Europe’s top court shut down the last direct path from investment to an EU passport in 2025. Every golden visa remaining buys residency — and the gap between that and citizenship has never mattered more.
What’s actually still open, and what each one buys
As of mid-2026, eight European countries still operate active golden visa programs: Portugal, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, and Cyprus. Spain, Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands have all exited since 2022, and the routes that remain look genuinely different from the property-for-residency model most people still picture when they hear “golden visa.”
Portugal removed real estate entirely back in October 2023 — current options run through fund investments, cultural or heritage contributions, or business investment creating at least ten jobs. Greece remains the strongest property-led route left standing, though its pricing now runs on a three-tier zone system: €250,000, €400,000, or €800,000 depending on whether the property sits in a standard area or a prime zone like central Athens or the islands. Italy’s route isn’t property-based at all — it runs through startups, government bonds, or philanthropic contribution, alongside a separate flat-tax regime for new residents that’s repriced rapidly, from €100,000 to €200,000 in August 2024 and again to €300,000 in January 2026. Hungary operates under a newer Guest Investor framework many older comparison guides still miss entirely. Cyprus and Malta both now offer permanent residence rather than any direct citizenship route — Malta’s Permanent Residence Programme totals roughly €690,000 combining a government contribution, donation, and property requirement, a genuinely different and more expensive proposition than its old citizenship scheme ever was.
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LEARN MORELatvia is worth flagging as actively closing: its parliament voted in June 2026 to abolish the property, government-securities, and bank-deposit routes from January 1, 2027, and while the bill has been sent back for a second reading, investors are treating the deadline as a real countdown rather than a false alarm.
The citizenship timeline reality most people underestimate
This is where the “second passport” framing genuinely breaks down against 2026’s actual rules. Portugal doubled its naturalization residency requirement from five years to ten in May 2026 — a dramatic, recent change that upends years of prior planning built around the old five-year timeline. Greece, by contrast, currently offers the fastest structural path among the major programs, at seven years of continuous residency plus a Greek language requirement — genuine residency, not simply holding a permit while living elsewhere.
Italy rewards actual relocation rather than passive investment specifically, meaning its path to citizenship assumes real, lived presence in the country rather than the minimal-visit model some other programs still tolerate. Hungary and Latvia offer comparatively easier long-term residency but a considerably harder, slower path to actual citizenship — a real distinction worth understanding before assuming residency automatically compounds into a passport on a predictable schedule anywhere in this list.
Physical presence requirements vary enormously — and this changes everything
For anyone weighing these programs primarily as a flexible, low-commitment safety net rather than an active relocation, physical presence requirements are the detail that actually determines which program fits. Portugal requires just seven days a year on average — genuinely minimal, and part of why it remains the most popular route for investors who want EU residency rights without meaningfully relocating their actual life. Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, and Italy’s investor routes require zero physical presence at all to maintain residency status. Cyprus sits in between, requiring just one visit every two years.
The honest tension worth naming directly: the programs with the lowest physical presence requirements are frequently the same ones where citizenship, when it eventually arrives, requires genuine years of actual residence — meaning a golden visa optimized purely for minimal physical presence may never convert into citizenship at all unless the investor’s actual life circumstances change substantially down the line.
The processing time trap
Advertised program timelines and real-world processing speed are two genuinely different things, and the gap is large enough to reshape a relocation timeline entirely. Hungary and Cyprus process applications fastest, typically within two to three months. Portugal, by contrast, currently carries a documented backlog averaging 39.6 months — well over three years from application to approval, a figure that should reshape expectations for anyone assuming Portugal’s program moves at a similar pace to its European peers simply because both fall under the same “golden visa” label.
What the numbers say about cost and tax
Latvia currently offers the lowest entry point in Europe at €50,000 through a business investment route — though its 2027 closure timeline makes it a genuinely time-limited option rather than a stable long-term choice. Bulgaria stands out as the only European program granting immediate permanent residency rather than a multi-year pathway, at a €512,000 investment, paired with the lowest tax rate on this list — a flat 10% on both personal income and corporate tax for residents.
What this means for actually choosing a program
The practical framework depends entirely on what the investment is actually meant to accomplish, and the honest answer for most applicants in 2026 has shifted from a purely financial calculation toward something closer to a genuine lifestyle and relocation decision. For minimal physical presence with real EU access, Portugal remains the standard choice, provided the processing backlog and new ten-year citizenship timeline are both genuinely acceptable. For the fastest realistic path to an actual EU passport, Greece’s seven-year residency route currently leads the field. For investors prioritizing genuine relocation and willing to build real ties to the country, Italy’s system rewards exactly that. And for anyone whose priority is speed of the residency permit itself rather than the eventual passport, Hungary and Cyprus process faster than any other option on this list.
I’ve written separately about the related tax planning questions for anyone specifically considering Portugal, in my breakdown of Portugal‘s post-NHR tax regime, and about the broader property mechanics behind these programs in my primer on buying a second home in Europe — both worth reading alongside this piece, since the golden visa decision, the tax planning decision, and the pure real estate decision are now, in nearly every country on this list, three genuinely separate questions rather than one bundled transaction the way they often were a decade ago.
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