) and Cyprus (indefinite, one visit every two years).

> If the goal is a tax outcome, the immigration instrument is chosen second: Italy for the flat tax, Cyprus for non-dom, Malta for the GRP and the corporate refund — in all three the status and the regime are obtained separately and under different statutes. If the goal is an operating base in the EU, Luxembourg, the Spanish entrepreneur visa and the Irish STEP all work: they cost more in involvement, but they are not abolished by a political decision as easily as passive routes are. And the general rule: the entry sum has ceased to be the main selection criterion — its place has been taken by the time to citizenship and by a jurisdiction's capacity not to change the rules retroactively.
>

> ⚠️ **The region's main risk is retroactivity.** European investor programmes change not only for future applicants but for those already inside. On 19 May 2026 Portugal doubled the naturalisation period and moved the starting point from the date of application to the issue of the card — the blow landed on people who had spent three years in the AIMA queue counting on a five-year horizon.

> Greece, by Law 5275/2026, moved the start of the five-year permit term to the date the card is issued. The Court of Justice in Case C-181/23 held investor naturalisation incompatible with Union law, and Malta closed its passport programme three months after the judgment. Latvia closed two of its historic routes to new applicants by the new Immigration Law, adopted on second review on 20 August 2026 after a presidential veto and in force since 15 September 2026.
>
> The planning conclusion: do the maths not on the promised timeline but on the scenario in which the timeline doubles, the starting point moves forward, and the route closes before you reach permanent residence. If the deal loses its point on that basis, it is not a deal but a bet. The mechanics of transitional provisions and the protection of acquired rights are analysed in a [separate material](https://wiki.private.law/en/investment-migration-status-risk).
>

## Q/A

### **Are Andorra, Monaco and Switzerland golden visas?**

No. None of them sells a card for a fixed ticket. Andorra comes closest, with a statutory €1,000,000 asset test and a non-refundable AFA payment of €50,000 plus €12,000 per dependant since 13 February 2026. Monaco tests "sufficient means" through a Monaco bank attestation, and Switzerland admits a non-working third-country national only through a cantonal file, usually built around a lump-sum tax ruling. All three are compared with the programme routes in the table of capital residences above.

### **Whether a golden visa for property still exists anywhere in Europe**

Yes, but the choice has narrowed to a single mass programme. Greece kept property with zonal thresholds of €800,000 and €400,000, a minimum floor area of 120 m², a one-property rule and a ban on short-term letting under a €50,000 fine. Portugal removed property from the ARI in 2023, Spain abolished the investor visa entirely from 3 April 2025, Hungary deleted direct residential purchase by Act LXXXIV of 2024 with effect from 30 December 2024, two days before that option was due to open, and Latvia closed its €250,000 route to new applicants when the new Immigration Law took effect on 15 September 2026. In Cyprus and Malta property formally remains, but there it is part of a package with compulsory contributions or an income test rather than a standalone entry.

### **Which European route leads to EU citizenship fastest**

After the Portuguese reform, there is essentially no short path left through investment. Cyprus and Greece offer seven years but count actual residence rather than time holding a card; Portugal offers ten years (seven for EU and CPLP nationals) counted from the issue of the first card; Italy and Latvia ten years; Luxembourg five, but with a language examination and genuine residence. Maltese investor naturalisation has been abolished. The practical conclusion: if EU citizenship is needed within a few years, an investment route is not the shortest instrument; it is worth checking [descent and other routes](https://wiki.private.law/en/eu-citizenship-routes) first and only then counting the money.

### **Whether an investor residence permit makes you a tax resident of the country**

By itself, almost nowhere. Portugal, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Cyprus and Malta apply the ordinary tests: 183 days of presence or centre of vital interests. Routes with no presence requirement (Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, and Italian renewals) let you hold the status without becoming resident. The reverse is true of Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg: there the permit presupposes residence from the outset, and residency arises almost inevitably. The fork is analysed in detail in [residence by investment and tax residency](https://wiki.private.law/en/golden-visa-tax-residency); the underlying test sits in [tax residency: 183 days and centre of vital interests](https://wiki.private.law/en/tax-residency-basics).

### **What to do if you are already in the AIMA queue under the Portuguese programme**

First, fix two dates: the date of the ARI application and the date the first residence card was (or is expected to be) issued. Under Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, citizenship applications filed up to and including 18 May 2026 are decided under the previous rules; anything filed later runs on the ten-year period counted from the card. The government stated publicly that administrative delays should not worsen applicants' position, but that is a statement rather than a directly applicable rule, and some files are already being litigated. The Constitutional Court struck down individual provisions of the law in December 2025 while leaving the ten-year period in force. Check separately whether permanent residence in year five is available in your case — it does not depend on the naturalisation reform.

### **Whether the CJEU judgment on Malta means residence programmes will be closed too**

Legally, no. Case C-181/23 concerned the grant of citizenship, that is, the status of a Union citizen, and the Court relied on Article 20 TFEU and the principle of sincere cooperation. Residence permits for investment remain a member state competence, and the Maltese MPRP continued to operate after the judgment — indeed it was restructured in a more flexible direction in 2025. Politically the conclusion differs: the Commission has pressed on residence programmes for years through recommendations and sanctions-related restrictions, and the Malta judgment strengthens that position. Plan on the assumption that any passive route may be closed to new applicants within the next few years; whether an already granted status survives is decided by the transitional provisions of the particular statute.

### **Whether the Latvian figures in this map can be treated as final**

As far as the statute goes, yes. The new Immigration Law passed its third reading on 11 June 2026, the President returned it to the Saeima without promulgating it on 19 June, on 20 August 2026 the Saeima adopted it a second time, and it took effect on 15 September 2026. Since then property from €250,000 and the subordinated deposit from €280,000 are off the list for new applicants. The fund that is supposed to receive investments under the new €150,000 route does not exist in law and requires a separate act, so the new route may open later than the law took effect. Applications filed before 15 September 2026 are decided under the previous law, and permits already issued remain valid until they expire, after which holders may apply for a repeat permit of up to five years while the investment still qualifies. Any Latvian parameter should be verified directly with the PMLP before acting, not taken from reviews.

### **What to do if you have neither €250,000 nor any wish to lock up capital**

The investor route is not the only entry into Europe and often not the most efficient one. The owner of a trading business usually enters more cheaply through entrepreneurial and corporate grounds: the Spanish visa under Ley 14/2013 with no investment threshold, the Irish STEP from €50,000, the Latvian share-capital route from €50,000, or Luxembourg's project approval. Specialists with a track record use [talent routes](https://wiki.private.law/en/talent-routes-models), where no sum is tested at all. The full logic of choosing between these families sits in [migration routes for a business owner](https://wiki.private.law/en/business-owner-routes). An investor programme beats them in exactly one scenario: when what is needed is a status with no presence and no operating obligations, and that freedom carries a premium.

Parameters are stated as at 14 August 2026 and should be verified at the date of filing. This material is for reference only and is not individual legal or tax advice.

Primary-source check: Portugal’s current ARI channel and filing route are maintained by [AIMA](https://aima.gov.pt/pt/viver/autorizacao-de-residencia-para-investimento-art-90-o-a/portal-ari).

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## Factual claims

- Greece kept property but made it expensive and awkward: zonal thresholds of €800,000 and €400,000, a minimum of 120 m², a single property only, and an outright ban on short-term letting under a €50,000 fine with revocation of the permit.
- Both tiers require a single property of at least 120 m² — combining several flats is no longer possible.
- What remains is the share capital investment: €50,000 into a small enterprise or €100,000 into a large one or a subsidiary, plus a €10,000 payment to the state budget — while the permit granted on this ground is cut from five years to two.
- On the second review the Saeima rejected the Minister of Economics' proposal to add property purchase from €300,000 to the new law.
- Parameters are stated as at 14 August 2026 and should be verified at the date of filing.

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