Cyprus has tightened the conditions for granting citizenship by investment

The Cypriot government has approved tightening the conditions of the citizenship by investment program, also known as the golden passport program. The investment threshold for obtaining citizenship is raised from €2 million to €2.5 million, and in addition to it, a mandatory donation of €150,000 to Cypriot public funds is introduced.

More. On Wednesday, February 13, the Minister of Finance of Cyprus, Haris Georgiadis, announced a change in the terms of the investment program, writes The New York Times . in detail about the new conditions The Cypriot edition of the Financial Mirror tells .

• The selection of candidates for Cypriot citizenship will become more stringent: people who have been denied citizenship of other EU countries will no longer be able to participate in the program.
• The investment threshold for participation in the program will be raised by €500,000, from €2 million to €2.5 million .
• Applicants will be required to make an additional non-refundable contribution of €150,000 – half will go to the state fund for research and innovation, and half to the affordable housing program for Cypriot citizens.

Under the current conditions, Cypriot citizenship can be obtained by investing at least 2 million euros in residential or commercial real estate, investing them in a business in Cyprus, or buying government bonds for the same amount. You can use the program only if you own a property in Cyprus worth at least 500,000 euros.

The "citizenship by investment" program in recent years has given almost a quarter of all transactions in the real estate and construction market in Cyprus, writes Cyprus Mail . It has approved 1,864 applications since 2013, some of which included family members. The investment amounted to €6.6 billion.

What do consultants think? The changes come into effect on May 15, so potential investors have three months to take advantage of the program at the old cost, says Irina Simonyan, Marketing Director of Henley & Partners. According to her, the innovations will not affect those who have already applied for participation in the program. Even with the changes, the program will remain the most convenient and fastest in the European Union, Simonyan adds.

Despite the innovations, the Cypriot program is still more attractive than the Maltese one , which is its main competitor, adds Alexander Zakharov, partner of Paragon Advice Group. The volume of non-refundable investments in Malta is 650,000 euros, and in Cyprus, subject to changes, 150,000 euros. At the same time, the logic of the programs is similar, notes Zakharov: in both cases, non-repayable investments are needed to reduce social tension due to investment programs.

Context. to increase the transparency of programs for obtaining citizenship and residence permits through investment from Cyprus and other EU countries The European Commission demanded . Cyprus is one of only three EU countries that continue to operate citizenship by investment programs. The other two are Malta and Bulgaria.

Cypriot citizenship is one of the most popular among Russian businessmen. Oleg Deripaska recently received it. The citizenship of Malta, for example, is held by the founder and co-owner of Yandex Arkady Volozh and the former owner of O1 Properties Boris Mints and his family members.

According to Knight Frank at the beginning of 2018, 58% of Russians with a capital of $50 million or more had a second passport or dual citizenship.

Anastasia Stogney, Sergey Smirnov