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Portugal has long been a top destination for wealthy Americans seeking an expat lifestyle, with its pristine beaches, low cost of living, and easy access to the United States. This southern European country is attractive in part because of its rules, which make it relatively easy to purchase residency and obtain citizenship. For 500,000 euros, Americans can obtain the so-called golden visa, one of the most desirable status symbols for citizens. The world’s super wealthy. But lately, Portugal’s golden visa has lost its luster.
In 2024, growing opposition from local residents prompted the Portuguese government to scale back its visa program. The backlash came as the influx of wealthy foreigners contributed to a housing crisis, making housing so expensive that locals could no longer afford to just buy or rent. Foreigners can still invest and obtain a visa, but they can no longer do so through residential real estate, which was previously the most popular means of obtaining a visa.
Alex Ingrim, a financial advisor at global financial services firm Chase Buchanan who helps Americans move abroad, points out that Portugal has long been a destination for wealthy Europeans, adding: “It’s the perfect place for anyone who wants to move. It was a great cocktail.” It is also popular among South Americans and Chinese people. In his 10 years to 2023, the number of foreigners living in Portugal increased by 40% to well over 500,000 people, and around 30,000 people have benefited from the Golden Visa program since its launch. . The country’s population totals approximately 10.3 million people.
“Americans realized that during COVID-19. We’re a very small country and we don’t have the resources to handle an influx of 10,000 more Americans a year,” Ingrim said. To tell.
Now, wealthy Americans are expanding beyond Portugal in search of still-golden pastures. Here’s how citizenship by investment status changed in his 2024.
Where the wealthy move
Of course, some countries are more desirable than others. For example, citizenship anywhere within the European Union provides an individual with easy access to other member states. This is one of the many benefits of investing in a Portuguese visa.
Available public data on Golden Visa applicants and investments is “scarce, scattered and limited,” said Laure Brillaud and Maira Martini of the anti-corruption agency Transparency International EU. Point out. Some governments do not publish investment migration statistics, or if they do, the data is uneven. Further complicating the issue is that investors use different routes to secure residency depending on their investment status, and it is still early in the year and advisors and other immigration organizations are It is too early to say with certainty where people will go instead of Portugal.
But Ingrim said this year he has seen an increase in inquiries from U.S. customers about France and Spain. Italy and Greece also have popular programs, according to investment migration consultancy Henry & Partner’s 2023 Wealth Report.
Ingrim said Spain is particularly attractive because it still offers residential investment options in real estate and many of Portugal’s other advantages. It has also been a popular choice for many years, with the Spanish government recently reporting that the number of Americans living in the country increased by 13% from 2019 to 2021. Henley & Partners also reports that Portugal was the top program for American citizens last year, but “since eliminating the real estate-linked investment option, the Spanish program has surpassed it in 2024.”
“Classical countries have a very high level of stable demand,” says Ingrim. “There are people who really love the culture, the cuisine, the fashion, the famous cities, and those places.”
Apart from these countries, Malta has the most famous and long-running Golden Passport program in the world. Buying citizenship in this small country off the coast of Italy means investors (and their girlfriends, for an additional fee) can work, travel and study in other parts of the EU. This is good not only for ease of travel but also for business prospects.
That said, Malta’s program is one of the more expensive options. Currently, there is a minimum contribution of €600,000 to the Development Fund and a period of stay of 36 months (€750,000 and a period of stay of 12 months for the express route), plus a further €700,000 real estate investment and €10,000. donations are required.
Countries like Turkey and Hungary are also becoming more popular, but not necessarily popular with Americans. Kristin Sulak, associate professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics, said the Chinese are the world’s largest group of investors, and Turkey is one of the few countries where wealthy Russians still naturalize. . golden passport.
In the Caribbean, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Lucia remain popular, as they offer citizenship at a much lower investment than Malta. For these investors, usually billionaires, ease of travel and new markets to start a business are not the biggest attractions for obtaining a second passport. Instead, the super-rich are giving up their American citizenship to save on taxes. That trend is likely to continue as the Biden administration considers a new wealth tax, said David Lesperance, an international tax and immigration advisor who helps elites move abroad.
“You’re spending $150,000 in sunk costs to save millions of dollars in taxes,” L’Esperance said. “The benefits are huge.”
How the wealthy buy citizenship
For nearly all of the world’s population, citizenship is a legal status that is assigned at birth and held for life. Obtaining citizenship in another country is rare and is usually obtained through immigration, marriage, military service, or descent.
But that is for most people. Different rules apply to wealthy people. There are many opportunities to naturalize at a reasonable price. You don’t even need to set foot in some countries to take advantage of it, Slack wrote.
Consider the example of PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel. He famously spent 12 days in New Zealand over the course of five years, returning with a huge fortune and naturalization papers worthy of the end of the world. As Sulak writes, Thiel avoided typical immigration programs that usually take years. “It is possible to negotiate citizenship in many places as long as you have enough money and the right connections.”
For the elite who aren’t from Silicon Valley (or have a net worth in the millions instead of billions), there are citizenship-by-investment programs. Through these, citizenship in a new country can be obtained in just a few years and a few hundred thousand dollars, and recipients can avoid paying taxes in the United States or simply have a place to escape to if something apocalyptic happens. L’Esperance says it can be secured. Recent political turmoil in the United States has made dual citizenship, or at least dual residency, even more attractive, L’Esperance said.
Slack’s research shows that although only about 50,000 people become naturalized each year through these programs, they transform countries’ economies, shaking up their housing markets and sometimes contributing a significant portion of their GDP.
Each government sets rules for applicants, including time frames, investment options and due diligence expectations, Slack wrote. The individual contributes to an approved government development fund or another type of investment, often real estate. The government will then review your application and conduct a background check within a few weeks, and in some cases within about a year.
Officially, these programs are a way for countries without many other paths to wealth (such as oil and gas) to promote economic development and leverage foreign capital. However, in some countries, there are many policies that are not on the books. Although a formal program may not be established, sovereigns may grant residency or citizenship on a case-by-case basis to people they know are suitable, as in Thiel’s case. .
Citizenship by investment has been around since the 1980s, Slack said, and was once primarily promoted by small island states such as Malta and St. Kitts and Nevis. But it started in earnest since the 2008 global financial crisis, and was accelerated more recently by the COVID-19 pandemic (especially for Americans: according to Henry & Partners, 2020 saw There was a “significant spike” in applications, exceeding 400%.) . Large economies such as Turkey, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates are starting to get into the game.
While some countries are looking to expand their programs, Portugal is not alone in finding that all that glitters is not gold. Ireland also announced restrictions last year on investment visa deals, but the EU has pushed back against the program in general, as golden visas are particularly popular among the country’s oligarchs, especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. . That said, many EU countries offer alternative paths to naturalization, such as citizenship-by-blood programs.
Are you an American living abroad? Alicia Adamczyk, a senior girlfriend writer at Fortune, would like to interview you about your article decisions.To participate, email alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
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