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Comment by wodenokoto | Hacker News Reader

How does this compare to similar schemes in other countries? I believe Portugal is a popular destination for acquiring EU Passport. The UAE also has a golden visa, but it is not a path to citizenship or a passport.

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In the EU 'golden visa' schemes are typically about investing a particular amount in the economy of the country. Exact amounts vary, but it's usually along the lines of x00,000 euro in property in the country (mortgage free value) or x00,000 euro in government bonds or x00,000 euro in a business within the country

Usually this gets you residency for some years conditional on the investment staying within the country, and potentially a path to citizenship after some years of living in the country.

Sounds similar to USA's existing immigrant investor visas (eg: EB 5):

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrat...

The 15K application fee for background checks seems like a good idea. The Turkish program for citizenship by investment attracted many global crime syndicate members because apparently there were no proper background checks and you are allowed to pick a new name when you acquire the Turkish citizenship. Suddenly world class drug or illegal gambling kingpins turned into a businessmen from Turkey, over the years there were many many high profile scandals, murders etc and apparently they integrated their business into their new country too. Some speculate that has happened knowingly because at the same time the Turkish government reduced the money flow check and even started a program where you can just launder your money by paying some small tax. They din’t ask you questions where that money came from if you pay the tax. So you can get your drug cartel money into the bank banking system.

These days they are trying to clean up the mess they created a few years but it did help to keep the economy afloat when they were doing economically ridiculous but ideologically and politically motivated things.

Malta is especially famous for that in the EU by essentially selling EU citizenship. But the EU has recently pushed back through the ECJ, which ruled the scheme illegal.

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