EU Passport by Investment Advisory Services Show You the Residence Routes That Still Work

The Judgment

On 29 April 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided Case C-181/23, Commission v Malta.

What It Decided

• Granting nationality in exchange for predetermined payments commercialises Union citizenship.
• The practice breaches Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union, covering sincere cooperation.
• Member states must require a genuine connection, not merely a transaction
• Mutual trust between states cannot survive nationality being treated as a commodity

What Followed

Malta repealed the arrangement during July 2025, removing every reference to investor citizenship from its statute book. Since it had been the final member state operating such an arrangement, the category ceased to exist across the bloc.

The Merit Pathway

A discretionary route rewarding exceptional contribution to the country or to humanity, introduced through 2025 amendments.

What It Is Not

• No published financial threshold exists
• Money alone does not constitute merit
• Ministerial discretion governs the outcome
• No guaranteed result attaches to any level of contribution

Permanent Residence in Malta

A separate arrangement remains active and grants residence rather than nationality. It suits people wanting a Maltese base, and it starts the naturalisation clock rather than skipping it.

Residence First, Naturalisation Later

The realistic path for almost everyone. Acquire lawful residence through a qualifying arrangement, live there genuinely, satisfy language and integration conditions, then naturalise. Years rather than months.

Descent

Where a parent or grandparent held nationality of a member state, a claim may exist independently of any investment. Several countries tightened these rules recently, so eligibility that existed a few years ago may not survive current tests.

Marriage

Spouses of nationals follow separate, generally shorter, timelines in most member states.

Portugal

Retains an investment-linked residence arrangement, though the property route was withdrawn in 2023, leaving fund subscriptions, job creation and cultural contribution. Naturalisation periods have been under active revision, so confirm the current position before planning around any published figure.

Greece

Tiered property thresholds of €800,000, €400,000 or €250,000 depending on location and category, with no obligation to spend time in the country. That last feature is attractive for mobility and unhelpful for naturalisation, since absence builds nothing.

Italy

An investor route covering innovative startups, established companies, government bonds and philanthropic giving. Naturalisation for non-EU nationals takes a decade. Descent rules were narrowed during 2025.

Malta

Permanent residence available on published terms, with naturalisation following genuine settlement.

Cyprus

A €300,000 property threshold, the lowest among the comparable arrangements, with a visit required only once every two years.

Claims to Watch For

• Any offer of a European nationality within months
• Quoted prices for a passport rather than for professional work
• Descriptions of the Malta merit route as purchasable
• Silence about language and presence conditions

What Good Advice Looks Like

• A written assessment of your eligibility before you pay anything substantial
• Honest timelines measured in years
• Tax modelling alongside the application

Handled by C. Savva & Associates

• Assessment across jurisdictions, including telling you when none fits
• Route selection weighed against your tax position, not only entry cost
• Structuring the qualifying investment and its funding trail
• Source of wealth documentation
• Coordination of local counsel wherever the file sits
• Cross-border tax planning through the whole holding period
• Naturalisation timeline management

Retained by You

• Actually living somewhere, where the route requires it
• Achieving the language level
• Funding the qualifying arrangement and professional costs
• Full disclosure of your financial position and any prior refusals

None, since April 2025. The Court of Justice ended the last such arrangement, and no member state may lawfully operate a replacement. What remains are residence arrangements that begin a naturalisation clock rather than bypassing it. Judged on entry cost alone, Cyprus sets the lowest property threshold among comparable options at €300,000. Judged on total time to a passport, the answer differs entirely and depends on where you are willing to live genuinely.

Not within the union. Outside it, several European states operate their own arrangements, and Caribbean programmes remain fully legal with processing measured in months rather than years. None of those confers free movement rights across member states, which is usually the point of the question. Anyone marketing a European Union nationality for a fixed sum in 2026 is either working from outdated material or misrepresenting what they can deliver.

The category no longer exists, so the question has no current answer. Reframed as the cheapest route to eventual naturalisation, the calculation involves entry threshold, holding costs, tax exposure over the qualifying years, and how many years each jurisdiction demands. A low entry price paired with a decade of worldwide taxation frequently costs more overall than a higher threshold in a territorial system. We model the total rather than the headline.

Descent, where it applies, costs almost nothing beyond document retrieval and professional fees. Check whether a parent or grandparent held nationality of a member state before considering anything else, though several countries narrowed these rules recently. Marriage to a national is the next shortest path. Failing both, residence followed by naturalisation is the remaining option, and its cost depends far more on where you choose to live than on any application fee.

Realistically, no. Naturalisation everywhere tests genuine presence through tax filings, school records, utility consumption and travel history. Some residence arrangements impose no minimum stay, which suits people wanting mobility, but those same absences mean the qualifying years never accumulate. Anyone whose objective is a passport rather than a base must plan around actually relocating for a period. That is the trade-off the discontinued arrangements existed to avoid.

Files lodged under the discontinued Maltese arrangement before its repeal require individual assessment, and nationality already granted is unaffected. Where an application was in progress, the position depends on its stage at the point of repeal and on what the authorities determined afterwards. Bring the correspondence to us, and we will establish where matters stand, then map alternatives. Sums already committed to property or funds can often be redirected toward a route that still functions.