Visas For The Rich
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose? It’s a game we’ve all played, as kids on a summer afternoon or in late-night chats with adult friends. For a growing number of rich people, the game is real.
Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire businessman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has obtained free movement around the European Union thanks to his new Cypriot passports.
In 2014, Malta’s government introduced a Golden Visa program which has since attracted 1,100 investors and over €850 million. Last week, the island nation’s citizens voted on whether to make changes to the program, but officials say the results won’t be released for weeks.
Money and Russians are pouring into the once-quiet seaside town of Sliema. While there’s no denying that it’s been good for the budget, Maltese citizens are questioning whether it’s been as good for the island.
The rich and famous don’t just flock to Cannes for the film festival — the city also hosts an expo catering to the Golden Visa trade. An OCCRP reporter comes along to see who is selling and who is buying.
Montenegro has welcomed dubious billionaires in the past — but at an international investors’ gathering, the country’s politicians make it crystal clear they’d like more of the world’s super-rich to become Montenegrins.
Australian-born Romy Hawatt is one of many entrepreneurs to have taken advantage of Montenegro's investor citizenship program. Just what does it mean to be a "Global Citizen"?
Portugal’s lax residency requirements attracts all sorts of high-profile investors seeking visa-free travel to the EU. But one parliamentarian is leading the charge for Lisbon to think again.
The fast track to Austrian citizenship can be so opaque it’s been compared to a black hole. To become Austrian, it helps to know the right people — and the right price.
While Austria has no Golden Visa program per se, a vaguely-worded law allows fast naturalization for foreign citizens, but the process isn’t easy, and it certainly isn’t cheap.
After a massive influx of new guests from Russia, Latvia reined in its Golden Visa program. What led to the change of heart?
Investors may be skeptical of making Armenia their second home — but a firm that specializes in Golden Visa programs thinks it's found the answer.
Lithuania once handed out plenty of residence permits to non-EU citizens, allowing them cheap access to the Schengen Zone. But after the annexation of Crimea, all that has begun to change.
Viktor Orban’s opposition to mass migration is well-known. But when it comes to foreigners with large sums of money to invest, Hungary says come on in.
Chinese citizens have been flocking to Hungary. But since public outrage forced the suspension of the country’s Golden Visa program last year, these new guests have begun to wonder if they’ll get their investment back.
Rich people moving to Hungary had to buy a €300,000 government bond from mysterious offshore companies that made a good profit on the deal. The politicians who set those companies up broke all kinds of rules.
Golden Visa programs intended to lure foreign investors to Bulgaria have had mixed results, reporters for OCCRP partner Bivol have discovered. One appears to be a flop, and both are vulnerable to a technicality that could enrich bankers, and not the country.
After 2003 Rose Revolution, Georgia invited everybody in. Now, with anti-immigrant groups staging street demonstrations and threatening spot checks of papers for "foreigners," it looks like the tide has turned.