In Q2 of this year, we launched the Investment Migration Processing Time Data tool for our IMI Pro members. Our survey of agents and official data for Q3 show only one program – a Caribbean CIP – has been able to reduce processing time since then; the other nine programs we track have seen the processing period extend further, some by several months.
The fastest average processing time reported for any program was 2.5 months, while the slowest was 36.6 months.
The data indicate that the average processing time among Caribbean CIPs is now more than ten months but with significant variance: The fastest Caribbean CIP now completes application processing (from initial submission to passport-in-hand) in 7.5 months, while the slowest CIP in the region now takes nearly 13 months, on average.
Indeed, some agents reported that they have files waiting for more than 18 months for one Caribbean program.
The contrast in reported processing times is even more pronounced among EU golden visas, where the fastest program now completes processing within an average of 2.5 months, while the slowest takes more than three years.
IMI Pro members can review the historical and Q3-updated data sets here. Still not an IMI Pro member? Sign up here.
How we gather the data for the investment migration program processing times:
IMI gathers processing-time data in three different ways:
1. From official sources
This is only feasible in a minority of cases because most program authorities don’t publish regular processing time updates. In our Q2 2024 dataset, the only processing data that come from official sources are those of the golden visa of Greece, where authorities publish detailed application and approval data on a monthly basis.
2. Empirical observations by practitioners
Most of the data in our overview comes from real-time updates from investment migration companies. IMI contacts 4-10 providers for each program and obtains from them the total processing time for their most recently approved application for each program.
We then calculate a processing time estimate based on the average of the responses. We also provide the range of responses for each program. For example, for the Antigua & Barbuda CIP, seven investment migration firms in Q2 2024 reported processing times ranging from 5 to 13 months, and 7.6 months on average.
3. From third-party databases
The most accurate source of data is official statistics because it encompasses all applications filed. But this data is typically not available. Empirical data from practitioners is a decent but imprecise proxy for official data because the sample size is relatively small. Third-party databases, however, represent a middle-ground: It doesn’t comprise all applications, but the sample size is larger than what can be collected empirically from service providers.
In the case of the Portugal golden visa, where official data is not available, we have relied on the next-best source of data: Nomad Gate’s crowdsourced application timeline data, which contains the self-reported processing times of nearly 700 golden visa applications and is continuously updated.
