Ethiopia’s Immigration and Citizenship Service (ICS) will begin issuing 10-year golden visas during this fiscal year that began on July 8. To qualify, applicants will need to invest at least $10 million, or $5 million alongside substantial local job creation, to qualify.
The card-based residence permit carries a $10,000 processing fee, rising to $12,500 for express handling, with a premium “home service” delivery option also on offer.
Government-owned newspaper Ethiopia Today reported the thresholds this week, the first time the government has specified an investment requirement since it unveiled the program in March. Until now, only the $10,000 fee was public, and much of the early coverage mistakenly treated it as the investment requirement itself.
The Council of Ministers and the House of Peoples’ Representatives have both approved the enabling proclamations and regulatory amendments. The ICS is now finalizing an operational directive with the Ministry of Justice and building the technical infrastructure, including physical card personalization, for a full launch within the 2026/27 fiscal year.
That directive will settle the parameters still outstanding, including exact job creation quotas for the $5 million route, the grounds on which the government can revoke a visa for security reasons, and and sector-specific requirements.
Officials say they modeled the program on frameworks such as the UAE Golden Visa, though the Emirati program’s property route starts at AED 2 million (approximately US$545,000), a fraction of what Addis Ababa will require.
Property Ownership and the Citizenship Question
The Golden Visa first surfaced on March 9, when the Council of Ministers approved a revised fee regulation for the ICS that created the 10-year permit alongside a sweep of price increases in visa processing costs.
ICS Deputy Director-General Gosa Demissie formally announced the program in late March, describing a standardized electronic permit designed to give high-impact investors a decade of uninterrupted residency status with fewer repetitive procedures.
The Golden Visa arrives alongside a second, cheaper residence route born of Ethiopia’s real estate opening. Parliament passed a law in July 2025, in force since October, that allows foreign nationals to own residential property for the first time, provided they pay at least $150,000 per house in convertible foreign currency through Ethiopian banks.
Because Ethiopia’s constitution vests land in the state, buyers own only the structure and hold the underlying land on a leasehold. Under that framework, foreign buyers qualify for a multiple-entry property visa of up to five years.
The government has not announced any citizenship pathway tied to either permit, though a naturalization route exists in ordinary law: a foreign national can apply for citizenship after four years of legal residence, provided he can communicate in one of the country’s languages, holds a lawful income, and demonstrates good conduct.
However, Ethiopia does not recognize dual nationality, and naturalization requires renouncing one’s existing citizenship; whether future regulations will carve out an exception for naturalizing Golden Visa holders remains unclear.
How $10 Million Compares, in Africa and Globally
Set against Africa’s other residence and citizenship by investment offerings, Ethiopia’s threshold is an outlier by an order of magnitude. Mauritius grants a 10-year investor visa from $50,000 and permanent residence from $375,000 in real estate, Egypt sells citizenship outright from a $250,000 donation, and Namibia’s real estate route starts at $316,000.
Even the continent’s pricier programs stop well short. Seychelles requires that investors commit $1 million to a local business, while Sierra Leone’s fast-track citizenship costs $140,000 and Cape Verde’s Green Card roughly $94,000 in real estate.
Mauritius is also preparing a Golden Visa of its own, which Cabinet approved in April but has yet to begin issuing. That program will require a $1 million investment commitment within 12 months of arrival in one of five sectors, a tenth of Ethiopia’s headline figure, and grants a two-year renewable multiple-entry visa rather than a decade of residence.
The closest structural analog remains Mozambique’s tiered investor visa, which reserves its 10-year permit for investments of $5 million or more. Ethiopia’s $5 million-plus-jobs alternative matches that figure but attaches employment conditions that Mozambique does not. Elsewhere on the continent, Botswana has signed an agreement toward a $75,000 citizenship program, while legislative efforts in Kenya and Nigeria remain pending.
Globally, the $10 million figure places Ethiopia among the world’s most exclusive residence programs, and in headline-dollar terms above them. Singapore’s Global Investor Programme (GIP) requires S$10 million (approximately US$7.7 million) for its business route, and New Zealand’s Active Investor Plus visa demands NZ$10 million (approximately US$5.8 million) under its Balanced category.
Both of those programs lead further than Ethiopia’s. Singapore grants permanent residence directly, with a citizenship application possible after two years, while New Zealand’s visa leads to permanent residence; Ethiopia offers a renewable 10-year residence card, and the government has not announced any pathway from the investment to permanent status or naturalization.
The next milestone is the operational directive the ICS is drafting with the Ministry of Justice, which will fix the job creation quotas, sector weightings, and revocation terms. Once that directive and the card infrastructure are in place, the agency plans to begin issuing the visa before the 2026/27 fiscal year ends in July 2027.
