EU golden visas are residency-by-investment permits that let non-European nationals live in a participating country after making a qualifying investment. Eight EU and EEA countries still run active programs in 2026: Greece, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Hungary, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. Spain closed its program on April 3, 2025, Portugal removed real estate as a qualifying investment in late 2023, and Greece sharply raised its property thresholds. The direction of travel across Brussels is toward tighter rules, not looser ones, so the program you apply to today may not look the same in five years.
Investment Options and Minimums by Country
Minimums vary widely, and within some countries they now vary by region or asset class. What follows are the primary routes for each active program as of mid-2026.
Greece
Greece replaced its old €250,000 flat rate with a tiered zone system for real estate, governed by Law 4251/2014.
- Zone A (€800,000): Athens and all of Attica, greater Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and any island with more than 3,100 residents.
- Zone B (€400,000): Everywhere else, including Crete, the Peloponnese, mainland regions, and smaller islands.
- Zone C (€250,000): Available anywhere in Greece, but only for commercial-to-residential conversions or restoration of listed heritage buildings, and only with proper change-of-use documentation in place before you apply.
Portugal
Portugal’s “Mais Habitação” legislation eliminated real estate routes and disqualified any fund that invests directly or indirectly in property. What remains:
- Investment funds (€500,000): CMVM-regulated closed-end venture capital or private equity funds with a minimum five-year maturity and at least 60% of assets invested in Portuguese companies. The fund must focus on business equity, not property.
- Capital transfer (€1,500,000): A direct transfer into Portuguese financial institutions.
Closed-end funds lock up capital for the full maturity period, and returns depend entirely on portfolio performance.
Italy
Italy’s Investor Visa runs four routes under the Consolidated Law on Immigration:
- Innovative startup: €250,000
- Italian limited company (equity): €500,000
- Philanthropic donation to culture, education, immigration management, or research: €1,000,000
- Government bonds: €2,000,000
Applications run through a dedicated government portal.1Investor Visa for Italy. Why Invest in Italy
Malta
Malta’s Permanent Residence Programme layers several commitments. You must either purchase property for at least €375,000 or lease for a minimum of €14,000 per year for five years. On top of that: a €37,000 government contribution, a €2,000 donation to a Maltese NGO, and a non-refundable €60,000 administration fee. Malta also requires proof of at least €500,000 in assets, with at least €150,000 held in financial assets.
Hungary
Hungary’s Guest Investor Program runs under Act XC of 2023.2Parliament of Hungary. Act XC of 2023 – on General Rules for the Admission and Right of Residence of Third-Country Nationals The real estate route closed in January 2025 in response to rising domestic housing prices. Two options remain:
- Regulated Hungarian real estate investment fund: €250,000
- Non-refundable donation to a Hungarian public trust: €1,000,000
Latvia, Bulgaria, and Cyprus continue to operate programs under their own national frameworks.
Who Can Apply
Every program shares a common core of eligibility rules. Applicants must be citizens of countries outside the EU, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland. You need to be at least 18 and have a clean criminal record, verified through police clearance certificates from your home country and any other country where you have lived for six months or more in the past decade. Comprehensive private health insurance valid in the host country must be active before the permit is issued.
Source-of-funds verification is where applications most often stall. Immigration authorities want a documented trail from origin to the investment account: tax returns, business sale contracts, inheritance records, or audited financial statements. A bank statement showing a large balance is not enough, and gaps in documentation trigger delays or outright rejections.
Most programs allow you to include immediate family on the same application. Spouses and minor children are standard. Some countries extend eligibility to dependent parents and adult children up to age 25 who are enrolled as full-time students and unmarried. Age cutoffs and dependency definitions differ, so families with older children should confirm the specific rules before committing.
How the Application Process Works
The sequence is consistent: complete the qualifying investment first, then file the residency application with supporting documentation. Applications go to the relevant national authority. In Greece, that is the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.3Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Golden Visa Portugal routes applications through the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). Italy uses its dedicated Investor Visa portal. Each country collects biometric data (digital fingerprints and facial photographs) at an in-person appointment.
Government fees vary. Greece charges €2,000 for the main applicant’s five-year permit and €150 per family member, with children under 18 exempt from the main fee, plus smaller electronic processing and card-printing charges.3Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Golden Visa Malta’s €60,000 administration fee sits at the top of the scale.
Processing timelines are the least predictable piece. Portugal’s AIMA has been running 12 to 18 months, though some cases resolve in as few as three. Greece and Italy tend to move faster, but backlogs shift. Expect longer than the official estimate.
All supporting documents, including financial statements, property deeds, and criminal record certificates, must be apostilled for international legal recognition. Forms generally need to be completed in the local language or accompanied by a certified translation. Fixing document errors mid-process can add months.
What a Golden Visa Actually Gets You
A golden visa grants legal residency in the issuing country and, depending on the program, the right to work or start a business there. It does not make you an EU citizen, and that distinction matters more than most marketing suggests.
The main practical extra is Schengen travel. Holders can move freely through the Schengen area for up to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period without needing separate visas for each country.4European Commission. Visa Policy That 90 days covers tourism and business meetings. It does not cover employment. A Greek golden visa does not authorize you to take a job in Germany or open a business in France; the right to work in another EU country depends on that country’s own national rules for non-EU nationals.5European Commission. Non-EU Nationals
Family members added to the application receive the same travel rights.
Physical presence rules range from nothing to meaningful. Greece imposes no minimum stay to keep the permit active; after biometrics, you technically never need to return. Other countries require a few days per year or visits tied to renewal dates. Missing renewal deadlines or letting the underlying investment lapse can trigger revocation, so treating the permit as fully passive is a mistake even in lenient jurisdictions.
Path to Permanent Residency and Citizenship
The visa is the starting line, not the finish. Permanent residency across the EU generally requires five years of continuous legal residence under the framework of EU Directive 2003/109/EC. “Continuous” rules out extended absences, and countries differ on how much golden visa time counts.
Citizenship timelines are longer and have recently gotten stricter. Portugal extended its general naturalization requirement from five years to ten, effectively doubling the planning horizon for investors who entered expecting a faster route to an EU passport. Citizens of Portuguese-speaking countries still qualify at seven years. Greece requires seven years of legal residency with at least 183 days of physical presence per year, plus a B1-level Greek language test and a knowledge exam on Greek history and culture. That physical presence threshold is decisive: an investor who used Greece’s zero-stay permit as a travel document will need to change how they live to qualify for citizenship. Italy sets its bar at ten years of legal residency. Hungary and Malta have their own timelines and conditions.
Tax Reporting for US Investors
American citizens and permanent residents carry reporting obligations that golden visa marketing tends to skip. The United States taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, so any rental income, capital gains, or investment returns generated through a golden visa investment must appear on a US return.6IRS. Publication 54 – Tax Guide for US Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad
Two separate reports apply to foreign accounts and assets:
- FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required when the combined value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point in the calendar year. Investment holding accounts and rental income accounts both count.7FinCEN. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
- FATCA (Form 8938) is required for specified foreign financial assets over $50,000 on the last day of the year or $75,000 at any point for single filers living in the US. Thresholds rise to $200,000 (end of year) or $300,000 (any point) for single filers living abroad.8IRS. Summary of FATCA Reporting for US Taxpayers
Penalties can dwarf the underlying tax. FBAR violations alone can run $10,000 or more per unreported account per year, even for non-willful failures.
The foreign tax credit (Form 1116) prevents true double taxation in most cases: income taxes paid to Portugal or Greece can typically be credited against US liability on the same income. Some host countries offer favorable regimes for new residents. Portugal’s NHR 2.0 applies a flat 20% rate on income from qualifying professional activities for ten years, though eligibility is restricted to sectors such as higher education, scientific research, and certified startups. Any US investor going down this road needs both a US tax advisor and a local one, because the interaction between two systems is where costly mistakes happen.
Program Risk You Cannot Diligence Away
The political environment around these programs has grown hostile at the EU level. The European Commission has flagged residency-by-investment for “risks of corruption, money laundering, security threats and tax avoidance,” and said such programs “commodify EU citizenship and residence rights and weaken vetting and due diligence systems.” The European Parliament proposed abolishing citizenship-by-investment schemes and regulating residency-by-investment programs in 2022.9European Parliament. Aspects of Golden Passport and Visa Schemes in the EU The Commission considers citizenship-by-investment schemes outright illegal under EU law and has taken legal action against at least one member state.
Spain’s shutdown in 2025 shows what that pressure looks like in practice. Portugal’s 2023 removal of real estate followed similar logic. Both moves happened faster than most investors and advisors expected, and neither came with generous grandfather protections for people mid-process. Investment minimums can rise, qualifying asset classes can be stripped out, and entire programs can be closed by a single piece of legislation. If the property or fund would not be a sound investment on its own merits, the visa alone will not rescue it.