A golden visa in Europe is a residence permit granted in exchange for a qualifying financial investment, and as of 2026 eight countries still offer one: Greece, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Cyprus, and Malta. Minimum investments run from roughly €50,000 at the low end in Latvia to €2 million for Italy’s government bond route, and the permit that comes with the investment carries visa-free travel across the Schengen Area. The picture has narrowed sharply in recent years. Thresholds have climbed, entire investment categories have disappeared, and the European Commission is pushing member states to wind these programs down.
Which Countries Still Offer Golden Visas
Greece and Portugal remain the most popular programs. Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Cyprus, and Malta round out the list.
Several well-known programs have closed. Spain ended its golden visa on April 3, 2025. Ireland shut its Immigrant Investor Programme in February 2023. The United Kingdom closed its Tier 1 Investor Visa in February 2022. The Netherlands discontinued its investor residence option. Cyprus eliminated its citizenship-by-investment scheme in 2020 after corruption scandals, though a residency-only program through property investment still exists.1Transparency International. Cyprus Axes Corruption-Plagued Golden Passports Scheme
Program status changes quickly. Verify with the host country’s immigration authority before committing any money.
Investment Thresholds by Country
Greece
Greece restructured its thresholds in 2024. The real estate route now uses two zones:
- Zone A (high-demand areas): €800,000 for a single property of at least 120 square meters. This zone covers the entire Attica region including Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and more than 30 additional islands including Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, and Kos.
- Zone B (all other regions): €400,000 with the same 120-square-meter minimum.
- Listed buildings and commercial-to-residential conversions: €250,000 anywhere in the country.
Non-property routes are also available: €500,000 in government bonds with at least a three-year maturity, €500,000 in a fixed-term bank deposit, or €800,000 in equities and corporate bonds. Applications go through the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.2Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Golden Visa
Portugal
Portugal removed real estate as a qualifying investment in October 2023 under the Mais Habitação housing legislation. That was the route most investors had used. What remains:
- Investment funds: €500,000 in venture capital or private equity funds regulated by Portugal’s securities regulator (CMVM), with at least a five-year maturity and at least 60% of the fund invested in companies headquartered in Portugal.
- Scientific research: €500,000 to approved research activities.
- Cultural and artistic investments: €250,000 for cultural heritage preservation or artistic production.
- Job creation: establishing a business that creates at least ten full-time positions.
The fund route has become the dominant pathway since real estate was removed. Pre-registration through AIMA’s online portal is mandatory before submitting a formal application.3Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo. Autorização de Residência para Investimento – Art 90-A
Other Programs
Italy’s investor visa starts at €250,000 for an innovative startup, €500,000 for shares in an Italian company, €1 million for a philanthropic donation, or €2 million in government bonds. Hungary requires €250,000 in a government-accredited real estate fund or a €1 million donation to a higher education institution. Bulgaria offers immediate permanent residency for a fund investment of roughly €512,000. Latvia has the lowest entry point at €50,000 for investing in a small company, though property and bank deposit routes require €250,000 or more. Cyprus requires €300,000 in new residential property. Malta’s permanent residence program combines a government contribution, property purchase or lease, and a donation, with total costs starting around €150,000 when leasing.
Who Can Apply
The core requirement is that you hold citizenship of a non-EU, non-EEA country and are not Swiss. EU citizens already have the right to live and work throughout the bloc.
Beyond nationality, expect the following:
- A clean criminal record. You’ll need a criminal background certificate from your home country and from any country where you’ve lived for an extended period. Greece specifies that the certificate must cover categories of offenses relevant to the visa application.2Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Golden Visa
- Proof that your investment money was earned legally: bank statements, tax returns, business records, dividend statements, or inheritance documentation. Gifted funds require documentation from the person who gave them to you.
- Private health insurance covering medical expenses in the host country. Greece requires an insurance contract covering all health and safety risks defined in its immigration code.2Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Golden Visa
- A minimum age of 18 to apply as the primary investor.
Due diligence goes beyond a criminal records check. Governments screen for sanctions list matches, politically exposed person status, and unusual financial patterns. Gaps or inconsistencies in source-of-wealth documentation are the most common reason applications stall or get rejected without much explanation.
Family Members You Can Include
One investment can usually cover an entire immediate family. Most programs allow you to include a spouse and minor children, and several go further.
Greece is among the more generous. The main applicant can add a spouse or registered partner, unmarried children under 21, and the parents of both spouses, potentially covering three generations under a single investment. Portugal similarly allows spouses, dependent children, and dependent parents, though age cutoffs and dependency definitions vary.
Definitions of “dependent child” diverge the most. Some programs cap eligibility at 18, others at 21, and a few extend to older children who are financially dependent or enrolled in education. Children who age out during the residency period may lose their derived status, which can complicate long-term plans that assume the whole family stays under one permit. Check the age rules for your target country before filing.
How Much Time You Have to Spend in the Country
This is where European golden visas stand apart. Several require almost no physical presence.
Greece has no minimum stay requirement. You can obtain and renew the residence permit without ever living in the country, as long as your qualifying investment remains in place. This is why Greece appeals to investors who want a European residency card for travel flexibility rather than relocation.
Portugal requires a minimum of 14 days of physical presence during each two-year renewal period, which works out to about seven days per year. The days don’t need to be consecutive, so a couple of short visits satisfy it. That minimal obligation is one reason Portugal’s program stayed popular even after the fund route replaced real estate.
Maintaining residency and qualifying for citizenship are different things. If the goal is a passport rather than a card, most countries impose much stricter presence expectations during the naturalization phase.
What the Residence Permit Lets You Do in Europe
A golden visa residence permit in any Schengen state lets you travel visa-free throughout the 26-country Schengen Area, with one important limit. In your host country, you can stay as long as your permit is valid. In every other Schengen country, you are subject to the standard 90/180 rule: up to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period.4Migration and Home Affairs. Visa Policy
A Greek golden visa does not let you live in France or Germany. It lets you visit those countries for up to three months at a time without a separate visa. For business travelers and part-year residents this is genuinely useful. For anyone planning to split time between multiple European countries for long stretches, it falls short. Long-term living in another EU country requires a separate residence permit from that country.
Applying and What It Actually Costs
Assemble documents well before making the investment. Every program requires a valid passport (typically with at least six months remaining), criminal background certificates, proof of health insurance, proof of funds, and the investment documentation itself: property deeds, fund subscription agreements, or bank transfer confirmations. Any document not in the host country’s language needs a certified translation. Criminal records and civil documents such as birth and marriage certificates must be apostilled for international use under the Hague Convention.5USAGov. Authenticate an Official Document for Use Outside the US
Portugal accepts pre-registration and application materials through AIMA’s electronic portal.3Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo. Autorização de Residência para Investimento – Art 90-A Greece routes applications through the electronic services of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.6National Registry of Administrative Public Services. Permanent Golden Visa (Change of Use) – Initial Issuance After the initial submission and document review, expect a biometric appointment in the host country for fingerprints and photography. Processing typically takes six to eighteen months, though backlogs at AIMA have pushed Portugal’s timeline well beyond that for many applicants.
Accuracy in paperwork matters more than speed. Every name, date, and figure must match across all documents. A misspelled name on a translated birth certificate that doesn’t match the passport will trigger a correction request and add months. Most applicants hire a local immigration attorney.
Government fees are a real line item on top of the investment. Portugal’s are among the highest: an initial processing charge of roughly €605, a first application fee of about €6,045, and renewals of about €3,023 each, multiplied for family members. Greece charges around €2,000 for the main applicant’s five-year residence permit, €150 per family member, plus platform fees of roughly €500. Add legal representation (often €5,000 to €15,000 depending on country and family size), certified translations, apostilles, notary costs, and tax identification registration. Portugal’s fund route also carries fund management fees of 1% to 2% annually. Real estate purchases in Greece bring the usual transaction costs: transfer taxes, notary fees, and title due diligence. Altogether, ancillary costs commonly add 5% to 10% to the minimum investment amount.
Renewals and the Long-Term Timeline
Golden visa residence permits are not permanent from day one, with the exception of Bulgaria and Malta’s specific programs. Periodic renewal is required, and the qualifying investment must remain in place the whole time.
Portugal issues a two-year initial card followed by two-year renewals, a 2+2+2 cycle across the first six years. Each renewal requires proof that you still hold the qualifying investment and have met the minimum physical presence rule. Greece issues five-year permits, renewable as long as the investment is maintained. Selling or liquidating the qualifying property or asset before renewal costs you the permit. There is no grace period to reinvest.
A golden visa is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time purchase. If a property market drops and you want to sell, or a fund underperforms and you want to exit, you lose the residency attached to it. Plan the investment horizon accordingly.
Path to Permanent Residency and Citizenship
Portugal allows golden visa holders to apply for citizenship after five years of legal residency. The key added requirement is basic Portuguese proficiency at the A2 level on the Common European Framework, roughly the ability to handle simple, routine conversations. You will also need to show ties to the community and a clean criminal record. A Portuguese passport is an EU passport: unrestricted right to live and work anywhere in the European Union.
Greece requires seven years of legal residency before a citizenship application, and applicants must demonstrate basic knowledge of Greek language, history, and culture through an interview with a Naturalization Committee. The longer timeline and the language requirement make Greek citizenship a more demanding proposition, especially given that Greece’s program requires no time in the country. If you never actually live there, passing a Greek language assessment will be difficult.
Permanent residency is a separate status available in most countries after five years. It provides a more stable legal basis than the renewable golden visa permit and often removes the need to keep the original investment, though requirements vary.
How Program Closures and EU Pressure Affect Investors
European golden visas operate under active political and regulatory pressure. The European Commission considers citizenship-by-investment schemes illegal under EU law and has taken legal action against member states that ran them. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Commission urged member states to repeal any remaining citizenship-by-investment programs immediately.7European Parliament. Aspects of Golden Passport and Visa Schemes in the EU
Residency-by-investment programs face less severe but still significant scrutiny. The Commission has submitted proposals to regulate them, citing concerns that they “commodify EU citizenship and residence rights and weaken vetting and due diligence systems, thereby posing risks of corruption, money laundering, security threats and tax avoidance.”7European Parliament. Aspects of Golden Passport and Visa Schemes in the EU
Spain’s 2025 termination caught many applicants mid-process. Ireland and the UK ended their programs with relatively short notice. The rules can change after capital has been committed. An investment may be locked in a property or fund for five years while the residency benefit attached to it is legislated away in the interim.
Tax Complications for U.S. Citizens
American citizens and green card holders face reporting obligations that most program marketing skips over. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of residence, and European investments trigger multiple filings.
Foreign Account Reporting
If you hold foreign financial accounts whose aggregate value exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year, you must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) using FinCEN Form 114.8Internal Revenue Service. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) A golden visa involving a bank deposit, fund investment, or even a local account for property management can easily cross that threshold, and non-filing penalties are severe.
IRS Form 8938 is a separate filing. Single filers living in the U.S. must file if specified foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any point during the year. Married joint filers have a $100,000 year-end threshold. Taxpayers living abroad get higher thresholds: $200,000 year-end for single filers and $400,000 for joint filers.9Internal Revenue Service. Do I Need to File Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets Since golden visa investments start at €250,000, virtually every American holder will cross these thresholds.
The PFIC Problem
Portugal’s fund route creates a particularly painful tax situation for Americans. European investment funds are almost always classified by the IRS as Passive Foreign Investment Companies. Under the default treatment, gains and excess distributions from PFICs are taxed at the highest ordinary income rate for the year in question plus a compounded interest charge for the deferred tax period. The effective rate can far exceed what a comparable domestic investment would produce. Each PFIC holding requires annual filing of IRS Form 8621, and preparation costs alone can run into thousands of dollars per year.
Consult a cross-border tax advisor before committing to any investment route. The program that looks cheapest on paper may be the most expensive after U.S. tax consequences are counted. Real estate investments, no longer available in Portugal, generally create fewer tax complications for Americans than fund-based routes.