01
Controlling authority
Legislation, official gazettes, court decisions and binding regulations.
Research methodology
A source link is not a verification system.
Civita separates what a rule establishes, what administrators publish, what the market observes and what we calculate. This is the process behind every current program fact and every modeled number we publish.
Source hierarchy
The strongest available authority controls.
02
Administering authority
Official immigration departments, citizenship units, regulators, fee schedules, forms and service guidance.
03
Corroboration
Intergovernmental bodies, parliamentary records and established professional analysis used to resolve context or implementation.
04
Market evidence
Measured processing data and reputable reporting, clearly labeled when an official source does not establish a real-world result.
A marketing page, agent quotation or search snippet cannot override a current government source. When official sources conflict, the conflict remains visible until the administering authority or appropriately licensed professional resolves it.
Material facts
What the release gate protects.
These are the facts capable of changing eligibility, capital, rights, obligations or the decision itself. A program cannot ship with one unresolved.
Program status
Whether a route is accepting new applications, paused, changed or closed.
Qualifying threshold
The investment or contribution required by the governing rule, separate from total cost.
Family eligibility
Who can be included and which age, dependency or relationship conditions apply.
Presence and renewal
The current stay, visit, biometric, maintenance and renewal obligations.
Legal outcome
Whether the route grants temporary residence, permanent residence or citizenship, and what document evidences it.
Timeline
Official service standards separated from observed or professionally estimated processing time.
Cost model
Invested capital, non-refundable spend, government charges and modeled professional or carrying costs shown separately. No recovery value is assumed.
Verification and release
Each program has a dated certification record tied to at least one official source. The effective program record, country page, comparison tables and calculators all read from the same source of truth.
Before a production build, automated controls reject stale review dates, missing official sources, unresolved material facts, contradictory program classifications and known patterns of superseded claims. Automation tests consistency; the named author remains accountable for the factual judgment.
Official timelines versus market timelines
An official decision standard is not the same as time to passport or residence card. We label the official period as official. Observed ranges are presented as estimates, attributed where possible and never allowed to replace the legal standard silently.
Modeled costs
The advertised minimum is only the qualifying transaction. A Civita model identifies the currency, family profile, government schedule, diligence charges, professional-cost assumption, holding period and recoverability assumption. Estimated professional or carrying costs remain labeled estimates, not official fees or quotations.
Program inclusion
Civita includes a program in ranked comparisons only when its legal status, administering authority, qualifying route, current fee schedule, family rules and application process can be reconciled from primary sources.
São Tomé and Príncipe: Legally established; operational publication incomplete. Decree-Law 7/2025 established nationality by investment or donation, but Civita has not located a current administering-authority fee schedule, application process and family-cost schedule sufficient for the True Cost Index. It remains outside ranked comparisons until those primary materials are available. See the legal source.
Translations
Localized pages are separate editorial records with their own dates and citations. Hreflang is used only when a genuine equivalent exists. A language selector links to the equivalent page where available and otherwise identifies that it is linking to a language edition, never disguising a homepage fallback as a translation.
Software and AI
Software, including AI systems, may support research, comparison, drafting and consistency checks. It does not count as a source and cannot certify a fact. Published material is approved under Robert McCray's name, and regulated legal, tax, securities or investment conclusions remain outside Civita's unlicensed scope.
Corrections and changes
Material corrections change the page's modified date and are recorded publicly. Cosmetic edits do not receive a new factual date. Superseded records are kept out of the effective data used by program pages and tools.
Read the public corrections log or email [email protected] with a source and the narrow claim you believe should change.
Audit the output