Jordan has granted citizenship to 531 foreign investors through its Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) by the end of 2024, according to the Jordan Times. This is the first time Jordan has released information regarding its CIP since 2020.
The new figures mean that between January 2021 and December 2024, Jordan had granted citizenship to 325 investors, averaging 81 investors a year.
The Ministry of Investment processes applications through its Specialised Technical Committee, where representatives review submissions before sending recommendations to a ministerial committee for Cabinet approval.
The program has undergone marked changes since its 2018 launch. When the government first introduced the program, investment thresholds ranged from $1 million for small and medium enterprise investments to $2 million for projects that created jobs.
In 2020, Jordan slashed the minimum investment thresholds across all options by 25-50%, lowering the entry point to $750,000, despite reporting average investments of $6.9 million per applicant.
Fahed AlShoumari, Senior Internal Auditor at Reach World, emphasizes that while the total number is promising, “the type of investment matters.” He points to a 2020 report that revealed “97% of investors chose the business creation or expansion route over passive options,” suggesting investors strongly prefer options offering direct capital control.
Current investment options include a $1 million treasury bond investment held for six years, a $1.5 million share purchase in Jordanian companies with a three-year holding period, or a $750,000 investment in projects outside Amman that create ten jobs for Jordanians. Projects within Amman require a $1 million investment and must create 20 local jobs to qualify for the CIP.
While AlShoumari acknowledges that “Jordan deserves credit for focusing on economic growth and job creation,” he believes the program could enhance competitiveness by “connecting bonds to development projects, introducing tiered incentives, or creating funds with targeted objectives.”
The mainstream consensus among industry observers is that the vast majority of applicants retroactively qualified or at least had the foundation in place in the form of bond deposits or businesses that they would later expand to meet the CIP’s criteria.
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