EU Golden Visas in 2026: What Is Left and Who Needs One

Who actually needs a golden visa

• Non-EU nationals without another route. No job offer, no EU ancestry, no intention to retire on a passive-income visa. The investment buys a permit without those conditions.
• People who want a permit without moving. Several programmes require only a few days a year, or none. That makes the permit an option to hold, not a change of life.
• Families of EU citizens who stay at home. A non-EU spouse of an EU citizen who actually moves to another member state gets a family residence card under EU law. If the EU citizen does not move, that derived right does not exist, and a separate permit is needed. Non-dependent parents are not covered either.

What a golden visa does not do: it does not make you tax resident, it does not end tax obligations at home, and it does not lead to a passport quickly. More on all three below.

What is still open in 2026

These programmes accept new applications as of October 2026:

• Portugal: the fund route. Real estate has not qualified since October 2023. The main route is now a subscription of at least 500,000 euros in qualifying Portuguese investment funds, alongside routes through job creation, research and culture. Minimum stay is low: according to the migration agency AIMA, 7 days in the first year and 14 days in each following two-year period. Detail in Portugal: golden visa and IFICI.
• Greece: property in tiers. Since 2024 the property route costs 800,000 euros in Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and islands with more than 3,100 inhabitants, and 400,000 euros elsewhere. The money must go into a single property of at least 120 square metres, and short-term rentals are banned on pain of a 50,000 euro fine and revocation. 250,000 euros now only works for converting commercial buildings to residential use or restoring listed buildings. The permit runs five years, is renewable and has no minimum stay. Detail in Greece: golden visa and tax.
• Malta: Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP). Permanent residence from day one, but expensive in fees: a 60,000 euro administration fee, a 37,000 euro government contribution and a 2,000 euro donation to a local NGO, plus a property bought for at least 375,000 euros or rented for at least 14,000 euros a year, held for five years. Applicants also need 500,000 euros in assets, of which 150,000 euros liquid. On the rental route that is roughly 169,000 euros that never comes back. Detail in Malta: residency and non-dom.
• Italy: investor visa. No property route. At least 250,000 euros into an innovative start-up, 500,000 euros into an Italian company, 1 million euros as a philanthropic donation or 2 million euros in Italian government bonds. Many wealthy movers combine it with the flat tax, see Italy: flat tax for new residents.
• Hungary: Guest Investor Programme. Running since July 2024: a ten-year renewable permit for 250,000 euros in approved real estate funds, or 1 million euros as a donation to an educational institution. A planned 500,000 euro direct property route was scrapped in December 2024 before it started.
• Cyprus: permanent residence under Regulation 6(2). At least 300,000 euros plus VAT, usually in a new home, and as a guide value proof of 50,000 euros a year in secured income from abroad. The permit is indefinite but requires a visit at least once every two years. Cyprus is also a strong tax base, see Cyprus residency and non-dom.
• Latvia: mostly gone. The new Immigration Law has applied since 15 September 2026. The 250,000 euro property route and the bank deposit route are closed to new applicants. What remains is a company stake from 50,000 euros with permits now capped at two years, plus a new 150,000 euro fund route whose programme was still being set up at the time of writing.

What has closed

• Ireland closed its Immigrant Investor Programme on 15 February 2023.
• Portugal removed real estate and pure capital transfer in October 2023.
• The Netherlands ended its 1.25 million euro investor scheme on 1 January 2024. It had almost no users.
• Spain ended its golden visa under Organic Law 1/2025 with effect from 3 April 2025. No new applications. Permits already granted stay valid for their term; whether they can be renewed is not clearly settled in official guidance. What non-EU nationals can still use, such as the non-lucrative visa and the digital nomad visa, is covered in Spain after the golden visa.
• Malta's citizenship by investment was struck down by the Court of Justice of the EU on 29 April 2025 (case C-181/23): granting citizenship in exchange for payment breaches EU law. Malta stopped the scheme. Residence through the MPRP is not affected.
• Latvia's property route, as above, from September 2026.

The direction is set in Brussels. In 2022 the European Commission recommended that member states abolish citizenship by investment and apply much tighter checks to residence by investment, citing money laundering, tax evasion and security. There is still no EU regulation banning golden visas, but every closure since then has been justified with the same arguments. Anyone buying in now should assume the rules can change during the life of the permit.

The hidden costs

Headline amounts are minimums, not budgets. Plan for:

• Transaction costs. Property transfer taxes, notary and lawyer fees come on top of the purchase price on every property route. Fund routes carry management fees and lock-up periods.
• Government and family fees. Malta charges 7,500 euros per additional adult dependant on top of the core fees. Most programmes charge per family member for permits and renewals.
• Holding period. Greece expects the property to be kept while you rely on the permit, Malta requires at least five years. Fund units in Portugal and Hungary are illiquid until the fund ends.
• Processing time. Portugal in particular has had long backlogs at AIMA. A permit you wait two years for is two years less of residence counted toward anything.

The passport question

Many sellers present a golden visa as a fast path to an EU passport. That is less true every year. Portugal, long the favourite, changed its nationality law with Organic Law 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026: naturalisation now needs seven years of legal residence for EU and Portuguese-speaking country nationals and ten years for everyone else. The clock starts only when the first residence permit is issued, so waiting time at AIMA no longer counts. Applications filed before the change are assessed under the old rules.

Language and integration requirements also make naturalisation hard for someone who spends 14 days in two years in the country. If a second passport is the goal, compare the routes in the citizenship by investment overview.

Where tax matters more than the visa

The southern European tax regimes for newcomers are open to anyone who becomes tax resident, EU or not, and for many readers they matter more than the permit itself:

• Portugal: IFICI. The successor to the NHR regime, which closed to new entrants in 2024. A 20 percent rate on income from qualifying activities for ten years, for people not resident in Portugal in the previous five years. Foreign pensions are excluded.
• Greece: flat tax and pensioner regime. New residents who invest at least 500,000 euros can settle tax on foreign income with 100,000 euros a year, plus 20,000 euros per family member, for up to 15 years. Pensioners can pay 7 percent on foreign income.
• Malta: remittance basis. Non-domiciled residents pay tax on Maltese income and foreign income brought into Malta, with a 5,000 euro minimum if foreign income exceeds 35,000 euros. The Global Residence Programme for non-EU nationals charges 15 percent on remitted foreign income, minimum 15,000 euros a year. It is due to be replaced by new Individual Tax Programme Rules from 1 January 2027; applications filed by 31 December 2026 stay under the current rules until the end of 2031.
• Italy: flat tax. People moving their residence to Italy after 31 December 2025 can settle tax on all foreign income with 300,000 euros a year, plus 50,000 euros per family member. It was 200,000 euros before and originally 100,000.
• Spain: Beckham regime. People moving to Spain for work who were not resident in the previous five years pay 24 percent on employment income up to 600,000 euros and 47 percent above, for six tax years, and wealth tax only on Spanish assets.

A golden visa without tax residence leaves you taxed wherever you live now. US citizens in particular remain taxed by the US on worldwide income regardless of residence. UK and other home-country exit rules differ. The outcome depends on the individual case, and you need an adviser who knows both countries.