Key facts
- Residence by investment (RBI, "golden visa") buys a permit to live in a country. Citizenship by investment (CBI) buys nationality and a passport.
- RBI usually leads to citizenship only after years of residence: 10 years in Portugal since May 2026.
- Europe's golden visas are shrinking: Spain closed its programme on 3 April 2025, and Portugal no longer accepts real estate.
- Argentina offers CBI: US$350,000 non-refundable, or a US$800,000 bond.
- Choose by the right you need, not by the label.
“Golden visa” and “golden passport” sound like two prices for the same product. They are not. One gives you a right to live in a country. The other makes you a member of it. The difference affects what you can do, how long it lasts, and who can take it away.
Two products, two different rights
| Residence by investment (golden visa) | Citizenship by investment | |
|---|---|---|
| What you receive | A residence permit or card | Nationality and a passport |
| Travel | On your existing passport | On the new passport |
| Duration | Fixed term, renewable | Permanent, subject to the law on loss of nationality |
| Political rights | None | Usually full (voting, standing for office) |
| Route to a passport | Ordinary naturalisation after years of residence | Immediate on grant |
| Typical condition | Keep the investment and renew on time | One-off contribution or investment |
A golden visa leaves your travel position unchanged. If your passport needs visas for half the world, it still does. What changes is that you can live, and often work, in the issuing country, and in an EU state you can usually travel within the Schengen area on your residence card for short stays.
Citizenship by investment changes the travel document itself. It is a bigger step, and that is why fewer countries offer it.
The time dimension
Most golden visas are designed as the start of a long road.
Portugal shows how long that road has become. Under Organic Law 1/2026, in force since 19 May 2026, naturalisation requires 10 years of legal residence (7 for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals), counted from the first residence permit. An investor who obtains a Portuguese golden visa today is looking at a passport in the second half of the 2030s, if the rules do not change again.
Citizenship by investment compresses that timeline to the processing period. Argentina, for example, has said only that applications open in the fourth quarter of 2026. The regulations require the National Directorate of Migration to decide within 30 business days of the agency’s report, but the total processing time has not been published.
Money: spent or invested
The headline numbers can mislead.
- Portugal: the main golden visa route is a €500,000 investment in qualifying funds. Real estate stopped qualifying in October 2023. The investment is at market risk, but you may recover it.
- Greece: real estate thresholds rose in 2024 to €800,000 in the most popular areas and €400,000 elsewhere, according to published summaries.
- Argentina (CBI): a US$350,000 non-refundable contribution to the National Treasury, or a US$800,000 subscription to a dedicated bond. Press reports say the bond must be held for seven years and pays no interest.
A non-refundable contribution is a cost. A recoverable investment is a cost of capital plus a risk. Compare them on that basis, not on the headline. See our cost guide.
Family
Both models usually cover a spouse and dependent children. The difference is what the children receive. A golden visa gives them residence. Citizenship by investment gives them nationality, often for life.
Argentina prices family members separately: US$100,000 for a spouse, US$100,000 for each single child aged 18–25 with no children, and US$25,000 for each child under 18. A couple with two minor children pays US$500,000. See family members.
Tax: residence matters more than either label
Neither product, in itself, determines where you pay tax. Tax residence usually depends on where you live, your home and your centre of interests.
- A golden visa often comes with a low minimum stay. That is convenient, but it does not by itself make you tax resident.
- Argentina taxes residents on worldwide income at progressive rates from 5% to 35%. Naturalisation through investment does not, on its own, make you an Argentine tax resident.
The OECD warns banks to look harder at residence and citizenship documents issued by schemes that combine low tax with little physical presence. See How the OECD and FATF view CBI. Take tax advice before you buy either product.
Policy risk: both can change
Investment migration is a political product, and governments change the terms.
- Spain abolished its golden visa. The repeal of Articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 took effect on 3 April 2025.
- Portugal removed real estate from its golden visa in 2023 and lengthened the path to citizenship in 2026.
- Ireland closed its Immigrant Investor Programme in 2023. The UK closed its Tier 1 Investor visa in February 2022.
- Malta: on 29 April 2025 the EU Court of Justice ruled that its citizenship programme breached EU law. Malta replaced it with a discretionary merit route.
The pattern matters. A residence permit is renewed periodically, so a policy change can affect existing holders at renewal. Citizenship, once granted, is normally harder to withdraw. But a new citizenship programme can face legal challenge before it settles. Argentina’s is a case in point: on 30 June 2026 the Cámara Nacional Electoral declared DNU 366/2025, the decree behind the programme, unconstitutional. The government has appealed to the Supreme Court. See the legal status briefing.
Latin America’s residence options
Latin America also offers investor residence. Paraguay’s SUACE programme grants permanent residence for a US$70,000 business investment. Brazil’s VIPER permit requires BRL 500,000 in a Brazilian business or BRL 1 million in real estate (BRL 700,000 in the North and Northeast), with a first permit of four years. Both then lead to ordinary naturalisation, with its own residence and language conditions.
Argentina is the region’s only announced citizenship-by-investment programme. See residency vs citizenship in Argentina for Argentina’s own residence routes.
Which do you need?
Ask three questions.
- Do you need a new travel document? If your current passport is weak or exposed to risk, only citizenship solves that.
- Do you want to live in a particular country? If yes, residence may be enough, and it is often the natural first step.
- How long can you wait? If the answer is ten years, a golden visa is a valid route. If it is months, it is not.
Many families end up with both: residence where they want to live, and a second citizenship as insurance. For a structured comparison, see Argentina compared and golden passports explained. Speak to a qualified adviser before you commit.
Sources
- Government of Argentina, programme announcement (2 October 2026): https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/luis-caputo-anuncio-la-puesta-en-marcha-del-programa-de-ciudadania-por-inversion-de
- Decreto 524/2025, Boletín Oficial: https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/329061/20250731
- AP, Argentina pitches golden passport scheme (bond held 7 years): https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/debt-saddled-argentina-pitches-golden-passport-scheme-woo-136953269
- Infobae, bond pays no interest: https://www.infobae.com/economia/2026/10/02/el-gobierno-lanzo-en-paris-un-programa-para-que-extranjeros-puedan-obtener-ciudadania-y-pasaporte-mediante-inversiones-cuanto-cuesta/
- Spain, Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (BOE-A-2025-76), final provision 21 and entry into force: https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2025-76
- Wikipedia, Immigrant investor programs (Portugal, Greece, Ireland, UK): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrant_investor_programs
- PwC Tax Summaries, Argentina taxes on personal income: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/argentina/individual/taxes-on-personal-income
- PwC Tax Summaries, Argentina residence: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/argentina/individual/residence
- OECD, Residence/Citizenship by investment schemes (archived May 2024): http://web.archive.org/web/20240516144916/https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/residence-citizenship-by-investment/
- Global Citizen Solutions, Caribbean CBI comparison: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/caribbean-citizenship-by-investment-comparison/
- Cámara Nacional Electoral ruling (Perfil): https://www.perfil.com/noticias/judiciales/la-camara-nacional-electoral-anulo-el-dnu-de-milei-sobre-ciudadania-y-migraciones-el-fallo-considero-la-medida-inconstitucional.phtml