are programs designed to attract
foreign capital and businesspeople by providing the right of residence and citizenship in return. These are also known as
citizenship by investment,
golden visa, or
golden passport programs.
[1][2][3]
Immigrant investor programs usually have multiple criteria that must be fulfilled for the investment to qualify, often pertaining to job creation, purchasing of real estate, non-refundable contributions or specific targeted industries.
[4] Most of these programs are structured to ensure that the investment contributes to the welfare, advancement and economic development of the country in which they wish to reside or belong to. It is more often more about making an economic contribution than just an investment.
A
golden visa is a
permanent residency visa issued to individuals who invest, often through the purchase of property, a certain sum of money into the issuing country. The roots of golden visas have been traced back to the 1980s when
tax havens in the Pacific and Caribbean began "cash-for-passport" programs that facilitated visa-free travel and provided tax advantages.
[6] For example, in 1984,
St Kitts and Nevis began its program which offered not only permanent residency but
citizenship to foreign nations.
[7]
According to
Corpocrat Magazine in 2016, the countries with the top-ranked immigrant investor programs in the world were
Malta,
Cyprus,
Portugal,
Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada,
Antigua and Barbuda,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Spain,
Latvia,
Monaco,
Bulgaria,
Ukraine,
Grenada,
Abkhazia,
Saint Lucia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and
Dominica.
Golden visas require investments of anywhere from $100,000 in
Dominica up to £2,000,000 in the U.K. The most common method for obtaining a golden visa is through the purchase of real estate with a minimum value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrant_investor_programs
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