Jordan’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a revised framework for the country’s citizenship by investment program (CIP), raising the minimum stock market investment by 50% to JOD 1.5 million (approximately US$2 million) while lowering financial hurdles for investors who build operating businesses outside Amman.
The changes, announced by the Jordan News Agency, arrive a year after the program’s last major restructuring in July 2025.
Under the new rules, the Ministry of Investment becomes the sole administrative window for all investor files, a consolidation meant to cut red tape. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan chaired the session that approved the framework.
Since the program’s 2018 launch, Jordan has naturalized 681 investors, a figure the government disclosed alongside the new rules. That works out to an average of 85 approvals a year against an annual cap of 500, including 150 approvals since December 2024.
The Stock Route Gets 50% Pricier and Two Years Longer
Foreign investors seeking citizenship through the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) must now make a new share purchase of at least JOD 1.5 million, up from JOD 1 million. No more than 10% of the total may sit in any single company, forcing a portfolio of at least ten stocks where the previous rules permitted concentrations of up to 20%.
The holding period stretches from three years to five, during which the shares cannot be leveraged, mortgaged, or liquidated. Investors may not withdraw trading profits either, and the purchase must be completed through a licensed brokerage within four months of the ministry’s written approval.
Maria Wehbe, Advisor at Arton Capital, sees a program “clearly shifting away from passive financial investment.” Locking up capital for five years with no access, regardless of circumstances, is “a real risk given the investment size and market volatility,” she cautions, and one that could give prospective applicants pause.
The diversification rule also addresses a structural feature of the ASE, where, Wehbe observes, the top five listed companies account for roughly 70% of total market capitalization. A JOD 1 million minimum would naturally pool in those five names under the old rules.
In her reading, the 50% price increase effectively “taxes” the passive investor while nudging capital toward non-passive routes that generate greater long-term economic value.
Fahed Alshoumari, Strategy and Projects Consultant at Reach World, reads the 10% cap less as a diversification mandate than as protection for “a small market from big single bets.”
He agrees with Wehbe that JOD 1.5 million locked for five years, with no withdrawals and not even access to trading profits, “is a lot to ask” when the other routes cost less and offer more flexibility, expecting it may end up the least used path in the program.
Cheaper in the Governorates
Outside the capital, the direction of travel reverses. Launching a new productive business requires paid-up capital of JOD 500,000 (US$705,000) in the provinces, or JOD 700,000 (US$987,000) in Amman, provided the venture creates jobs registered with the Social Security Corporation (SSC).
Operating investors now receive temporary residency and a four-month grace period to complete hiring after launch, followed by a three-year temporary passport before full citizenship is recommended. Wehbe considers that runway “crucial to a business’s success, giving investors more time to ramp up operations.”
For existing active investments, qualifying asset thresholds stand at an average of JOD 700,000 in fixed and non-current assets over three years in Amman, halved to JOD 350,000 (US$494,000) in the governorates.
Both variants require that investors maintain at least 90% of the mandatory Jordanian workforce on SSC rolls monthly for three consecutive years.
Alshoumari calculates the regional discount at roughly 30% to 50% depending on the route, so “the incentive is genuinely there,” albeit cautioning that investors also weigh infrastructure, labor availability, and market access, and “building those outside Amman takes time.”
The shift, in his estimation, may work gradually rather than overnight, with the geographic distribution of approved files over the next year serving as the real test of whether the incentives move the needle.
An employment-only pathway that Jordan launched last year rewards scale directly: citizenship for any business owner who employs 150 Jordanians in Amman or 100 in the provinces, with no capital minimum, provided the workforce has been SSC-registered for at least a year and maintained for two years after naturalization.
Alshoumari finds this the most interesting option on the menu: “Citizenship priced in payroll instead of capital.”
Sector carve-outs persist as well. Pharmacists investing at least JOD 3 million (US$4.23 million) in logistics, medical supplies, or pharmaceutical warehousing qualify, subject to employment quotas.
Wehbe sees the pharmaceutical carve-out as a labor-market fix as much as an investment incentive, given Jordan’s surplus of newly graduated pharmacists relative to market need.
A Step in the Right Direction?
Both Wehbe and Alshoumari place the reform as a step in the right direction, though each defines that direction differently. Alshoumari resists the “tightening” framing: the real story, he argues, is repricing, since the passive route got more expensive while the operating-business routes stayed cheap, which tells you the government cares about “what the money does after it arrives, not just headline numbers.”
He also points out that authorities review the rules every six months, so this shouldn’t be treated as final.
Wehbe, for her part, sees demand strong enough for the government to be choosier. Investors previously willing to commit JOD 1 million to the passive route can likely stretch to JOD 1.5 million, she reasons, and thus the reforms read as an attempt to raise applicant quality rather than volume, prioritizing economic impact over raw approval counts.
