Golden visas represent 0.8% of total residence permits at EU level

In 2018, about 3.2 million first residence permits were issued in the European Union (EU) to non-EU citizens, according to the latest report issued by Eurostat.

EU countries running Golden visas schemes issued a total of 28,193 first residence permits for investments. This number represents only 0.88% of total residence permits issued in the EU for 2018 only to non-EU citizens, according to the rough calculations on the data we collected for the year 2018 and comparing to to the Eurostat data.

Greece, Spain and Portugal issued a large number of residence permits for investments.

Golden visas

These are the figures for first time residence permits issued for golden visa schemes in 2018

• Portugal –  3909 (permits
• Greece – 15,308 (permits)
• Malta – 914  (permits)
• United Kingdom – 966 permits
• Ireland – 54 permits
• Cyprus – 2,800 permits
• Spain – 4,242
• Total: 28,193

In the EU, the regulations of golden visa and citizenship by investment schemes, require issuance of first residence permits. We considered the top golden visa scheme and did not take into account of Italy, Netherlands and other countries where golden visa schemes are running.

Greece

Greece issued a total of 35,571 first residence permits for 2018 according to Eurostat data.  Out of these a total, a staggering 43% of residence permits (15,308) issued for Golden visa investment.

Portugal

Portugal issued a total of 61,741 residence permits in 2018, according to Eurostat data. Out of these a total of 3909 went to golden visa investors. This represents 12% of residence permits granted to golden visa investment.

Malta

Malta issued a total of 17,176 residence permits in 2018.  Malta naturalized a total of 914 persons for citizenship by investments, according to Oriip report. This represents  only 5.3% of the total residence permits issued within the country for IIP.

Cyprus

Cyprus investment scheme is capped at 700 investors per year. The exact numbers of first residence permits unavailable from Government. Assuming a family of 3 members (spouse and 2 children) per investor, this would constitute 2800 residence permits issued under citizenship scheme for investments.

The Eurostat report shows 20,990 first residence permits issued in 2018.  This would represent 13% of residence permits issued for investments in Cyprus with rough calculations.

United Kingdom

The UK has the most popular golden visa scheme in the world.  UK issued entry clearance to 376 (investors) and 590 (family) representing a total of 966 visas under tier1 investor scheme.

Eurostat data shows United Kingdom issued a total of 450,755 residence permits for all categories to non-EU nationals. Thus the residence permits issued for tier1 investments represent only 0.21% of all the first time residence permits issued in the UK

Ireland

Ireland approved only 54 applications under immigrant investor scheme, according to Ministry of Justice data for 2018. There were lot of pending applications in that year.

The Eurostat data shows Ireland issued 49,939 first residence permits.

This means only 0.1% residence permits were issued for investments

Spain

Spain granted a total of 19,328 residence permits under Law 14/2013 to foreigners in 2018. Out of these 21.4% were issued to investors which represents 4,242 for golden visas, according to Ministry of migration, social security and employment

Data from Eurostat, shows a 259,600 first residence permits granted by Spain in total to non-EU citizens.

This represents only 1.6% residence permits issued for investments in Spain.

First Residence permits issued at EU level

Data from Eurostat shows, out of 3.2 million residence permits issued to third country nationals.

• Family reasons accounted for almost 28% of all first residence permits issued in the EU in 2018,
• Employment reasons for 27%,
• Education reasons for 20%,
• while other reasons, including international protection, accounted for 24%

Poland and Germany are the top countries for issuing residence permits to third country nationals

• Poland – 20% of total permits issued in the EU
• Germany  – 17%
• United Kingdom – 14%
• France / Spain –  8%
• Italy – 7%

Compared to the population of each Member State, the highest rates of first resident permits issued in 2018 were recorded in

• Malta  – 35 permits issued per thousand population
• Cyprus – 24 permits issued per thousand population

The Eurostat report is available here