Investment migration people in the news this week included:
- Madalena Monteiro of Liberty Legal
- Dwayne Chauhan of Vancis Capital
- Prashant Ajmera of Ajmera Law Group
- Varun Singh of XIPHIAS Immigration
- Vinayak Magotra of Centricity WealthTech
- Jack Jing of WellTrend
- Nuri Katz of Apex Capital Partners
- Keshav Singhania of Singhania & Co
- Shilpa Malik of VisaLaw Nation
- Rajneesh Pathak of Global North Residency & Citizenship
- Arindam Sengupta of Edufund
- Global Citizen Solutions
- Investment Migration Council
Forbes – Portugal Golden Visa Reigns In 2025, But Greece Gains Momentum
Their lawyer, Madalena Monteiro, said they are not seeking special treatment, but “They simply expect to be treated fairly and not be placed in a situation where new rules are applied retroactively to their cases.”
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Monteiro argues that it would be illegal to change the system conditions for these investors without transitional arrangements to protect them, and that such a change would violate the trust Portugal gave them when it promoted its golden visa program.
Forbes – Rebuilding Trust In The Citizenship-By-Investment Industry
Dwayne Chauhan, Group CEO of Vancis Capital, writes an op-ed for Forbes.
I’ve spent years in the investment migration space advising families, speaking with ministers and, yes, going through naturalization processes myself. From that vantage point, I can tell you this industry is at an inflection point.
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Done poorly, though, it breeds cynicism, invites regulatory scrutiny and undermines the very passports it issues. The industry, as we know it, has had a good run. Now it needs to grow up.
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Let’s be honest about how we got here. Marketed shortcuts (with words like “quick,” “guaranteed,” “buy a passport”) quickly diluted the true value of citizenship. The message to clients became: Pay, receive passport, full stop. That’s not how citizenship works, and I’ve seen how the attitude that formed around it has weakened both programs and the public’s perception of them.
Business Standard – From UAE to Europe, which were the best golden visa routes in 2025?
“Immigration for students, professionals and businessmen is a constantly changing scenario and Indian citizens must do extensive planning and due diligence before making any decision looking at their own personal circumstances. Gone are the days where you just go abroad and life is set,” said Prashant Ajmera, founder of Ajmera Law Group.
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It was a reset year rather than a launch year in the investment-migration space. “The big story is that governments are trying to keep foreign capital but take the political heat out of ‘golden visas’,” said Varun Singh, managing director at XIPHIAS Immigration.
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Vinayak Magotra, product head and part of the founding team at Centricity WealthTech, said countries were adjusting their playbooks. “As we’ve observed across global markets in 2025, countries are reshaping their investment and talent visa pathways because the old, passive models simply don’t meet today’s economic or political realities. New Zealand has shifted towards active business investment, Europe has introduced restrictions on property-linked golden visas, and there is a rise of talent-first programmes in hubs like Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE
South China Morning Post – Wealthy Chinese appear to shun Trump’s ‘gold card’ immigration programme
When US President Donald Trump first proposed his “gold card” programme earlier this year, offering permanent residency to the super-rich, Beijing-based emigration consultant Jack Jing received unsolicited inquiries from seven high-net-worth families.
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“After carefully weighing legal risks and potential visa backlogs, two of them have abandoned the gold card in favour of other US investment-immigration visas backed by congressional legislation, while the remaining families have generally chosen to wait and see.”
Quartz – Trump’s gold cards have a top consultant warning clients: ‘Don’t be the guinea pig’
Nuri Katz has been a consultant for foreign investors on residency programs for over three decades. But he hasn’t ever seen anything quite like President Donald Trump’s new “Gold Card” program formally unveiled last week.
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“I said to him, ‘Don’t be the guinea pig,'” Katz, who is based in the Caribbean island of Antigua, told Quartz in a phone interview. “You don’t know what this is. Let’s wait some months and see if they’re not going to change it again, because they’ve been just changing it and changing it.”
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“The government is trying to get into the investor immigrant business big time, but they haven’t written a business plan,” Katz said. “They just haven’t done their homework and their research into what exactly is the product that they’re selling and to whom they are selling this product.”
The Economic Times – Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ attracts little interest as haze over permanent residency dulls its glitter
“The instructions for the Gold Card are loosely worded, and there is no clearly defined pathway to permanent residency or citizenship,” said Keshav Singhania, Head – Private Client, Singhania & Co.
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“We have seen significant inbound curiosity, particularly from high-net-worth individuals and global founders. However, this has translated into very limited concrete follow-through,” said Shilpa Malik, Managing Attorney at US-based VisaLaw Nation. “We have not yet started processing any formal applications under the program.”
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Experts said that the Gold Card does not constitute a standalone immigration category. “It does not have its own visa allocation,” said Rajneesh Pathak, founder & CEO, Global North Residency & Citizenship. “The executive order places it within the EB-1 and EB-2 categories, both of which are already heavily backlogged. Even if an application for the Gold Card were submitted today, it would be delayed due to the limited availability of visas in these categories which could deter potential applicants.”
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Arindam Sengupta, co-founder of Edufund, said price sensitivity and certainty are key factors. “EB-5 has been around for nearly three decades and has a proven track record. The Gold Card has neither clarity nor proof of concept,” he said. “At a million-dollar price point, people want something tried and tested.”
Arabian Business – Gulf long-term residency visas boom as UAE leads new global mobility push
According to the analysis by Global Citizen Solutions, residence by investment programmes now account for around 64 per cent of all active investment migration pathways worldwide. Entrepreneur visas represent approximately 22 per cent, while citizenship by investment schemes make up about 14 per cent.
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According to the Investment Migration Council, these programmes are now used by more than 80 countries and typically fall into three categories: citizenship by investment, residence by investment and entrepreneur visas. The industry has expanded significantly over the past four decades, growing from a single programme in 1982 to nearly 90 active programmes globally.
Fin News Asia – Investment Migration Enters New Phase
Investment migration is undergoing a decisive transformation, according to a new global analysis released by Global Citizen Solutions, as demand patterns and policy approaches converge to reposition the sector as a mainstream economic tool rather than a peripheral policy option.
