A curated feed of developments across investment migration: programme changes, policy news and notable coverage from industry and mainstream media, with our view on what each means for investors. Updated each weekday. Last updated 16 October 2026.
Nearly one in three wealthy Britons are considering leaving the UK, Saltus survey finds
Saltus’s annual survey of 2,000 UK adults with at least £250,000 in investable assets found 30% considering emigration, up from 25% a year earlier, with 8% actively exploring a move; a Dubai-based corporate services firm told The National the UAE accounted for 16.2% of its UK-origin enquiries, ahead of the Isle of Man (12.8%) and Portugal (11.7%).
Our view: Read the threshold carefully: this is £250,000 of investable assets, not millionaires, and only 8% are actively looking, so it measures intent rather than departures. For those who are serious, the outcome usually turns on UK statutory residence and the new 10-of-20-year inheritance tax test rather than the destination’s headline rate; our guide to UAE tax residency sets out what the UAE side actually requires.
Saint Vincent’s prime minister eyes early 2027 for a redesigned citizenship by investment programme
Prime Minister Godwin Friday said a consultancy is designing a programme with heavier due diligence, central management, OECS coordination and a central bank monitoring role, and floated the first quarter of 2027 as a possible start, having previously promised 2026 and then mid-2026.
Our view: Treat this as an intention, not a launch: the date has slipped twice, no terms have been published, and EU Regulation 2025/2441 now makes investor citizenship without a genuine link grounds for suspending visa-free travel, a test Friday did not say his model would pass. Anyone weighing a Caribbean passport today should compare the five programmes that actually exist, which our Caribbean comparison does, and watch Brussels before counting on a sixth.
Five Gulf states are “very close” to starting the Schengen visa waiver process, GCC chief says
GCC Secretary General Jasem Albudaiwi said Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar are close to beginning the EU process that could end the Schengen visa requirement for their nationals, with news expected at the EU-Gulf leaders’ summit in Riyadh on 24 October; he gave no date for visa-free travel itself.
Our view: Starting the process is not visa-free travel, which could still take years. The practical point for residents: a waiver follows nationality, so foreigners living in the Gulf on golden visas or Saudi Premium Residency would still need a Schengen visa if their own passport requires one, which is why our UAE golden visa guide treats passport rankings as beside the point for residence holders.
French finance committee votes to extend the exit tax to crypto holdings above €800,000
An amendment adopted by the National Assembly finance committee on 8 October would apply France’s exit tax on unrealised gains to households holding more than €800,000 in crypto-assets who leave after at least six of the previous ten years of French tax residence, for departures from 1 January 2027. The committee then rejected the budget’s revenue section, so the measure must be voted on again on the floor, where the revenue vote is scheduled for 20 October.
Our view: This is a committee vote, not law, and a similar French measure aimed at departing high earners failed by a single vote last year, so watch the 20 October floor vote rather than the headlines. For French residents with large crypto positions who are already planning a move, it is a reminder that when you leave and where you go (moves within the EU or to treaty-partner countries get automatic deferral) matter as much as the rules of the country you move to; the departure-tax chapter of our liquidity event tax planning guide explains how exit taxes work.
Cyprus now expects to join Schengen in full during 2027
Cyprus’s deputy migration minister told CyBC that the government aims to complete its six outstanding technical actions by early November and then notify the European Commission that it is ready, with full membership expected during 2027. Accession still needs the unanimous backing of the 25 existing Schengen states, and the treatment of the Green Line crossings remains the main point of contention.
Our view: The target has already slipped from 2026 and unanimity is not a formality, so treat 2027 as an aim rather than a date. The more immediate point for investors is that Cyprus said in September it will tighten its golden visa ahead of entry, so anyone weighing Cyprus permanent residence partly for future Schengen access should expect stricter rules to arrive before any travel benefit does; our Cyprus permanent residence guide sets out what the permit gives you today.
Frontrunner Le Pen pledges to scrap France’s property wealth tax for a levy on financial wealth
Presenting her economic programme on 6 October ahead of the April and May 2027 presidential election, Marine Le Pen promised to abolish the property-only wealth tax (IFI) and replace it with a tax on financial assets, with business owners’ stakes in their own companies spared.
Our view: No name, threshold or rate has been given for the new levy, and a campaign pledge is not law, so nothing changes today for anyone’s residency or tax position. For French-resident families whose wealth sits mainly in portfolios rather than property, the direction of travel is worth watching, but it is a poor basis for a relocation decision until there is a costed bill.
Greece moves to introduce a 10% capital gains tax on crypto
A draft bill released for public consultation on 8 October proposes a 10% tax on crypto gains, with the first €500 of annual gains exempt; the government aims to bring it to parliament in November, and an earlier plan this year had considered 15%.
Our view: The draft is only in consultation, and the report does not say how the tax would treat non-residents or newly arrived tax residents. Anyone planning a Greek move with a digital-asset portfolio should wait for the bill text before assuming how it applies to them.
Revocation risk ranked: how secure is your citizenship by investment?
An IMI Daily analysis ranks 12 citizenship-by-investment programmes by how often states have actually revoked passports, placing Turkey and Cyprus at the top of the risk table and Malta at the bottom, and noting that several Caribbean states have revoked small numbers of grants, mostly over underpriced purchases.
Our view: An empty revocation record is not the same as low risk, because several states hold broad powers that have simply not been tested. For applicants the practical lessons are to pay full market price, keep every transaction clean and consider a second nationality as a backstop; our Caribbean comparison sets out how the programmes differ.
AIMA has processed 6,000 of 46,000 pending golden visa applications, minister tells parliament
Portugal’s Minister of the Presidency told parliament’s Constitutional Affairs committee that AIMA has booked around 30,000 golden visa appointments and decided 6,000 of the 46,000 pending cases, after almost clearing its wider regularisation backlog and growing its staff from 723 to 850.
Our view: Movement on the golden visa queue is welcome, but a booked appointment is not a decision, and 6,000 of 46,000 is roughly 13% with the government’s pledge to clear the backlog this year running short of time. Because the ten-year citizenship clock now runs from the first residence permit rather than the application date (see our guide to Portugal’s 2026 nationality law), processing time is part of the real cost of this route and anyone applying now should plan on that basis.
Greece’s main opposition party proposes ending the real estate golden visa
PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis tabled a parliamentary amendment to abolish the property route, redirect investors to a business-focused “Angel Visa” and apply the short-term rental ban to existing holders when their five-year permits are renewed; the governing New Democracy party dismissed it.
Our view: With around 30 of parliament’s 300 seats, PASOK cannot pass this alone and the government has signalled no change, so nothing alters for applicants today. The detail to watch is the renewal clause: holders who rely on holiday-let income should test their plans against a scenario without short-term lets, and our Greece golden visa guide sets out the current routes and rules.
Argentine opposition files bills in both chambers to ban citizenship by investment
Three opposition bills, one in the Senate and two in the Chamber of Deputies, would remove the legal basis for the government’s new programme; they differ on whether citizenships already granted would stand, and those reviewed offer no refunds.
Our view: The bills do not stop the programme on their own, but they show that a scheme created by emergency decree carries political risk that could outlast the current government, which matters when the entry point is a non-refundable US$350,000 contribution. Weigh that against programmes with a longer track record, while remembering that established routes face pressures of their own, as our Caribbean citizenship by investment comparison sets out.
Billionaires who have left the UK represent about US$160 billion, Bloomberg analysis finds
Reporting a Bloomberg Billionaires Index analysis, Gulf News says the individuals and families who have left Britain or sharply cut their ties over the past two years hold a combined fortune of about US$160 billion, with half leaving in the weeks before the April 2025 non-dom abolition, mainly for Monaco, Switzerland and the UAE.
Our view: The figure measures the wealth of people who left, not money moved, and the group is mostly foreign-born residents with recent UK ties; the thing to watch is whether UK-born founders and financiers follow as the next Budget approaches. For anyone weighing the UAE, the outcome turns on genuine tax residency and on UK rules that can follow a long-term resident after departure, not on the visa itself, which is the subject of our guide to UAE golden visa tax residency.
Three tax votes in November that will affect high earners
CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter flags November ballots in California (a one-off 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires), Colorado (a graduated income tax with top rates of 7.4% above $500,000 and 8.4% above $1 million) and Washington (a vote on repealing its new 9.9% tax on household income over $1 million), set against reports of wealthy residents moving states.
Our view: Domestic tax competition between US states is now part of the wealth-migration story, and it is a reminder that tax residency rules differ sharply between states and between countries. Americans weighing a move abroad should treat these votes as a trigger to take advice, remembering that US citizens remain taxable on worldwide income wherever they live.
Argentina unveils citizenship by investment from US$350,000, with applications due to open before year-end
Argentina’s government has announced South America’s first citizenship by investment programme, priced at a non-refundable US$350,000 contribution to the Treasury or a US$800,000 purchase of a seven-year government bond, plus US$100,000 for a spouse or each unmarried, childless child aged 18 to 25 and US$25,000 for each child under 18, with applications expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Our view: At this price Argentina is not competing with the Caribbean on cost; the case rests on the reach of the passport, which the economy minister puts at more than 140 visa-free destinations including Schengen, and on vetting he says intelligence and financial bodies will carry out. The operator tender was cancelled in April and the implementing detail is still to come, so treat the launch date as a target to watch rather than a fact, and with the EU pressing Caribbean states to wind their programmes down by June 2028, our Caribbean citizenship by investment comparison is the baseline to weigh it against.
Burnham to set out EU rejoin options by November as Macron says “welcome back”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told BBC Radio 4 on 30 September that options up to full EU membership will go to a UK-EU summit expected in November, although Labour’s manifesto rules out a return to the single market, customs union or free movement before the next election, due by 2029.
Our view: Nothing changes for British passport holders in this parliament, and any accession would need all 27 member states to agree, so a Briton who wants the right to live in the EU still needs a residence permit or a second citizenship. Anyone choosing a golden visa as a route to EU citizenship should plan around Portugal’s ten-year naturalisation period, set out in our guide to the 2026 nationality law.
USCIS finalises EB-5 fee rule, more than doubling investor petition fees from 30 November
A Department of Homeland Security final rule published on 30 September raises the Form I-526E regional centre investor petition fee from US$3,675 to US$7,850 and sets the standalone Form I-526 at US$7,615 for filings postmarked on or after 30 November 2026, while the US$800,000 and US$1.05 million minimum investments stay where they are for now.
Our view: Against an US$800,000 commitment the higher filing fee is marginal; the date that matters more is 1 January 2027, when the statute requires the minimum investment amounts to be adjusted for inflation for the first time, so a family already set on EB-5 has a reason to file this year. The rule makes no promise of faster processing, which remains the programme’s real friction.
Malta’s new tax programme starts in January with a €35,000 minimum tax for non-EU applicants
Malta’s Individual Tax Programme, set out in Legal Notice 195 of 2026, replaces the Global Residence Programme and three related regimes from 1 January 2027: the 15% rate on foreign income remitted to Malta stays, but the non-EU minimum annual tax rises from €15,000 to €35,000 and the qualifying purchase from €275,000 (€220,000 in the south and Gozo) to €700,000, while applications received by 31 December 2026 keep their status until 31 December 2031.
Our view: For a family whose remitted income already produces more than €35,000 of Maltese tax little changes, but anyone who would have paid the old €15,000 floor faces a much higher annual cost, so the 31 December receipt date is the one to watch, and what happens to grandfathered holders after 2031 is not yet set out. This is a tax status, not residence by investment; our Malta permanent residence and citizenship guide sets the old and new terms side by side.
UK taxpayers telling HMRC they are leaving rise by a third to 69,000
HMRC figures analysed by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young show 69,000 P85 departure forms were filed in the 2025/26 tax year, up 32% from 52,000 the year before, with the firm citing higher capital gains and inheritance tax and the replacement of the non-dom regime as drivers.
Our view: P85 filings are an imperfect gauge: not everyone who leaves files one, filing does not prove a permanent move, and the rise covers ordinary earners as well as the wealthy. The direction is still clear, and anyone treating a move as a tax decision should start from what genuinely establishes residence elsewhere; for one of the regimes the firm names, our guide to Italy’s investor visa and flat tax sets out what is involved.
Cyprus plans to tighten its golden visa before joining Schengen and is reviewing 12,000 permits
Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides told MPs on 24 September that Cyprus will tighten its residence by investment programme ahead of Schengen accession and is checking whether holders of around 12,000 permits issued since 2013 still meet its conditions, though no new thresholds or timetable have been published and the figure does not match the 7,088 golden visas reported to parliament in April.
Our view: Until proposals are published, the current €300,000 minimum still applies, and existing holders are already expected to prove each year that they own the investment and to visit at least once every two years, so it is worth making sure a file would stand up to review now. Practitioners expect a move towards Greek-style regional thresholds, which our Greece golden visa guide explains.
EU tells Saint Lucia to end its citizenship programme by June 2028 or risk visa-free access
After meeting EU Commissioner Magnus Brunner in New York, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre said the EU had made clear the Eastern Caribbean programmes must be phased out by June 2028 or the countries risk losing visa-free Schengen access, adding that the government has no plan yet to wind its programme down and that a regional technical team will resume talks in October.
Our view: This is the plainest public statement yet that Brussels treats the question as one of timing rather than reform, which narrows the room for the longer transition the five governments are seeking. Anyone weighing an Eastern Caribbean passport should treat Schengen visa-free travel as a benefit at risk rather than a fixed feature; our guide to Caribbean passports and Europe in 2026 sets out what may change.
Malaysia’s MM2H property purchases pass RM5 billion in 23 months, from 7,650 applications
Malaysia’s revamped second-home programme received 7,650 applications between 1 October 2024 and 31 August 2026, with the government putting its economic value at RM8.85 billion, made up of more than RM5 billion in property purchases and RM3.82 billion in fixed deposits.
Our view: Property now outweighs deposits, and Chinese applicants account for about half of all filings (3,847 of 7,650), so this is demand from one source market rather than a broad global trend. The figures count applications, not approvals, so they say little about processing times or how many applicants actually completed; treat the headline total as a measure of interest until approval data is published.
Caribbean citizenship by investment nations ask Brussels for more time on their decision
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia have asked the EU for more time before deciding whether to wind down their citizenship by investment programmes, with a technical team due to meet Brussels officials in October and the five governments pushing for a transition period of roughly two and a half to three years.
Our view: This reads as a negotiation over “when and how” rather than “if”, with no timeline or transition terms agreed yet. Anyone weighing a Caribbean passport should treat today’s rules as time limited rather than assume they will still apply in a year; our Caribbean comparison guide sets out where each of the five programmes currently stands.
Sierra Leone adds a US$95,000 single-applicant citizenship route and raises its Heritage price
From 1 October, Sierra Leone’s GO-FOR-GOLD programme adds a Solo route for one applicant with no dependants at US$95,000 plus a US$5,000 due diligence fee, and a joint route for two unrelated applicants, while the DNA-based Heritage route for applicants of African descent rises from US$100,000 to US$120,000.
Our view: The price is low, but the legal footing is thinner than the programmes it competes with: citizenship still rests on presidential discretion, and the regulation meant to codify the route is still pending. Anyone weighing it should set that against the longer-established, though now EU-pressured, options in our Caribbean citizenship comparison.
San Marino eases entrepreneur residency hiring rule, locks in a €10,000 flat tax floor
San Marino’s parliament has ratified changes to its entrepreneur residency route: applicants now need to hire just one full time worker, drawn from any resident rather than only citizens, instead of up to three staff, while a new €10,000 annual floor now applies to the 7% substitute tax on foreign income and new grants are capped at 50 a year.
Our view: The lighter hiring rule removes a real headache for smaller investor-run businesses, but the new tax floor makes the programme less advantageous for applicants whose home country would otherwise leave that income untaxed under treaty. It is a useful reminder that flat tax programmes carry conditions that shift, so figures are worth checking against the current rules rather than an older guide.
AIMA staff call a nationwide strike for 6 October as the agency’s president departs
The Union of Migration Technicians has called a strike covering all AIMA workers across Portugal on 6 October, seeking a dedicated career path and pay comparable to the border police, after AIMA president Pedro Portugal Gaspar was selected for a board seat at the Competition Authority with no successor yet named.
Our view: One day’s stoppage will not by itself reshape Golden Visa timelines, but it follows strike calls in March and May, and a leadership change with no successor named adds uncertainty at the agency whose backlog sets the pace for every applicant. Anyone with an AIMA appointment near 6 October should confirm it, and anyone planning should budget for the waits in our Portugal Golden Visa processing times guide.
Washington DC weighs a 3% surtax that would push its top investment tax rate above California’s
Ward 1 councilmember Brianne Nadeau has proposed a 3% surtax on investment income above \$400,000 for single filers and \$500,000 for joint filers, which combined with DC’s existing 10.75% rate would take the top combined rate to 13.75%, above California’s 13.3%; a council hearing is set for 16 October and the chairman has said no vote is expected this term.
Our view: This is a proposal a long way from law, and the Council’s own chairman has already said he does not want a vote to come this autumn, so it is one to watch rather than react to. It sits inside a wider pattern of US states and cities testing how far investment income tax on high earners can go, which is the more durable signal for clients already weighing a change of tax residence than any single bill. Our note on how US citizens navigate the tax side of a golden visa application covers what changes and what does not.
HMRC assigns a personal tax compliance manager to every UK billionaire
HMRC has begun pairing every billionaire with a UK tax connection to a dedicated compliance manager, extending a scheme that previously covered around 15,000 wealthy taxpayers, and says fuller numbers will follow in a wealthy compliance plan later this year.
Our view: This alone is not a reason to leave the UK, but it changes the calculation for anyone already weighing it: HMRC is now mapping billionaires’ business, trust and offshore links directly, drawing on data shared by other countries, so an informal change of address without genuine tax residence elsewhere is a weaker position than it used to be. Our guide to UAE tax residency alongside the golden visa sets out what actually has to change for a move to count.
Citizenship by investment vets harder than golden visas, so why is it being shut down first?
IMI Daily sets out the disclosure, interviews and independent investigation Caribbean citizenship by investment programmes now require, against FATF and European Commission findings that most golden visa schemes lack a single vetting standard or follow-up checks, and argues citizenship draws more government pressure precisely because it is so much harder to revoke than a residence permit.
Our view: The double standard the piece describes is real, and it does not change the practical picture for an investor: Brussels’ pressure campaign targets the citizenship route regardless of how well a programme is administered, so a well-vetted Caribbean passport still carries more Schengen-access risk than a golden visa route into EU residence. Vetting quality and political risk are two separate questions and should be weighed separately. Our Caribbean citizenship by investment comparison sets out where each programme currently stands.
What banks actually ask when a client opens an account on a CBI passport
IMI Daily’s survey of bank practice finds that institutions rarely reject a citizenship by investment passport outright but scrutinise tax residence claims in the low-tax Caribbean and Pacific jurisdictions the OECD flags as high risk, drawing on a 2023 FATF and OECD report and due diligence practitioners.
Our view: This is the detail that affects a CBI passport holder day to day more than the acquisition process itself: a bank is not questioning the citizenship, it is questioning whether the tax residence claimed alongside it is genuine, so the source of funds and residence file built at application is worth keeping current rather than filed away once the passport arrives.
Türkiye moves to revoke 1,070 more investor citizenships after a second sham-sale operation
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said 72 suspects were detained in the second phase of an Istanbul investigation into property sales staged to qualify for citizenship by investment: police reviewed purchases by 734 foreign nationals from three developers, classed 274 of the transactions as fictitious, and found that 1,070 people including family members had obtained citizenship through them, with the sales valued at more than TL 3.5 billion and administrative revocation proceedings now opened.
Our view: Two things should stay with anyone weighing the Turkish route. A citizenship obtained through an inflated valuation can be taken back years after the grant, and it goes for the whole family rather than only the investor who signed; and this is the second wave in six weeks, after proceedings against 687 people began in August, so the programme’s back catalogue is now being read file by file. An investor who paid a genuine price for a genuinely valued property through a documented transfer has little to fear from that. Anyone who was steered by a developer or an agent towards a package that made the numbers work should assume their file will be reopened, which is why independent counsel acting for the buyer alone is not a luxury on this route.
How citizenship by investment countries take back what they granted, programme by programme
IMI Daily’s survey of the revocation provisions behind each investor citizenship programme finds that fraud or concealment is a ground everywhere and in most countries never expires, that six programmes (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Türkiye) let a minister revoke on their own opinion with no crime alleged, that Malta can act only after a prison sentence of twelve months or more unless fraud is involved, and that the time allowed to respond runs from seven days in Nauru to 60 in Cyprus, with Egypt, Jordan and Vanuatu publishing no window at all.
Our view: This is the part of a citizenship purchase that gets the least attention at the point of sale and deserves the most, because a grant is held on the granting state’s terms, and Vanuatu’s decision this week to revoke a high-profile investor’s citizenship without naming the statutory ground, reversing its own 2025 review, shows how much room those terms leave. Three practical points follow: disclose everything at application, because concealment has no expiry date; in Antigua and Barbuda, spend the required five days in the country within five years of registration, because the Act allows deprivation for failing to and the investment is not refunded; and if a notice ever arrives, the response window is short and in several programmes the courts are closed to you. Our Caribbean citizenship by investment comparison sets out each programme’s current terms and is worth reading alongside this.
Search interest in golden visas has risen sevenfold in a decade, Spear’s reports
Spear’s cites La Vida’s Golden Visa Index, which tracks online search demand for investor migration content, showing a sevenfold rise between 2016 and 2025; Portugal remains the most searched destination for US and UK nationals, with rising interest also recorded in the Caribbean, Malta, Italy and Greece.
Our view: This tracks search interest rather than completed applications, so treat it as a demand signal rather than a volume count, though the direction matches what we hear from prospective clients. Portugal’s continued pull is worth noting given this year’s change to the naturalisation timeline; anyone acting on the search trend should look past it to the rules as they stand today, which our Portugal Golden Visa guide sets out.
Panama splits its investor visa property route: US$500,000 for resale, US$300,000 for new builds
Executive Decree No. 17, signed on 8 September and published in the Official Gazette on 16 September, replaces the 2020 Qualified Investor decree in full: a first purchase of a new property from its developer still qualifies at US$300,000, any resale purchase now needs US$500,000, a fixed-term deposit qualifies at US$500,000 at the two state banks against US$750,000 at a private bank, gifted funds no longer count towards the minimum, and investors with binding contracts signed before the decree have six months to file under the old rules.
Our view: Panama has done what Greece did with its €250,000 conversion tier and used the residence programme to steer capital where the government wants it, in this case new construction, which tells you whose interests the rules now serve and is a reason to weigh a developer’s delivery record as carefully as the price. Two provisions matter more than the headline for a family: money received as a gift no longer counts, which catches applications funded by parents, and the decree writes a naturalisation route into the programme after five years of residence without saying how much physical presence that requires, so treat a Panamanian passport as an open question rather than a planning assumption until the ministry defines it. Panama is not a programme we run, and we say so; it is here because a government repricing a route with a short filing window is a pattern this feed has recorded in Latvia, Jordan and Greece in the past few weeks.
China’s new border decree widens the grounds for barring citizens from leaving
The State Council’s 19-article Regulations on Exit-Entry Administration, known as Decree No. 841, took effect on 15 September 2026 and allow the authorities to bar citizens from leaving for up to three years over unspecified activities abroad said to endanger national security or interests, and in some cases to withhold written notice of the ban.
Our view: Mobility depends on the exit side as much as the entry side, and a second citizenship arranged late is worth considerably less than one arranged early. For families weighing that risk, our comparison of the Caribbean citizenship by investment programmes sets out which routes genuinely move quickly and which do not.
Netherlands abandons its 36% tax on unrealised gains and will draft a sale-based model instead
The Dutch government confirmed in the 2027 Tax Plan presented on Budget Day that it will not proceed with taxing annual paper gains, and will instead draft a capital gains tax charged only when assets are sold, with proposals expected in spring 2027.
Our view: The reprieve is real but the interim regime is not generous: it still taxes an assumed return rather than an actual one, and that assumption rises from 6.00% to 6.37% on investments in 2027 against a tax-free allowance of EUR 60,098. An investor who outperforms the assumption still pays on the assumption, which is why some Dutch residents look at a change of tax residence rather than a change of portfolio; our guide to UAE tax residency alongside the golden visa sets out what that actually requires in practice.
Jordan naturalised 65 investors in the first half of 2026, more than double last year’s pace
Jordan’s Ministry of Investment reported 65 investor naturalisations between January and June against JOD 72.3 million in linked investment, up from 29 in the same period of 2025, with a further 250 family members naturalised alongside them.
Our view: Every one of those approvals fell under pricing the Cabinet replaced weeks later, raising the minimum Amman Stock Exchange investment by 50% to JOD 1.5 million and extending the holding period from three years to five. The transferable lesson is that a published minimum is the minimum on the day you apply rather than the day you enquire, a pattern the Caribbean programmes have run before; our note on what the Caribbean routes actually cost now tracks where those thresholds currently sit.
St Kitts and Nevis approves a bill giving second and third generation descendants a route to citizenship
The Cabinet has approved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2026 for tabling in the National Assembly, which would allow adults born abroad on or after 19 September 1983 whose parent or grandparent became a citizen at independence to apply for registration as citizens, subject to documentary proof and security screening, with first reading set for 18 September and the application process, form and fee to be prescribed by regulations before it opens.
Our view: A diaspora measure, and a tightly drawn one: the qualifying ancestor must have become a citizen at independence in 1983, and the acting prime minister was explicit that it is not a general ancestry claim. It therefore does nothing for the families this feed flagged on 11 September, children born abroad after a parent’s citizenship by investment grant, who still fall outside the constitution’s descent rule and need a separate application with its own fee. If St Kitts is on your list as a multi-generational asset, read our St Kitts and Nevis guide with that limit in mind.
North Macedonia moves to scrap its €400,000 citizenship threshold, and Brussels says that is not enough
Draft amendments from the Interior Ministry would remove the €400,000 direct-investment route with its ten-job condition and the €200,000 fund contribution added in 2021, replacing them with case-by-case naturalisation of people judged to be of special scientific, economic, cultural or sporting interest; the European Commission, whose December 2025 visa suspension report told Skopje to abolish the scheme and repeal its legal basis, regards a retained discretionary power as insufficient, according to Balkan Insight.
Our view: As a programme this was never much to lose: the Commission’s own reports count 121 grants on economic grounds between 2005 and 2022, one in 2023 and two in 2024, so no serious plan should have rested on it. The method is what matters to a wider audience. Under the revised visa suspension regulation, operating an investor citizenship programme is by itself a ground for suspending a country’s visa-free access to Schengen, and Brussels is now using that lever on a candidate country with a demand to repeal the legal basis rather than simply stop selling. It is the same regulation that hangs over the Caribbean programmes, which our note on Caribbean passport travel sets out.
From Mayfair to Athens: how Greece set out to lure the hedge fund elite
Bloomberg reports that this month’s news of leading hedge funds planning Athens offices was the product of almost a year of work by Greek officials, who set out to draw senior finance professionals by pitching Greece as a safe, stable and predictable tax environment, with the climate and quality of life as supporting arguments, and who knew they needed a big name to put the country on the map.
Our view: Read with Kathimerini’s report that Rokos Capital Management and Millennium Management are preparing an Athens presence and that the finance ministry is already talking to other funds, this is a government executing a strategy rather than catching a windfall, and the ministry’s adviser has said the aim is jobs and companies paying tax in Greece, not a tax haven. For a private individual the practical points are unchanged: the Article 5A flat tax election requires at least €500,000 invested in Greece within three years and no Greek tax residence in seven of the previous eight years, and it is a separate application from the golden visa residence permit, which our Greece Golden Visa guide covers. What to watch is whether the offer survives a Greek election due in 2027.
Spain’s Congress votes to open a citizenship route for Sahrawis with no residence requirement
Spain’s Congress of Deputies approved a bill by 168 votes to 31, with 145 abstentions, that would let people born in Western Sahara while the territory was under Spanish administration apply for Spanish nationality without meeting the normal residence conditions, with first-degree descendants also covered and a two-year rather than ten-year residence route for eligible Sahrawis already living legally in Spain. The text still has to pass the Senate before it becomes law.
Our view: Nothing in this opens a route for an investor and it is worth saying so plainly. What it does show is that EU member states keep wide discretion to grant citizenship outside the ordinary rules, and that they use it for historical ties rather than for capital. For anyone building a plan around an EU passport, the route still runs through residence and time, which is what our Portugal Golden Visa guide sets out.
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