NOTE: Spain has closed its Golden Visa program.
One of the world’s most visited countries, Spain sports a first-rate standard of living, a Mediterranean climate, and a wide array of cultural attractions.
Through the country’s golden visa, applicants are eligible for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after ten years. Some nationalities and ethnic groups, however, are eligible for citizenship after only two years.
Investors can qualify by purchasing real estate, capitalizing or creating a business, making a bank deposit, or purchasing government bonds.
Applicants must make one of the below investment types to qualify:
Following ten years of de facto residency, and also being a tax-payer in Spain, applicants are eligible for citizenship.
This timeframe may be reduced to just two years for citizens of Spain’s former colonies.
Browse 195 countries’ paths to citizenship in the hyper-detailed IMI Citizenship Catalog.
Applications for this program may be directed to: Directorate-General for International Trade and Investments
Legislation upon which this program is based: Spanish Law 14/2013 of September 27
As noted in the program qualifications above, an investor can qualify for this program with a local property purchase above the minimum investment threshold. View eligible properties curated by IMI and our real estate partners:
Thailand hasn’t stripped a dual national of citizenship since 1965. Kuwait tolerated it for decades, then revoked 50,000 citizenships in a year.
Tax residence is a separate test from immigration status, and only Argentina and Hungary write a permit into it. For every other country on this list, your wealth tax bill turns on days present and on where your assets are.
Cleared weeks after the Ceuta crisis, the bill now faces a conservative-held Senate and an opposition with a proven appetite for litigation.
See more statistics on this program and others in the IMI Data Center.