The Irish Residency Program — An EU/UK sweet-spot?
A few days ago, a client asked me an interesting question- “If you were in my place and didn’t have budgetary constraints, and following residency requirements weren’t an issue, which Residency/Citizenship via investment program would you chose?”
Now anyone who has read my previous posts, or spoken with me knows how much I advocate the Portuguese Golden Visa. It just makes so much sense to me. It’s reasonably priced, and doesn’t require you to spend too much time in Portugal every year in order to be eligible for citizenship.
But considering the question posed to me was “without factoring budgets or stay requirements”, I cannot ignore Ireland’s EUR 1 million Enterprise Investment. It’s an absolutely secure 4-year term investment in an Irish enterprise which is approved by the Irish Immigration Service. Not to mention, Ireland is a predominantly English speaking European country, and if you end up residing there ‘permanently’ for around 4 years, you can actually convert your Residency into Citizenship!
One could come up with a couple of arguments to counter my choice:
- Wouldn’t you rather opt for the U.K. Investor Visa instead? Well, if you really want to live & work only in the U.K., then maybe. For a minimum investment amount starting at GBP 2 million, with which you can only apply for ‘settlement’ after 5 years, would you really want to constrict yourself to just the U.K.? Remember, if you put in less than half the amount, with the same residency requirement and timeline, your Irish passport would give you dual access to both the U.K. & the EU!
- OK, then pay around EUR 1 million for a Maltese Passport? You could do this too. Malta is also considered an ‘english-speaking’ country. I think it is a beautiful place too, but with three layers to the process (viz. property purchase, continuous lease agreements and donations), it is no where as convenient as Ireland. Still slightly better than the U.K. though. Their passport gives you access to a variety of European countries to freely live and work in.
But ultimately, no passport can give you ‘access’ to the European Union and United Kingdom, apart from Ireland. In an ever changing post-Brexit world where economic ‘super powers’, wars and social upheaval are constant occurrences, it is not only important to diversify your investments, but also important to have diversity in your residency options.
As always, get in touch with me to learn more about anything related to migration!
I look forward to hearing from you
