Citizenship

Citizenship by Investment

A Second Citizenship and Passport.

Kestrel Private assesses and coordinates citizenship by investment for private families—from programme selection and due diligence to the qualifying contribution or investment and submission.

Active programmes span São Tomé and Príncipe, the Caribbean, Nauru and Vanuatu — with Argentina and Botswana legislated but not yet open, Botswana awaiting its Regulations and Argentina stalled by a court ruling and a set-aside tender, and both taking waiting-list registrations.

Start assessment

15+ years

advising on residence & citizenship since 2009

30+ countries

private clients advised

€100m+

in client investment facilitated

End to end

the application and acquisition

Why a second citizenship

What a second nationality is actually worth.

Not a passport for its own sake. Six things a family gains that they cannot get from residence alone — and the reasons the families we act for give when they explain the decision to their children.

1. Protection
A second citizenship creates a lawful Plan B if political, security or economic conditions change at home.
2. Children & Legacy
It can widen where children and future generations may live, study, work and build a life.
3. Global Mobility
Stronger travel access reduces visa friction and supports more flexible business and personal travel.
4. Optionality
Families value the freedom to relocate, retire or spend time abroad when circumstances change.
5. Privacy & Structuring
An additional nationality may support broader banking, structuring and tax planning options, subject to individual advice.
6. Permanent Status
Citizenship is typically more durable than residence and may often be passed to future generations.

General information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Entitlements depend on the programme selected and the family’s own circumstances, and are confirmed by admitted local counsel before anything is instructed.

Major change · EU route closedThe EU position · Since 2025

A European passport can no longer be bought — here is what actually happened.

On 29 April 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled, in Commission v Malta (Case C-181/23), that granting nationality in exchange for predetermined payments or investment is incompatible with EU law — it commercialises Union citizenship and breaches the principle of sincere cooperation. Malta was the last EU member operating such a scheme; Cyprus had already closed its programme in 2020 and Bulgaria in 2022. There is no longer a lawful, direct route to acquire EU citizenship by investment. What remains within the Union is narrow and discretionary: citizenship by merit — provided for in Malta’s amended Citizenship Act, and long available in Austria for extraordinary achievement in the interest of the Republic — granted case by case for exceptional contribution, never sold, never guaranteed, and not a programme. For most families, residence remains the accessible, far lower-cost path to a European future.

Nov 2020Cyprus terminates its citizenship-by-investment programme.
2022Bulgaria repeals its investor-citizenship route.
29 Apr 2025The Court of Justice of the EU rules (Commission v Malta, C-181/23) that granting citizenship for investment is incompatible with EU law — ending the last CBI programme in the Union.

Source: Court of Justice of the European Union, Judgment in Case C-181/23 (Commission v Malta), 29 April 2025. The citizenship programmes below remain available outside the EU; for European access, residence is the established route — with discretionary citizenship by merit (Malta, Austria) as the rare, case-by-case exception.

Argentina and Botswana have both put investor-citizenship frameworks into law. Neither has published its final terms, and no application can be filed today — so we quote nothing, hold a waiting list for each, and come back to registrants with the gazetted figures the day they exist.

Upcoming · waiting list

Argentina

Argentina Citizenship by Investment — the investor-naturalisation framework under Decrees 366/2025 and 524/2025; legislated, not open, and now under legal and administrative review

From: To be set
Corridors: Schengen · UK visa-free · not US · Canada
Timeline: Not yet open
Routes: Investment

Explore this route

Upcoming · waiting list

Botswana

Botswana Economic Citizenship — legislated by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2025 (No. 30 of 2025), under implementation and not yet open

From: To be set
Corridors: Not visa-free: Schengen · UK · US · Canada
Timeline: Not yet open
Routes: Contribution

Explore this route

In flux, suspended or closed — shown for completeness

Figures are verified to 2026 against official primary sources and confirmed in writing before you commit to anything. Kestrel instructs and supervises admitted counsel in every jurisdiction we file in, and stays accountable for the file from first meeting to passport in hand.

Suitability

What a second citizenship does not solve.

This is for you if

You want a second permanent legal home, not simply more visa-free destinations.
You want the option in place before a family, political or travel event forces it.
You can evidence source of wealth and source of funds clearly.
You accept that approval is a government decision and cannot be guaranteed.

A citizenship alone will not give you

European residence, or the right to live or work in the EU.
Tax residence anywhere. That depends on where you actually live.
A bank account. Banks run their own onboarding and source-of-funds review.
Asset protection, exchange-control relief or a European property.

Where Europe is part of the objective, a residence permit and the asset behind it are a separate instrument — and we would tell you so rather than sell the passport twice.

Firm leadership

Since 2009, in residence, citizenship and cross-border real estate.

Kestrel Private’s leadership has worked at the centre of government-facing residence and citizenship programmes since 2009 — for private clients across more than thirty countries, and alongside the sovereign programmes of the Caribbean, Cyprus and Malta. We bring that depth to a single, personal relationship.

Filing is carried through the licensed agent each programme requires, with admitted counsel and regulated providers instructed and supervised on your behalf.

Meet the firm & leadership For advisers

Since 2009

in residence & citizenship programmes

30+

client nationalities served

Caribbean · Cyprus · Malta

government programme experience

Cape Town · Limassol · Athens

head office and partner offices

How the engagement works

One relationship, four stages.

Assess and select

What the second nationality must add to the one you hold. If none of the open programmes adds it, we say so.

Source of funds, first

Suitability and source-of-wealth preparation before anything is filed — better to decline early than carry a question into a government file.

File through the licensed channel

Submitted through the agent the programme requires, with due diligence run before commitment rather than after.

Deliver and support

Through to passports in hand, then renewals, additions to the family and the questions that follow.

Stages one and two begin before any engagement: a confidential, no-cost screen of your position against the programmes’ own due-diligence standards — so you know whether a route is genuinely open to you before you commit.

Check eligibility

Timing

The programme you apply under is the one that exists on the day you file.

For residence applications, we generally plan on approximately two to three months to approval and three to six months from instruction to residence card.

Citizenship applications vary more widely. A straightforward application may receive approval within approximately three months, but six to nine months to passport issuance is a more prudent planning assumption.

Programme rules, government fees and processing times can change. We therefore reconfirm the applicable terms immediately before an application is filed.

Neither approval nor timing can be guaranteed.

If this is the position you want, we can start your file.

A first conversation, not a commitment. We establish who needs to be included, what you already hold and what you want the structure to achieve — then tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.

The adviser analysis

Not sure which one is yours?

The assessment starts with the rights your family already holds and where it remains dependent on one jurisdiction. It compares only the programmes that close a genuine gap, and it will tell you if citizenship alone is not the answer.

Start assessment

No cost, no obligation, and no mailing list.

What the analysis weighs

The rights your family already holds
Current passports and residence rights, and where you remain dependent on a single jurisdiction.
What each programme genuinely adds
Mobility, security and optionality measured against your existing position — not a brochure ranking.
The capital and the structure
Contribution or qualifying investment, what is retained as an asset, and the sequence that protects it.
Timeline and the family
Processing reality programme by programme, and who the application should cover from the start.

The European complement

Need a European base as well?

A second citizenship does not give you European residence — that is a separate instrument. Where a family wants a foothold inside the Union as well, Cyprus is usually the fastest way to hold one, and it can run alongside a citizenship application rather than after it.

€300,000 + VAT — a qualifying new-build, which you continue to own
Permanent residency, not a renewable permit · approximately 3–6 months
Cyprus is an EU member but not in the Schengen Area. Accession is EU-backed and expected, but it needs a unanimous Council vote, has no confirmed date and cannot be guaranteed.
One visit every two years to maintain it — no obligation to relocate

Explore Cyprus residence

Cyprus

Limassol · Paphos · Ayia Napa · Protaras

Citizenship by Investment

What a second nationality is actually worth.

1. Protection

2. Children & Legacy

3. Global Mobility

4. Optionality

5. Privacy & Structuring

6. Permanent Status

A European passport can no longer be bought — here is what actually happened.

The programmes we place families on.

São Tomé & Príncipe

Grenada

St Kitts and Nevis

Antigua and Barbuda

Dominica

Saint Lucia

Vanuatu

Nauru

Legislated, not yet open. The waiting lists are.