Starting January, 2024, the super-popular program of “selling” residence permits to wealthy foreign investors, better known as ‘Golden Visas’, will come to an end in the Netherlands.
The decision was announced by the country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (NLS): “The residence permit for foreign investors will no longer be available from 1 January 2024.”
The Dutch golden visa, introduced in 2013 in an effort to help further growth of the country’s economy — as was the case for most countries offering the investment scheme — requires a substantial contribution of at least €1,250,000 and other strict criteria.
The Dutch conditions
In the case of the Netherlands, the golden visa applies for business development and excludes “investing in real estate for private occupation.”
Among the basic requirements are holding a valid passport or travel document, not posing a risk to public order or national security and undergoing a tuberculosis test upon arrival in the Netherlands.
Other regulations include that the money be invested either in an international company based in the Netherlands, a fund approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a venture company or in a contractual joint venture that invests in a company in the Netherlands, according to Schengenvisa news.
“The Netherlands is not the only country offering such a scheme. Other European countries also offer residency and citizenship programs, with Spain, Portugal and Greece being among the most attractive countries.”
All the conditions can be found here.
Europe’s golden visas are booming
The announcement by multiple European countries to terminate their Golden Visa schemes has, in fact, prompted a boom in the number of applications — in many cases including Spain and Italy, hitting record levels.
“The Netherlands is still accepting golden visa applications, despite having announced plans to terminate the program,” Bloomberg writes. “So is Montenegro. Europe’s citizenship-by-investment programs are alive and well, despite calls from across the political spectrum to end them,” and the business “has been booming at immigration consultancies.”
The surge of demand seems to run in parallel with mounting pressure to abolish such residency-by-investment programs from various European political quarters, and as the European Union tightens its stance on the subject.
Money laundering and tax evasion
Golden Visa programs give wealthy individuals the opportunity to obtain residency permits by investing in local real estate and financial assets and although some, like the Dutch, have strict requirements and exclude investment in real estate, others are more lax, opening the way to strong criticism — among other reasons, for contributing to rising property prices and opening the door to money laundering and tax evasion.
The real estate problem particularly in the most popular cities around Europe have added fuel to the controversy, with the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee calling the scheme “objectionable from an ethical, legal and economic point of view.”
The European Commission “is urging Member States to immediately repeal any existing investor citizenship schemes and to ensure strong checks are in place to address the risks posed by investor residence schemes.”
The problem has been exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia conflict. According to E.U. headquarters in Brussels, the initiative that enables wealthy foreigners to ‘buy’ the right to residency — sometimes without even having to live in the country — have become “a risk to security, permitting money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, corruption and infiltration by organised crime, that is incompatible with E.U. norms.”
Belgian member of the E.U. Parliament Saskia Bricmont has labeled the visas as a way for “oligarchs, criminals, and corrupt politicians” to “buy their way into Europe and launder their money, image, and identity,” as reported by Euronews .
The Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, Didier Reynders has branded the scheme as “illegal:” “European values are not for sale. We consider that the sale of citizenship through ‘golden passports’ is illegal under E.U. law and poses serious risks to our security. All Member States concerned should end their investor citizenship schemes immediately.”
As more countries prepare to abolish their golden visas, buyers are rushing to get in while and where they can.