Residency through investment, country by country

One question, 33answers, each one the country’s own record. The labels below are the ones its own instruments use rather than a vocabulary we imposed on them: where one country’s law has no equivalent of another’s test, the row is simply absent, because an empty cell would invent a comparison nobody made. Every line opens onto the law it rests on.

Countries answered: 33
Exceptions by nationality: 2
Oldest check: 2026-09-21
Newest check: 2026-10-06

Antigua and BarbudaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda sells citizenship, not residence, and the distinction runs through everything. The Citizenship by Investment Act 2013 and the Regulations that sit as a Schedule to it offer four prices - US$230,000 into the National Development Fund, US$260,000 to a designated institution of higher education, US$300,000 of real estate in an approved project, or US$1.5 million in an approved business - and the successful applicant becomes a citizen rather than a resident. For an investor who wants to live here instead, the route is the permanent residence permit in section 42 of the Immigration and Passport Act 2014, whose alternative to the thirty-days-and-abode test is "a substantial economic activity in Antigua and Barbuda which is approved by the Cabinet". The Act neither defines that phrase nor puts a figure on it.

National Development Fund contribution: US$230,000as of 2024-07-25
Higher education contribution: US$260,000 for a familyas of 2024-07-25
Real estate purchase price: US$300,000as of 2024-07-25
Business investment, sole: Four million dollars
Real estate resale restriction: 5 years, and only onceas of 2024-07-25
Processing fee, single applicant: US$10,000as of 2024-07-25
Due diligence fee, single applicant: US$8,500as of 2024-07-25
Permanent residence by economic activity: "Substantial economic activity" approved by Cabinet

ArgentinaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-09-21

Investing Your Way In

Argentina has no investor residency category. What it has, since May 2025, is something stranger and more valuable: an investment route straight to citizenship, with no residence requirement at all. The Ministry of Economy decides what counts as a relevant investment, and it has not published that anywhere we have read - so the route exists and its price does not.

Investor residency category: None
Investment route to citizenship: Yes, with no residence periodas of 2025-05-29
Who defines the threshold: Ministry of Economy
Published threshold: Not found
Instrument: Ley 346 art. 2(2), introduced by Decreto 366/2025 art. 37

BarbadosCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Barbados

Barbados has no citizenship by investment programme, and the statute book says so by omission: the Constitution lists the ways a person becomes or may be registered as a citizen, and investment is not among them. What it has instead is two things. The Immigration Act lets the Minister grant immigrant status to a permitted entrant who has established himself successfully in Barbados in a profession, trade, business or agricultural enterprise, or is likely to and has the means to live on until he does. And section 13(7) gives the Minister an unbounded power to grant special permission to remain on such terms and conditions as he thinks fit - which is the whole legal foundation of the Special Entry and Reside Permit marketed to property owners and people of high net worth. The permit's published criteria and fees are not in any instrument we could find, and are not published by any Barbados government page we could reach.

Citizenship by investment: None. No provision of the Constitution or of any instrument we read confers citizenship for an investment
Statutory test for immigrant status through business: Established successfully, or likely to establish successfully, in a profession, trade, business or agricultural enterprise
Minimum investment the Act or Regulations state: None
Legal basis of the Special Entry and Reside Permit: The Minister's power under the Immigration Act to grant special permission to remain on such terms and conditions as he thinks fit
Fee for a special entry permit, as the Regulations prescribe: $50.00 on application and $300.00 on the grant

BelizeCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05

Residence by Investment in Belize

Belize's investor route is the temporary residence permit in section 10A of the Immigration Act, and it costs BZ$500,000 of investment in Belize. What it buys is modest: a status valid for one year, renewable yearly, priced at a fifth of the permanent residence fee for your nationality. The Immigration Department is candid about who it is for - people who have made or are making a substantial commercial investment here but whose commitments elsewhere stop them meeting the presence requirement for permanent residence. There is a second, quite separate investment threshold for retirees who want to run a business, and in October 2026 the Minister announced a third programme that is not yet law.

Investment threshold: BZ$500,000.00
Status granted: Temporary residence, one (1) year, renewable yearly
Annual fee: One fifth of the permanent residence fee for your nationality
Investment capital for a Qualified Retired Person to run a business: one million dollars
Announced Investor Residence Program: A minimum investment of $500,000 and a total of 12 months in Belize over a three year periodas of 2026-10-02

BoliviaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-09-27

Residency Through Investment

Bolivia has no investor residency. What it has is the multiple visa: a one-year, renewable entry permit for people doing investment and business, which lets you come and go as often as you like but does not make you a resident. The consular network adds a limit the regulation does not contain - stays of no more than 90 uninterrupted days at a time. An investor who wants to live in Bolivia uses the ordinary work route on the strength of the company, not a separate investor category.

Investor residency category: None
Minimum investment: None published
Multiple visa validity: 1 year, renewable for similar periods
Multiple visa fee: USD 200as of 2026-09-27
Stay per entry: No more than 90 uninterrupted days
Does it lead to permanent residence: No - it authorises entry and exit, not residence

BrazilSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Residency Through Investment

Two routes, and they behave differently. Investing R$ 500,000 of foreign money in a Brazilian company, against a three-year business plan judged on the jobs or income it will create, now carries residence for an indefinite term from the start. An innovation or research venture qualifies at a lower figure, which the resolution writes as one hundred and fifty thousand reais in words. Buying urban property worth R$ 1,000,000 is the other route: four years first, then indefinite, and with an obligation almost nobody reports - at least fourteen days in Brazil, consecutive or not, in every two-year period. The property route also sits awkwardly on a statute which says in terms that owning property in Brazil confers no right to residency.

Investment in a Brazilian company: R$ 500.000,00
Innovation, basic or applied research venture: R$ 150.000,00
Term on the company route: Indefinite
Urban property: R$ 1.000.000,00
Urban property in the North and Northeast: R$ 700.000,00^CALC (calculated by us, not published)
Term on the property route: Four years, then indefinite
Presence required on the property route: At least 14 days, consecutive or not, in each two-year period
Business plan: Three years

ChileSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Temporary Residency for Investors and Related Staff

Chile has an investor residence permit, and it is expensive: five hundred thousand US dollars, put into producing goods or services, and sponsored by the state investment promotion agency before the migration service will look at the file. A second door in the same paragraph costs the applicant nothing personally - senior managers and specialist technical staff hired by a Chilean company that a foreign investor controls through at least 10% of the voting shares come in the same way. Neither door exists in the migration statute: the investor category was created by the supreme decree that lists the subcategories, which means it can be changed without going back to Congress.

Investment threshold: USD 500,000, or the equivalent in another currency
What the money must be for: Producing goods or services
Who must sponsor you: InvestChile, the foreign investment promotion agency
Route without investing your own money: Senior management or specialist technical staff of a company controlled by a foreign investor with at least 10% of the voting shares
Where you apply: From abroad
Maximum term of a temporary permit: 2 years under the statute, extendable by up to 2 more
Leads to permanent residency: Yes
Normal wait for permanent residency: 24 months of temporary residency
Possible reduction: Down to 12 months where an investment has been carried out or a company is actually operating in Chile
Where the category comes from: The subcategory decree, not the migration law

ColombiaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Migrant Visa (M) for Investors

Two thresholds, depending on what you buy. Direct foreign investment registered with the central bank takes 650 monthly minimum wages; property held in your own name takes 350. Property is the cheaper door by a wide margin, and the investment has to be maintained for as long as the visa lasts.

Direct investment threshold: More than 650 monthly minimum wages
Property threshold: At least 350 monthly minimum wages
Registration: With the Banco de la República
Ownership: Exclusively in your own name
Years to permanent residency: 5

Costa RicaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-04

Investor Residency at US$150,000, on a Footing That Is No Longer Simple

Costa Rica's investor route asks for US$150,000 in Costa Rican real estate, registrable movable property, shares, securities, productive projects, projects of national interest, venture capital funds or sustainable tourism infrastructure. That figure replaced the US$200,000 the Reglamento de Extranjería had set since 2012. The replacement was done by Ley 9996 and its regulation, which repealed the regulation's investor articles outright and put the new requirements in their place. Ley 9996 also attached tax exemptions to the category, and article 12 of that law let them be claimed only during its first five years - a window that closed on 14 July 2026. The migration threshold sits in the regulation rather than in the repealed articles, and the directorate was still publishing US$150,000 in October 2026; the tax package that used to come with it is no longer open to new applicants.

Minimum investment: US$150,000as of 2023-02-23
Previous minimum investment: US$200.000.00
Status granted: Temporary residency for 2 years, renewable for equal periods
Condition on renewal: The investment must have been held continuously and without interruption since the grant
May the investor work?: No - no paid manual or intellectual work, for the investor or for dependants
Tax exemptions attached to the category: Closed to new claims since July 2026
First application fee: US$50
Change of category from a non-resident status: US$200

CubaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-06

Residency Through Investment and Business

Cuba has an investor route at both levels, and neither of them is a price list. Temporary residence has a subclassification for investors and businesspeople, but it opens only once the project has been approved by the competent authority or by the relevant body of the Central State Administration - the approval comes first and the residence follows it. Permanent residence can be applied for on the ground of a patrimony allowing business or investment, and the regulation asks for a business or investment plan already approved by a sponsoring body, a bank certificate for the patrimony and the thousand-dollar guarantee deposit. No instrument we read sets a minimum amount to invest. The separate investor status announced in 2026 is not open to foreigners at all: it is for Cuban citizens living abroad.

Minimum investment: None stated in any instrument read
Temporary residence subclassification: Investors and businesspeople
Maximum temporary residence: 5 years
Approval order: The project is approved first, the residence second
Guarantee deposit for permanent residence: USD 1 000
Provisional residence before permanent: 1 year
Investor status for Cubans resident abroad: Document tax CUP 3 500.00

DominicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Dominica

Money does not buy residence in Dominica; it buys citizenship, and it does so through a door the Citizenship Act opens for an entirely different purpose. The Citizenship by Investment Regulations say in terms that an investor applies "pursuant to section 8 of the Act" - the ordinary naturalisation section, which requires twelve months' residence immediately before the application and seven years in all - and the application pack includes a waiver of residence requirements form, because section 8(2)(c) lets the Minister waive the residence requirement in special circumstances. There is no investor residence permit between the two. Buying land is a separate statute again: an alien who holds land without a licence forfeits it to the State, though an OECS citizen is not an alien for that purpose and may buy freely.

Investor residence permit: None
Residence required for citizenship by investment: None in practice
Direct monetary investment, main applicant: US$200,000as of 2024-06-28
Direct monetary investment, main applicant and up to three dependants: US$250,000as of 2024-06-28
Approved Project investment, each main applicant: US$200,000as of 2024-01-25
Government fee on approval of an Approved Project application, main applicant: US$75,000as of 2024-06-28
Due diligence fee, main applicant: US$7,500as of 2024-06-28
Resale restriction on real estate: 3 years from the grant of citizenshipas of 2024-06-28
Land an alien may hold without a licence: 1 acre for residence, 3 acres for trade or business
Fee on acquiring land without a licence: 10 per cent of market value
Are CARICOM and OECS nationals aliens for landholding?: OECS citizens are not; other CARICOM nationals are

Dominican RepublicCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Residence by Investment: US$200,000 and a Certificate

Two hundred thousand dollars, certified by the investment-promotion agency, buys permanent residence straight away rather than after five years of temporary cards - and that, rather than any tax break, is what the Dominican investor route is. The threshold is not in the migration law: the law says only that the minimum will be fixed by regulation, and the 2011 regulation fixes it. The investment has to take one of the forms the foreign-investment statute recognises, or be a contribution to the capital of an existing Dominican company, and it has to be registered. Designated investment projects are a separate case with a figure set by the executive instead. The application goes to the migration service's foreign-investment window, direct family may be included on the same file, and renewal after the first year runs in four-year blocks against proof that the investment is still there.

Minimum investment: US$200,000
Designated investment projects: Figure set by the executive
Temporary residence stage: Skipped
First card valid for: 1 year
Thereafter: 4 years at a time
Family: Direct relatives on the same file
Where the investment is registered: Investment-promotion agency
Property for foreigners: Permitted, subject to limits in force

EcuadorSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

The Investor Visa: One Hundred Minimum Wages

Ecuador's investor visa is priced at 100 minimum wages - USD 48,200 in 2026 - and takes several shapes: a two-year term deposit, a property purchase, shares in an Ecuadorian company, or a contract signed with the State. Whatever the form, the asset is locked while the visa runs: a property is annotated at the land registry so it cannot be sold, shares are flagged with the companies regulator, and letting the investment go is grounds for cancellation. The same category quietly covers legal representatives and commercial agents of companies with at least 100 minimum wages of share capital, a route that asks for an appointment rather than money of one's own.

Investment threshold: 100 minimum wages - USD 48,200 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01
Term deposit: At least 730 days, dematerialised
Property: Sole ownership, or a share worth at least 100 minimum wages
Company share capital route: At least 100 minimum wages of share capital^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01
Representative's visa length: Minimum 181 days, maximum 2 years, matching the appointment
Substituting the investment: 60 days from the authorising letter
Losing the investment: Grounds for cancellation of the visa

El SalvadorCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-04

Residence by Investment, and What the Bitcoin Programme Actually Rests On

There are two real investor thresholds in Salvadoran law and both are small. Ten thousand dollars subscribed and paid as a shareholder in a Salvadoran company, or two thousand five hundred dollars of assets in a sole trader's business, each buying two years of temporary residence renewable. Both are reserved to foreigners who are not Central American by origin - Central Americans reach the same place on easier terms through their own route. A third, open-ended category exists for the investor proper, with no sum in the law at all: the requirement is registration of the foreign capital with the Ministry of Economy's National Investment Office, which decides what counts. Alongside all this sits the programme the country is known for. In 2023 the law gained a naturalisation ground for foreigners who meet the requirements of government programmes to attract investors or donors, and in 2025 a permanent-residence ground for foreigners who join government-promoted programmes, exempt from the two-year absence rule, with its own fee of six hundred and ninety dollars. Those three amendments are the whole of the legal footing we could find. The million-dollar figure, the thousand places a year and the fee for dependants are published by the programme's promoters and by nothing we could read as an instrument.

Shareholder threshold: USD 10,000 subscribed and paid
Sole trader threshold: USD 2,500 in business assets
Investor category threshold: None stated in the law
Grant: Up to 2 years, renewable, multiple entry
Who the two sums are written for: Foreigners not Central American by origin
Investor visa fee, categories B and C: USD 200
Government-programme permanent residence: Direct, no prior temporary residenceas of 2025-05-05
Its fee: USD 690 for up to one year
Naturalisation ground for investors: In the law since 2024as of 2024-01-09
Stated investment for the promoted Bitcoin programme: No instrument found

GrenadaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Grenada

Investment in Grenada buys citizenship, and it used to buy permanent residence first. The Citizenship by Investment Act of 2013 was built as a ladder - permanent residence, fourteen days in the country, twelve months, then citizenship - and in 2019 the ladder was taken away: Act 3 of 2019 struck the words that made the citizenship application follow a permanent residence one and repealed the fourteen-day rule outright. Permanent residence by investment still exists in the Act, and the Regulations still price a residence card, but nothing in the scheme now requires anyone to pass through it. Outside that statute there is no investor residence permit at all, and a foreign buyer of land needs a licence from the Minister or forfeits the land to the Government.

Investor residence permit outside the investment citizenship statute: None
Permanent residence first: No longer required
Days of residence before citizenship: None
Grenada Permanent Residence Card: US$1,000
Holding period on an approved project investment: 5 years
Land held by an unlicensed foreigner: Forfeited to the Government
Land a foreigner may hold without a licence: Up to 5 acres, annual tenancy or less
Stamp duty on the land-holding licence: EC$25

GuatemalaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Residence in Guatemala Through Investment

The investor residence is a temporary one of up to five years, and the test is a single amount: the applicant has to show membership of one or more commercial structures and/or investment in the acquisition of movable or immovable property, for an amount of a hundred thousand dollars. The regulation does not prescribe a particular vehicle. It takes registry certifications, title to securities, invoices for property, plant and equipment, evidence of where the funds came from, or anything else, and it asks for a notarised sworn statement describing the economic activity and how long the applicant expects to stay. Renewal needs only a further sworn statement that the activity has continued, with documents behind it.

Investment required: 100,000 dollars
Status granted: Temporary residence
Maximum term: 5 years
Qualifying assets: Commercial structures, movable or immovable property
Guatemalan guarantor: Not listed among the investor requirements
Residence fee, three to five years: USD 500.00
Route to permanent residence: 5 years of temporary residence

GuyanaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Investing in Guyana Buys No Residence and No Passport

Guyana has an Investment Act and no investor visa. The Act gives a foreign investor a long list of guarantees - the right to buy or lease land, to open accounts in Guyanese and foreign currency, to repatriate dividends and capital, to employ skilled foreign personnel - and then, on the question of staying in the country, says only that the Government shall facilitate entry "in accordance with the Immigration Act". That Act offers the same permit a tourist gets, marked for trade or business, capped at three years from the date of entry. There is no minimum investment, no threshold that converts into status, and no citizenship by investment: the only ways to become Guyanese are birth, descent, marriage, registration and naturalisation, and none of them mentions money. What an investor does get, which matters more than it sounds, is the Status of Aliens Act: an alien may hold and dispose of property in Guyana in the same manner in all respects as a Commonwealth citizen.

Minimum investment for residence: None; there is no investment-based residence route
Citizenship by investment: None. The Constitution and the Citizenship Act between them provide birth, descent, marriage, registration and naturalisation, and nothing else
Land ownership by a foreigner: Permitted, on the same footing as a Commonwealth citizen
Business visa period, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants it: Five yearsas of 2026-10-06
Business visa fee: US$140.00, and a further US$140.00 for each five-year renewalas of 2026-10-06
Repatriation of profits: Dividends, earnings, capital and the proceeds of a sale may be remitted freely, subject to tax

HaitiCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Investing in Haiti: No Residence by Investment, but Shares Buy an Exemption from the Work Permit

Nothing we read creates a residence permit obtainable by investing. The immigration law has one permis de séjour and does not divide applicants by what they bring. What investment does buy is narrower and concrete: article 312 of the Labour Code lifts the work permit requirement from holders of shares in new undertakings as defined by the decree of 13 March 1963. So a foreign shareholder in a qualifying new company does not need a permis de travail or a permis d'emploi to be active in it - but still needs the ordinary residence permit to be in the country, because the Labour Code exemption touches the work permit only. The constitutional backdrop is restrictive in its own way: a resident foreigner may own one dwelling house per arrondissement, may not deal in rented property, and loses the ownership right five years after ceasing to reside in the country.

Residence by investment: None found
Work permit exemption for shareholders: Yes, in new undertakings
Dwelling houses a resident foreigner may own: One per arrondissement
Property right after leaving: Ends five years after residence ceases
Land near the border: Prohibited

HondurasCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Investing Your Way to Honduran Residence

USD 50,000 into any lawful branch of the Honduran economy, or into state or national financial-institution securities, buys investor residence. The figure has stood unchanged since 2003. What makes the route distinctive is that the money is not required up front: the applicant lodges a USD 5,000 deposit with the central bank as a guarantee that the investment will be made, files a feasibility study and a timetable, and gets the guarantee back within a year once the investment is proved. At every renewal the economy ministry must certify that the holder is still an investor at the level the law requires.

Investment threshold: USD 50,000
Guarantee deposit: USD 5,000
Guarantee returned: Within 1 year of proving the investment
Residence fee: USD 300
Where the money may go: Any lawful branch of the economy, or state and national financial-institution securities
Renewal: An economy ministry certificate that you are still an investor at the legal level
Discretionary half-threshold route: USD 25,000^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2025-07-29

JamaicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Investing your way into Jamaica

There is no investor route into Jamaica, and no citizenship by investment. The Agency takes permanent residence applications under five categories and investment is not one of them. On the citizenship side the list is closed by the Constitution itself: Chapter II gives birth, descent and registration on marriage, and leaves it to Parliament to provide for anyone else. The only Act Parliament passed for that purpose is the Jamaican Nationality Act, whose routes are registration of a Commonwealth or Irish citizen after five years' ordinary residence, registration of minors, registration on marriage, and naturalisation of an alien on the residence qualifications in its Second Schedule. None of them turns on money. An investor who wants to work in the business applies for a work permit like anyone else; the Ministry asks that investors apply through the national investment promotion agency.

Citizenship by investment: Noneas of 2026-10-06
Residence by investment: Noneas of 2026-10-06
Routes to citizenship Parliament has created: Four, all resting on residence, descent or marriage

MexicoNorth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Temporary Residence as an Investor

Mexico has no separate investor status. What it has is an investor test inside the ordinary temporary residence procedure, and it can be met three ways: a shareholding in a Mexican company where the money actually paid in exceeds 45,850 days of the UMA, fixed assets of the same value used for business purposes, or - with no money threshold at all - proof that the foreign company employs at least three workers in Mexico. The third option is the one almost nobody mentions and the only one that does not move with the UMA.

Status granted: Temporary residence, up to 4 years
Shareholding test: Investment actually paid in exceeding 45,850 days of UMAas of 2025-08-09
Fixed-asset test: Assets exceeding 45,850 days of UMAas of 2025-08-09
Shareholding test in pesos: MXN 5,378,663.50^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-02-01
Employment alternative: At least 3 workers employed in Mexico by the foreign company, with no monetary threshold
What the test was before 9 August 2025: 20,000 days of minimum wage
Real estate alternative: Property in Mexico worth more than 91,710 days of UMA
Separate investor status: None - the test sits inside ordinary temporary residence

NicaraguaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Investing for Residence in Nicaragua

Nicaragua has an investor route into permanent residence and no published price for it. The law makes the status of inmigrante con capital a matter for the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade, which issues a certificate of registration of the investment; migration takes that certificate as proof and asks for the company papers, a municipal trading licence and tax registration behind it. No instrument we read names a sum. The one article that looks as though it should - article 35, on what an investor may invest in - sends the reader to article 31 for the requirements, and article 31 is about pensioners. Investment in state and bank paper counts as well as in a business. Two years as a permanent resident is enough for naturalisation on this route, against four on the ordinary one.

Minimum investment: Not stated in the migration law or its regulation
Who certifies the investment: MIFIC, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade
Status granted: Permanent residence
Card validity: 5 years, renewable
Permanent residence fee: C$ 18,312.15
Reduced fee for the immigrant subcategory and for dependants: C$ 9,156.07
What may be invested in: Any lawful branch of economic activity, and state or bank securities
Naturalisation after: 2 years of permanent residence
Absence that can cancel permanent residence: More than one year

PanamaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Investing Your Way to Panamanian Residence

Panama prices investor residence by what you invest in rather than by a single headline figure. Reforestation is the cheapest door and the one that was rewritten most recently: B/.80,000 buys a temporary permit, B/.100,000 a permanent one through the usual two-year provisional stage, and B/.350,000 permanent residence automatically - but since 2021 the investment has to be held five years or the residence is cancelled. A company investment takes B/.160,000 of paid-up registered shares and, unusually, five full-time Panamanian employees per applicant on the payroll. Capital parked in a bank deposit or in property is a different topic: that is the B/.300,000 own-means route.

Forestry, temporary permit: B/.80,000as of 2021-05-20
Forestry, permanent residence: B/.100,000as of 2021-05-20
Forestry, automatic permanent residence: B/.350,000as of 2021-05-20
Forestry holding period: 5 yearsas of 2021-05-20
Company investment: B/.160,000 of share capitalas of 2008-08-08
Panamanian employees required: 5 per applicant
Per dependant: B/.2,000
Provisional stage: 2 years

Different by nationality: Panama's Friendly Nations list Read them

ParaguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Investor Residency and the One Shortcut in the Law

Investors are the only people the migration law exempts from serving two years of temporary residency first. Article 46 lets a foreigner who can demonstrate an investment in Paraguay under the SUACE one-stop business regime go straight to permanent residency, and the migration directorate runs a dedicated procedure for it. What the directorate does not publish is an amount: the document that opens the route is a certificate of investor status issued by the Viceministerio de Industria y Comercio, and the conditions for getting that certificate are set by that ministry rather than by the migration directorate. The law also lets an investor prove the investment with a bank deposit or an investment project approved by the competent bodies, but again without naming a sum.

Exemption from the temporary stage: Yes, for investors under the SUACE regime
Minimum investment: Not published by the migration directorate
Alternative proof named in the law: Company incorporation documents, documents evidencing the investment, a bank deposit, or an investment project approved by the competent bodies
Fee: 25 jornales - Gs. 2.926.925as of 2026-07-01
Card validity: Indefinite, renewed every 10 years
Absence that cancels it: 3 years without authorisation

PeruSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Inversionista Residency

Peru names a figure - 500,000 soles - and then restricts what you may do with the position it buys: the holder may act only as manager or director of their own company. Two conditions do more work than the amount. The investment may not be evidenced by a transfer of existing shares, which rules out simply buying into a going concern. And the post created for the foreigner sits outside the foreign-worker quotas, which is the practical reason companies use this route rather than the worker one.

Investment threshold: S/ 500,000.00
Share purchase: Not accepted as evidence of the investment
Permitted role: Manager or director of your own company only
Foreign-worker quota: The post is outside the Decreto Legislativo 689 quotas
Length of permission: 365 days, extendable
Route to permanent status: Three consecutive years of residence

Saint Kitts and NevisCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Saint Kitts and Nevis

There is no investor residence permit. Money buys citizenship here, directly and by statute, and it buys nothing in between: section 3(5) of the Citizenship Act entitles a person who has invested substantially to be registered as a citizen, and the Immigration Act's list of resident classes contains nothing an investor can apply under. The only investment-flavoured residence route is the seven-year one in section 6(2)(a), which asks for seven years of residence first and substantial assets inside the Federation second - the time comes before the money, not instead of it. An investor who buys property without taking citizenship runs into a separate statute: an unlicensed alien who holds land here forfeits it to the Crown.

Investor residence permit: None
Permanent residence by assets: 7 years of prior residence, then substantial assets
Land held by an unlicensed alien: Forfeited to the Crown
Land an unlicensed alien may hold: Up to 5 acres, annual tenancy or less
When citizenship-by-investment title transfers: Before citizenship is granted

Saint LuciaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-05

Investing your way into Saint Lucia

Two routes, and they are unusually distinct. The cheap one is land: an alien who gets a certificate of eligibility and then an alien landholding licence may apply to the Chief Immigration Officer for an alien investor entrance permit, which is free for the investor and for a company's directors and shareholders and runs for as long as the licence does. It does not carry the right to work. The expensive one is the passport. Saint Lucia's citizenship by investment programme has four qualifying investments - the National Economic Fund, an approved real estate project, an approved enterprise project and government bonds - and since 1 July 2024 the Fund route costs US$240,000 for an applicant with up to three dependants, more than double the figure the revised edition still prints. From 1 January 2026 an applicant must also satisfy prescribed requirements for residency and genuine link, and from March 2026 must swear to financial resources of at least US$350,000. The Board may approve no more than one thousand five hundred applications a year.

National Economic Fund, applicant with up to three dependants: US$240,000as of 2024-07-01
National Economic Fund as the revised edition prints it: US$100,000
Approved real estate project: US$300,000
Approved enterprise project: US$3,500,000 with three permanent jobs
Government bonds: US$500,000 held for 5 years
Due diligence fee: US$8,000 for the applicant
Annual cap on approvals: 1,500
Declared financial resources: US$350,000as of 2026-03-23
Residency and genuine link requirement: From 1 January 2026
Alien investor entrance permit fee: Nil for the investor
Built real estate holding period: 5 years after citizenship
Alien investor entrance permit fee for a dependant: US$100

Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesCaribbeanCorroborated by multiple sourcesMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Investing Your Way into Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Investment buys incentives here, not status. There is no investor residence permit and no citizenship by investment: the House of Assembly's record of every Act passed since 1993 contains neither. What a foreign investor does need is an alien's land holding licence, under the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act, Chapter 316, amended four times since 1993 and most recently in October 2022. Like the work permit and the residence permission, the licence is decided in the Prime Minister's Office. The incentives are real and are described by the Government in prose rather than in a published schedule: income tax exemptions of ten to fifteen years by type and size of investment, with hotel developments above a hundred rooms singled out.

Investor residence permit: None
Citizenship by investment: No Act
Land purchase by a foreigner: Requires an alien's land holding licence
Most recent amendment to the land holding Act: Act No. 13 of 2022
Right of establishment for CARICOM nationals: Legislated in 2004
Published investment incentives: Income tax exemptions, described in prose

SurinameSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Investment: No Investor Permit, but a Statutory Promise of One Attached to a Fiscal Facility

Suriname grants no residence for investing. What the Investeringswet 2001 does instead is rarer and in some ways stronger: where the Minister of Finance grants a facility under the Act, article 15 provides that the competent authority shall also grant a permit for residence and settlement of foreign personnel, for employment of foreign personnel, for establishment of an undertaking, and for import and export of goods and services. The immigration consequence is statutory rather than discretionary, and compliance with it is policed by the aliens department of the Ministry of Justice and Police. It attaches to the enterprise and its personnel, not to the investor as a person, and there is no qualifying amount: the facilities are open to investment in named sectors, with a separate regime for investments of at least the equivalent of USD 50 million and for bauxite, hydrocarbons, gold and radioactive minerals.

Investor residence permit: None
What an investment facility brings: A permit for residence and settlement of foreign personnel, for their employment, for establishing the undertaking, and for import and export
Qualifying sectors: Agriculture, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, mining, forestry, tourism excluding casinos, industry, trade, construction, services and professional transport
Threshold for the departing regime: The equivalent of USD 50 million
Who polices the residence facility: The aliens department of the Ministry of Justice and Police

The BahamasCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Buying Permanent Residence: One Million Dollars, Held Ten Years, Ninety Days a Year

The Bahamas has no investment-citizenship programme, and since 2021 it has had a statutory investment-residence one. Section 17A of the Immigration Act, inserted with effect from 1 July 2021, creates an economic permanent residence certificate. As it now stands, after the Immigration (Amendment)(No. 2) Act, 2024 took effect on 1 January 2025, the qualifying investment is one million dollars held for a minimum of ten years, in real estate in The Bahamas or in Zero Coupon Bonds issued by the Central Bank - a deed of gift expressly does not count. The holder must reside here for a cumulative period of no less than ninety days a year and file a declaration every ten years that nothing material has changed. The certificate lasts for life unless revoked, and may be endorsed for a spouse and dependants. Two features are rare: an application is deemed approved three months after a completed application is received, and the certificate itself must carry the real property tax assessment number of the property it rests on.

Qualifying investment: One million dollars, held for a minimum of ten years
What counts: Real estate in The Bahamas, or Zero Coupon Bonds issued by the Central Bank of The Bahamas
What does not: A deed of gift
Presence required: A cumulative period of no less than ninety days per year
Deemed approval: Three months after a completed application is received
Certificate fee, with the right to work in your own business: $25,000
Certificate fee, without the right to work: $25,000 since 1 July 2026
Investment citizenship: No such programme exists

Trinidad and TobagoCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Buying and Investing in Trinidad and Tobago

There is no citizenship by investment programme and no residence by investment programme. Money buys property, not status. The Foreign Investment Act lets a non-national acquire up to one acre of land for residence and up to five acres for trade or business without any licence at all, which is more generous than the alien landholding regimes of the Eastern Caribbean, where a licence is needed for the first square foot. Above those areas a licence from the President is required, and land or shares held without one are liable to forfeiture. The consideration has to be paid in an internationally traded currency through an authorised dealer, and that requirement reaches a citizen of a CARICOM Member State as well as a foreign investor - which is the only place in the Act where the two are treated alike. Owning land confers no immigration status whatever. The route to residence for an investor is the same section 6(1)(a) that everyone else uses: five years as a permitted entrant, establishment in a trade or business, and sufficient means.

Citizenship by investment: None
Residence by investment: None
Land for residence without a licence: Up to 1 acre
Land for trade or business without a licence: Up to 5 acres
How the price must be paid: In an internationally traded currency through an authorised dealer
Penalty for holding without a licence where one is needed: Forfeiture of the land or shares, and a fine of one hundred thousand dollars for causing the vesting

Different by nationality: CARICOM skills certificate Read them

UruguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Investing Your Way In

There is no investor visa. An investor reaches residency the same way everyone else does - by proving means of support on the ordinary permanent residency route, as a company owner or shareholder. Where investment does buy something specific is tax: holding property or a promoted business project above stated thresholds is itself a ground for tax residency, without any day count.

Dedicated investor visa: None
How an investor gets residency: Ordinary permanent residency, means of support
Investment threshold for residency: None published
Property threshold for tax residency: Over 15,000,000 UI
Business project threshold for tax residency: Over 45,000,000 UI

VenezuelaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Investing Your Way into Venezuela

The investor visa, TR-I, is unusual in two ways. It states no amount at all: what it asks is that the investment has been accepted by the Venezuelan official bodies, and the foreign ministry turns that into a single document, an investor certificate issued through the foreign trade single window. And it is the most generous of the transient visas on time - three years, multiple entries, no limit on how long you may stay - then up to two more years applied for inside the country, and only then may you ask for Resident status. There is a second business category, the entrepreneur/industrialist visa, which looks similar and is not on the list of visas that lead to residence.

Minimum investment: None stated
Visa validity: Three years, multiple entries, no limit on length of stay
Extension inside the country: Up to two further years
Then: May apply for Resident status
Entrepreneur/industrialist visa: Two years, multiple entries, four months per entry, no extension
Does the entrepreneur visa lead to residence: No