“Golden passport” Montenegro: conditions of the investment program of citizenship acquisition

Reasons for extending the Montenegrin citizenship program for investors and new conditions for participation

How to obtain Montenegrin citizenship for investments until the end of 2022 and why is it relevant now? Updated conditions of the program and benefits for foreign investors. List of costs for participants.

About the extension for 12 months of the Montenegrin citizenship program, which began in 2019, the authorities announced at the end of last year. Initially, the project of obtaining “Golden Passports” of the country was developed for 3 years, but for various reasons its full-fledged implementation began only in 2020. The closure of borders due to the coronavirus pandemic also significantly reduced the timeframe of its work. As a result, the declared quota of 2,000 families was not even half selected by the end of the program.

As of mid-January 2022, the adopted changes officially went into effect. 

” How did the innovations affect investors wishing to participate?

Reasons for the extension of the Montenegrin citizenship for investment program

Despite the negative assessment of the European Commission on the decision of the authorities to extend the program of citizenship of Montenegro through investments for 2022, the government has evaluated this project in terms of benefits for the economy. There are 3 objective reasons for this.

• The desire to rebuild the economy of Montenegro through foreign investments in the crisis post-pandemic period.
• Increase in demand among foreign investors. Analyzing the results of the project in figures, the government concluded that the program interested significantly fewer applicants for the Golden Passport than expected. In the first 2 years, only 131 applications were approved. By the end of 2021, the number of potential applicants for citizenship reached 700. The low demand for the investment option initiative is due to the fact that Montenegro is not yet a member of the European Union. Now that the country claims to be a member of the community by 2025, the attention of investors to it has multiplied. An additional bonus of the country's passport can be considered the possibility of visa-free travel between Schengen countries.
• New jobs. Not only investors, but also Montenegrins themselves have a direct interest in the construction projects. For them it is about 2200 new jobs in the construction of new real estate projects approved by the authorities. We are talking about the construction of hotels in the areas of premium resorts.

All this together served as the basis for a unanimous decision to extend the program, especially since since the second half of 2021, there is a positive trend of increasing interest. 

Conditions of participation in the program of citizenship of Montenegro for investment and innovations

According to the new rules, in order to obtain Montenegrin citizenship for investment, applicants, as before, must fulfill 2 mandatory conditions:

• make a non-refundable contribution to the state fund;
• purchase a share or apartments in real estate projects of tourist destination, approved by the state.

There are not so many changes in the program, they mainly concern the cost of participation. Now for investors it has become much more expensive. So last year the total cost of the average family to purchase real estate in the south of Montenegro amounted to about 650 000 €, and in the north - 450 000 €. Now the minimum investment threshold for the entire country has risen by another 100 000 €. Positive moment - if desired, the invested funds can be returned after 5 years with the preservation of the “Golden Passport”.

The amount of grants to the state fund on a gratuitous basis has also increased. Now it is 200 000 €. Thinking about the expediency of investments, it is impossible not to mention the additional costs, the amount of which depends on the composition of the family. These are fees, administrative fees and taxes, as well as the cost of verifying the reliability of the investor. On average, it amounts to about 100,000€.

Positive changes have been made to the list of documents to be submitted by the investor. According to the new requirements, the applicant and his family members no longer need to provide numerous medical certificates. Also, for the investor's adult children up to 28 years of age who are dependent on him, a notarized statement on the maintenance of an adult child is sufficient. Now the list of documents includes only:

• internal passport and passport of the applicant and all adult members of his family;
• children's birth certificates;
• marriage/divorce certificate;
• certificate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on absence of criminal record;
• education diploma;
• bank account statement of the investor;
• documents confirming the legal origin of wealth.

All this greatly simplifies the procedure of obtaining Montenegrin citizenship for investment. Collection of documents and consideration of the case on time takes about 1-2 months. It will not be possible to submit documents independently. To do this, you will need to contact one of the 3 existing licensed agencies.

Advantages of the “Golden Passport” of Montenegro ”

First, it is worth saying that Montenegro is a country with a mild climate and favorable geographical location. To live near the mountains and the sea is the dream of many wealthy foreigners.

Also to the advantages of citizenship can be attributed the following arguments:

1. The opportunity to become a citizen of an EU accession candidate country. This means that today's investors in the future will have all the civil rights that are currently enjoyed by residents of other EU countries.
2. The possibility of visa-free visits to Schengen countries. However, for this purpose from the beginning of 2023 it will be necessary to obtain a special electronic authorization 96 hours before the planned departure. The innovation is connected with the introduction of the ETIAS online system.
3. The possibility of obtaining a stable passive income from renting out the purchased property. The yield varies from 2 to 6% per year. At the same time, the investor can go to premium resorts on vacation himself for a couple of weeks or even a month.

All this makes the Montenegro program as attractive as possible.

Today, the program of citizenship of Montenegro for investment is one of the few remaining, which allows investors to quickly become passport holders of the European state through direct investment.

In case of refusal, the client is refunded the amount invested in the investment project and subsidies to the state fund. However, you should not worry. Our lawyers know from experience that the authorities of Montenegro are loyal to applicants for citizenship. In practice, passports are approved even to investors who have previously been denied by other countries to participate in similar programs. First of all, it concerns the issues of origin of funds.

For example, the authorities reviewing a customer's credibility may question the movement of funds if they are deposited into an account shortly before payment is due. This may be money from the sale of real estate or a business that was in a safe deposit box or safe deposit box. Such clients are usually not refused in Montenegro.

Do you want to really assess your chances and select the most promising projects to participate in the program of citizenship of Montenegro through investment in 2022? Contact the experts of the licensed agency GARANT.in. We provide a wide range of services in the field of consulting and legal support of transactions. With us you save your time and resources!

Egyptians became the first holders of investment citizenship of Montenegro after investing in Kolasin.

The government of Montenegro for the first time in history approved an application for citizenship for investments in the country. The first citizen investors - a family of Egyptian origin - are clients of Arton Capital, one of the three official intermediaries of the program (the other two being Henley & Partners and Apex Capital Partners). Arton Capital was also the first agency to apply for the program last October 3.

“We were pleased to submit the very first application under the new program, and humbly acknowledge that our client was the first to be approved,” said Armand Arton, founder and president of Arton Capital, according to the company's website.

It also says it took 95 days to process, although it is unclear how that number was calculated since October 3 was 133 days ago. Presumably, processing did not begin until some time after the application was submitted. Now that the program's critical infrastructure is fully operational, processing subsequent applications will likely take no more than three months from the time of submission. Arton Capital also reports that “numerous other applications are in the pipeline.”

According to the firm, the applicant was granted citizenship for his investment in the Westin Hotels in Colascina, the first officially approved development project. Since then, the list of approved projects has grown to four, with another 7-10 projects reportedly close to approval, according to stakeholders.

Along with Montenegrin citizenship, the investor and his family have more than doubled freedom of movement, from 61 countries with visa-free entry on Egyptian passports to 134 today, notes Arton Capital.