Henley & Partners has published annual rankings of programs for obtaining residence permits and citizenship through investment in countries around the world in 2024.
Cyprus was in 12th place among the best destinations for obtaining permanent residence permits in Cyprus, losing 3 positions compared to last year.
In the "Global Index of Investment Residency Programs" the island of Aphrodite scored 59 points out of 100. At the same time, Cyprus ranked second in terms of processing time and third in terms of quality of life and taxation, while on other parameters it was on lower positions.
Recall that to determine the position of the program in the ranking of residence permits through investment analyzed 10 indicators: reputation, quality of life, taxation, visa-free entry into other countries, the application processing time and quality of information processing, compliance, requirements for investment, total costs, timing of citizenship and requirements for obtaining citizenship.
Portugal came first in the ranking (75 points out of 100), followed by Austria (73 points out of 100) and Sweden (72 points out of 100). The fourth place was shared by Italy and Great Britain. Canada and Spain rounded out the top five. The sixth place was shared by the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. The seventh place in the ranking was taken by Singapore, and the eighth place - Australia and Jersey. In ninth place were Malta, New Zealand and Panama. The tenth place went to the United States.
It is worth noting that the legislation of Cyprus differs significantly from the laws of other EU countries that have state programs for granting residence permits for the purchase of real estate.
The main difference between Cyprus is that buyers who invested in the purchase of real estate on the island of 300 thousand euros, receive a permanent residence permit. In all other countries, such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria, buyers of real estate give only a temporary residence permit.
Thus, the buyer of real estate in Cyprus has the advantage that he gets a permanent residence permit in Cyprus immediately, and will not wait 5 years in the regime of temporary renewable immigration statuses to be able to apply for permanent residence permit in Cyprus over time. Moreover, applications submitted for permanent residence permit in Cyprus by purchasing real estate are processed by the Cypriot authorities under an accelerated procedure (2-3 months).
As for the "Global ranking of citizenship programs for investment", Cyprus, for obvious reasons, was not included in it. By the way, in 2020, the government of the island state closed the scheme because of a scandalous video.
For the ninth year in a row, Malta became the best in the ranking of citizenship programs. The country allows obtaining a full-fledged European passport for investments from 1 million euros. In general, the positions in the index have not changed significantly compared to last year. The second place was taken by Austria, the third, fourth, and fifth by three Caribbean island countries: St. Lucia, Grenada, and Barbuda. Egypt ranked sixth and Jordan seventh. The lowest rankings were for the citizenship-by-investment programs of Northern Macedonia, Vanuatu, and Cambodia.
The following criteria were used to analyze investment citizenship programs: reputation, quality of life, visa-free entry, application processing time and quality of information processing, compliance, investment requirements, the need to live in the country, the possibility of moving to other countries, the need to visit the country, transparency of the procedure.
It should be said that the ratings of investment programs of the world are the most complete systematic analysis and comparative assessment of the main options for obtaining residence permits and citizenship for investment. Independent experts, investors, and government officials from different countries take part in the creation of ratings. For each criterion, experts give countries scores (from 0 to 10), after which the results are summarized.
