🇬🇧
United Kingdom
Tier 1 Investor Visa
£2,000,000
Closed with immediate effect on 17 February 2022, amid a security review
The Closing Window · 2016-2026
Watch a decade of doors close.
Every major repricing, closure, and clampdown in investment migration since 2016, on one timeline. Prices ratchet up, routes vanish overnight, and the map keeps shrinking. Scrub the decade, or press play.
+100%
The cheapest credible passport: $100k in 2016, $200k in 2026
6
Major routes closed since 2020: Cyprus, UK, Montenegro, Ireland, Spain, Malta
2x
Portugal's wait to citizenship: 5 years became 10 in 2026
Sales sites show you today's brochure. The record shows a market that reprices against waiting.
Civita takes no commission from any program, so we can publish the part the industry prefers to skip: the closures, the downgrades, and what hesitation has historically cost.
The timeline
2026
201620182020202220242026
Your budget:
12
Routes open
$200k
Cheapest passport with Schengen access
12
Open at your budget
6
Routes closed
This year
- 🇵🇹Portugal: Citizenship wait doubles: 5 years becomes 10 (7 for EU and CPLP nationals)
- 🇮🇹Italy: Raised again to EUR 300,000 from 1 January 2026: tripled in 17 months
- 🇹🇷Türkiye: Mandatory state valuation now decides whether your property qualifies
- 🇰🇳St Kitts & Nevis: Genuine-link overhaul phases in structured presence expectations
- 🇱🇨St Lucia: Lost UK visa-free access on 5 March 2026
- 🇺🇸United States: Grandfathering closes 30 September 2026; thresholds index up in January 2027
🇨🇾
Cyprus
Citizenship by Investment
€2,000,000
Suspended November 2020 after the Al Jazeera undercover investigation
🇲🇪
Montenegro
Citizenship by Investment
€350,000+
Wound down December 2022 under EU accession pressure
🇮🇪
Ireland
Immigrant Investor Programme
€1,000,000
Closed February 2023, effectively overnight
🇪🇸
Spain
Golden Visa
€500,000
Ended 3 April 2025
🇲🇹
Malta
Citizenship for Investment (IIP / MEIN)
€600,000+
Struck down by the EU Court of Justice, 29 April 2025 (Case C-181/23)
🇵🇹
Portugal
Golden Visa (ARI)
€250,000+
started at €500,000
Citizenship wait doubles: 5 years becomes 10 (7 for EU and CPLP nationals)
🇬🇷
Greece
Golden Visa
€250,000+
started at €250,000
Tiered up: EUR 800,000 in prime areas, EUR 400,000 most others; EUR 250,000 survives only for conversions
🇮🇹
Italy
New-resident flat tax · Tax regime
€300,000/yr
started at €100,000/yr
Raised again to EUR 300,000 from 1 January 2026: tripled in 17 months
🇹🇷
Türkiye
Citizenship by Investment
$400,000
started at $1,000,000
Mandatory state valuation now decides whether your property qualifies
🇰🇳
St Kitts & Nevis
Citizenship by Investment
$250,000
Genuine-link overhaul phases in structured presence expectations
🇩🇲
Dominica
Citizenship by Investment
$200,000
started at $100,000
Doubled to USD 200,000 under the regional minimum
🇦🇬
Antigua & Barbuda
Citizenship by Investment
$230,000
started at $200,000
Raised to USD 230,000
🇬🇩
Grenada
Citizenship by Investment
$235,000
started at $200,000
Raised to USD 235,000 under the regional reset
🇱🇨
St Lucia
Citizenship by Investment
$240,000
started at $100,000
Lost UK visa-free access on 5 March 2026
🇻🇺
Vanuatu
Development Support Program
$130,000
Schengen access fully revoked
🇺🇸
United States
EB-5 Investor Green Card
$800,000
started at $500,000
Grandfathering closes 30 September 2026; thresholds index up in January 2027
🇦🇪
UAE
Golden Visa
AED 2M
started at AED 10M
Property route set at AED 2,000,000 (about USD 545,000): a rare price cut
🇭🇺
Hungary
Investor Residency
€250,000
started at €300,000
Reopened July 2024 as the Guest Investor Program, EUR 250,000
Headline minimum for a single applicant at the time, before fees and dependents. USD figures are approximate conversions used for comparison. Current figures match our program pages, verified July 2026. This shows the market; it does not know your passport, family, or tax position.
What the decade teaches
Four rules the record keeps proving
01
Prices ratchet.
The decade's only real discounts, Türkiye's cut to $250,000 and Antigua's to $100,000, were both reversed and overshot. The 2024 Caribbean floor then locked the bottom at $200,000. Down moves are bait; the trend is one-way.
02
Closures come fast.
The UK closed its investor visa the day it announced. Ireland gave days. Spain gave three months. If a route matters to your plan, the announcement usually is the deadline.
03
The product degrades even when the price holds.
Vanuatu kept its price and lost Schengen. St Lucia kept its price and lost the UK. What you are buying is access, and access is decided in Brussels, London, and Washington, not in the brochure.
04
Time is repricing too.
Portugal doubled the wait to citizenship. St Kitts is adding presence expectations. EB-5's protective window closes in September 2026. The cheap decade was also the fast decade, and both are ending together.
What might move next: read the 2026 At-Risk Watchlist.
What this timeline cannot tell you
- Which routes accept your nationality, and which quietly do not
- The real all-in cost for your family size, not the headline minimum
- Your tax exposure before and after the move
- How your source of funds will hold up in due diligence
- Which of today's open windows is likely to move first, against your timeline
That is the work we sell, and the reason this tool is free.
The window moves. Move first.
Every price on this page was once next quarter's rumor. A Program-Fit Report ($149) maps which routes are open to your passport, budget, and family today, and flags the ones most likely to move next. A Strategy Session ($750) turns it into a plan with dates.
Not ready? Run the free Eligibility Finder first.
Methodology
How this timeline is built
Each figure is the headline minimum qualifying contribution or investment for a single applicant at the time, excluding government fees, due diligence, and dependents. Dates are anchored to the announcement or effective date of each change. USD conversions are approximate and used only to compare across currencies. Current figures are the same ones published on our program pages, where each carries its official sources, and were last verified July 2026. Historical milestones are matters of public record: statutes, gazettes, court rulings, and official program communications. The linked analyses on each card carry the sourcing for the decade's major turns.
Cite this
The Civita Closing Window: Investment Migration Repricing Timeline 2016-2026, citizenships.io/closing-window. Free to cite and reference with a link.
Questions
The short answers
- Why do golden visa and citizenship-by-investment prices keep rising?
- Three forces: regional price floors (the 2024 Caribbean agreement set a US$200,000 minimum), EU and US pressure that rewards fewer and better-vetted applicants, and governments repricing scarce access as demand grows. In this dataset, every price cut since 2016 was later reversed and overshot.
- Which golden visa and citizenship programs have closed?
- Since 2020: Cyprus (2020), the UK Tier 1 Investor visa (2022), Montenegro (2022), Ireland (2023), Spain (2025), and Malta's citizenship route, struck down by the EU Court of Justice in April 2025. Hungary closed in 2017 and reopened in 2024 as a smaller program, the decade's only reopening.
- What is the cheapest citizenship by investment in 2026?
- About US$200,000: Dominica's donation route, with Antigua, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Kitts between US$230,000 and US$250,000 for a single applicant before fees. Vanuatu is cheaper at US$130,000 but lost EU visa-free access, which is most of what buyers were paying for.
- Will golden visa prices come back down?
- The record says no. The decade's two big cuts, Türkiye to US$250,000 and Antigua to US$100,000, were both later reversed and exceeded. Floors, regulation, and scarcity all push one way. Waiting for a discount has been the most expensive strategy of the decade.
Deeper reading: the cheapest CBI, with the real fees and the real cost of a golden visa.