The category, explained
The golden visa in 2026
Residence in exchange for investment: what the permit actually buys, what every open program really costs, and the rules that changed while the brochures stayed the same. This page is the category explained from zero; theprogram directoryholds every program's full page, andbest countries by goalmakes recommendations.
What a golden visa is, and is not
A golden visa is the popular name for residency by investment: a renewable residence permit granted because you invested, not because you moved for work or family. The nickname attached itself to the Southern European programs of the early 2010s and stuck to the category. The permit typically buys the right to live in the country, visa-free movement in the Schengen area for most European programs, access for your family, and, in some countries, a long path to permanent residence and citizenship, all while demanding days, not months, of actual presence.
What it is not: a passport (that iscitizenship by investment, a different product with different math), a tax plan (the permit does not move your tax home by itself), or a guarantee (programs close, reprice, and rewrite their rules, and the investment usually must be held for as long as you want the permit). Pricing those realities is this site's entire purpose.
Every open golden visa program
Verified against official fee schedules, sorted by family-of-four all-in cost, in each program's own currency.
| Program | Minimum investment | True cost, family of 4 | Timeline | Presence required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇹🇭 Thailand Thailand Privilege Visa and Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa | $19,000 | $23,500 | 1 to 3 months | No minimum stay is required to keep either visa valid. |
| 🇱🇻 Latvia Residence by Investment | €50,000 | €75,000 | About 1 to 3 months to a residence card | No minimum days; re-register in Latvia roughly once every 12 months |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland Residence via Lump-Sum Taxation (Forfait Fiscal / Pauschalbesteuerung) | €110,000 | not yet modeled | 3 to 9 months to a B permit once a canton agrees the ruling | Substantial; Switzerland must be your genuine main home, commonly 183+ days a year |
| 🇲🇾 Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) | $150,000 | not yet modeled | About 4 to 8 months from application to visa endorsement | Principal applicants aged 25 to 49 must spend 90 cumulative days per year in Malaysia (shareable across dependents) on the mainland tiers; applicants 50 and over have no minimum stay. |
| 🇮🇹 Italy Investor Visa | €250,000 | €268,000 | 1 to 3 months | No minimum stay to hold or renew the permit |
| 🇬🇷 Greece Golden Visa | €250,000 | €269,000 | 4 to 9 months to approval; longer with property search | None for the residence permit; 183+ days/year to build toward citizenship |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary Guest Investor Program | €250,000 | €269,000 | 1 to 3 months to residence card | No minimum stay to hold the permit; physical residence required only to pursue PR and citizenship |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus Permanent Residence by Investment | €300,000 | €313,000 | About 2 to 6 months to approval | None to keep PR (one visit every two years). |
| 🇵🇦 Panama Qualified Investor Visa | $300,000 | $318,000 | About 30 to 60 days to permanent residence | No mandated annual stay. |
| 🇲🇺 Mauritius Residence by Property Investment and Occupation Permit | $375,000 | not yet modeled | 2 to 6 months to a permit | No minimum physical presence to hold the property-based residence permit, which stays valid as long as you own the qualifying asset. |
| 🇲🇹 Malta Permanent Residence (MPRP) | €375,000 | €465,000 | 4 to 6 months to approval in principle, longer in complex files | No minimum stay requirement; main applicant must visit Malta once during the process |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal Golden Visa (ARI) | €250,000 | €552,048 | Roughly 12 to 36 months from submission to residence card; legacy backlog cases longer | 7 days per year average |
| 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates Golden Visa | $545,000 | $563,000 | 1 to 4 weeks | None. |
| 🇲🇨 Monaco Residency (Carte de Sejour) | €500,000 | not yet modeled | 3 to 6 months to first card | No statutory minimum is published, but authorities expect genuine residence: roughly 3 months per year to renew the temporary card, and at least 183 days per year to hold a Monaco tax residence certificate. |
| 🇺🇸 United States EB-5 Immigrant Investor | $800,000 | $885,000 | Rural TEA I-526E is the fastest track, but published estimates conflict widely; verify current USCIS processing times before planning. Urban high-unemployment I-526E around 32 to 36 months; conditional green card then I-829 removal of conditions around 20 months | EB-5 grants residence, not a stay-away program. |
| 🇨🇦 Canada Quebec Immigrant Investor Program (QIIP) | $887,000 | not yet modeled | QIIP: 3-year work permit, then permanent residence after the required Quebec presence and federal processing | QIIP: 12 months in Quebec within the first 2 years of the work permit; the principal applicant must complete at least 6 months. |
| 🇳🇿 New Zealand Active Investor Plus Visa | $3,000,000 | $3,076,500 | 80% of approval-in-principle decisions within 10.5 weeks; then 6 months to transfer and invest | Growth tier: minimum 21 days in New Zealand across the 36-month investment period. |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore Global Investor Program | SGD 10,000,000 | SGD 10,066,000 | 12 to 24 months to PR | No formal day-count for initial PR, but renewal of the 5-year Re-entry Permit effectively requires real presence: meeting business/job-creation milestones, or the applicant or dependents residing in Singapore more than half the period. |
True cost is the verified all-in figure for two adults and two children (government fees, due diligence, typical legal fees) from the True Cost Index, in each program's operating currency. Every figure is re-verified monthly against official fee schedules.
The routes: what the money does
Fund subscriptions now anchor the flagship programs: Portugal runs on regulated funds since property was removed in 2023, and Hungary's revived program is fund-based. Recoverable in principle, market-risked in practice, with fee stacks worth reading before the marketing deck.
Real estate remains the route in Greece, Cyprus, and the UAE, with tiered minimums by zone and transaction taxes the headline number skips.
Business, capital, and hybrid routes price residence against active commitments: Latvia's company investment, Italy's startup tier, the multimillion investor tracks in Singapore, New Zealand, and the US.
Stay requirements and renewal
The table above carries each program's presence rule, and the range is the point: Greece and Hungary ask nothing to keep the permit, Portugal asks roughly a week a year, and everything asks the investment be maintained through each renewal cycle. The fine print that matters is what presence buys: permit-keeping days and naturalization-building residence are different legal things, and confusing them is the most expensive mistake in the category.
From permit to passport
Permanent residence typically becomes available around year five. Citizenship moved further out in 2026: Portugal's nationality law now requires ten years of legal residence (seven for EU and CPLP nationals) counted from the first residence card, and Greece's seven-year track demands genuine residence plus a language exam. If a passport on a known schedule is the actual goal, compare againstcitizenship by investment before committing capital to the long road.
Family, tax, and the risks
Spouses and minor children are covered everywhere, with per-person fees; parents and adult students depend on the program. Tax residence follows presence and center of life, not the permit, so plan it deliberately or not at all. And closure risk is real: Spain closed in 2025, property routes keep shrinking, and every reform has repriced upward. The live tracker and theClosing Window put dates on all of it.
Where to go from here
The category explained is not the decision made.
Which program fits your passport, family shape, budget, and source of funds is a different question from any of the above. The $149 Program-Fit Report answers it in writing from this same verified data; theGolden Visa Indexscores every program if you want to research further first.
Golden visa questions, answered straight
What is a golden visa?+
A golden visa is a residence permit granted in exchange for a qualifying investment: a fund subscription, real estate, a business, or a capital contribution, depending on the country. It is residence, not citizenship. The permit typically renews for as long as the investment is held, demands little or no physical presence, and in some countries opens a path to permanent residence and, eventually, naturalization.
How much does a golden visa cost?+
Advertised minimums run from about EUR 250,000 (Greece's entry tier, Italy's startup route) to EUR 500,000 (Portugal funds) and beyond. The advertised number understates the real cost: government fees, per-person due diligence, and legal work add anywhere from about 1 to 43 percent depending on the program. Our True Cost Index publishes the verified all-in figure for a single applicant and a family of four, for every program it covers, re-checked monthly.
Which countries offer golden visas in 2026?+
In Europe: Portugal (funds), Greece, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, and Cyprus. Beyond Europe: the UAE, Panama, Thailand, and investor tracks in the United States and New Zealand, among others. Spain closed its program in 2025 and Portugal removed real estate in 2023, which is why any list without dates should not be trusted, including this one: ours is re-verified monthly and dated.
Does a golden visa lead to citizenship?+
Slowly and conditionally, where at all. Portugal requires ten years of legal residence for naturalization (seven for EU and CPLP nationals) under its 2026 law, counted from the first residence card. Greece requires seven years of genuine residence plus a language exam. Years on a zero-presence permit generally do not build naturalization rights by themselves. If the passport is the goal, citizenship by investment is a different product with different math.
Do I have to pay taxes in the country?+
Not because of the visa alone. Tax residence generally follows physical presence and center of life, commonly the 183-day line. A golden visa held at a few days a year does not by itself move your tax home, and it does not shelter your existing one. Where you actually relocate, the tax planning is the larger half of the project.
Are golden visas being shut down?+
The category is consolidating, not dying. Spain closed in 2025, Portugal cut property in 2023, the UK and Ireland closed earlier, and the EU pressures the rest toward active-investment routes. What survives is more expensive and better vetted than what closed. Closure risk belongs in the purchase decision: it is one of the five dimensions our Golden Visa Index scores.