Investment migration glossary
Key concepts of citizenship and residency by investment — concise and jargon-free. Each term links to the programs where it applies.
Bank Reference Letter
A letter from a bank confirming that the applicant is a client of good standing — an element of integrity and source-of-funds vetting.
Biometric Residence Permit
A plastic card containing the holder's biometric data that confirms their right to reside in a country and the validity of that right.
Biometrics
Unique physiological data of an applicant — fingerprints, a facial photograph and sometimes an iris scan — collected to verify identity and issue documents.
Capital Gains Tax
A tax on the profit realised when an asset — such as real estate, securities, or company shares — is sold for more than its purchase price.
CBI (Citizenship by Investment)
Obtaining a passport of a country through a qualifying contribution to its economy.
Certificate of Good Conduct
An official police or justice-authority document confirming the presence or absence of an applicant's criminal record — a baseline requirement of almost every migration program.
Certificate of Naturalization
An official document confirming the acquisition of a country's citizenship through naturalization.
Certificate of tax residency
An official document from a tax authority confirming that a person is treated as its tax resident for a given period.
Citizenship by Descent
Acquisition of citizenship based on kinship with a country's nationals, most often parents or grandparents.
Civics test
An exam on a country's history, system of government, laws and social norms, taken at naturalization and sometimes at the permanent-residence stage.
Common Reporting Standard (CRS)
An international system for the automatic exchange of financial account information between tax authorities, developed by the OECD to counter tax evasion.
Conditional Permanent Residence
A permanent-resident status granted for a set period with conditions that must be met to keep the status without restrictions.
Controlled Foreign Company
A foreign company controlled by a tax resident of another country, whose undistributed profits may be taxed at the level of the controlling person under certain conditions.
Denaturalization
The annulment by a state of a previously acquired (naturalised) citizenship, most often for fraud or concealment of material facts when it was obtained.
Dependent
A dependent is a relative of the main applicant who can be included in the application because they rely on the applicant financially or otherwise.
Digital nomad visa
A permit to live in a country while working remotely for foreign clients or an employer.
Document Legalization (Consular Legalization)
Legalization is the process of authenticating a document so it is recognized in a country that is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention.
Domicile
The legal concept of a person's 'permanent home' — the country they treat as their principal and permanent residence — used in tax and inheritance law.
Double Taxation Treaty
An international agreement between two states that allocates taxing rights over income and prevents the same income from being taxed twice.
Dual citizenship
A legal situation where a person is simultaneously a citizen of two states.
Due diligence
Background screening of an applicant before granting citizenship or residency.
E-2 visa
A US investor visa for citizens of countries that hold a treaty of commerce with the US.
E-Residency
A government-issued digital status that lets a foreigner register and run a business in a country remotely, without granting the right to live there or citizenship.
EB-5 visa
A US immigrant visa for investors that leads to a green card.
Entrepreneur Visa
A residence permit for foreign nationals who start or run their own business in the host country and meet its requirements on capital, jobs or innovation.
Escrow Account
An escrow account is a special account held by an independent third party where funds are kept until agreed conditions of a transaction are met.
Exit tax
A tax a country levies when a person ceases to be its tax resident, usually on the unrealised gain in the value of their assets as at the date of departure.
Expatriation
Moving the centre of one's life outside one's home country and, in a narrow legal sense, giving up citizenship or tax residency upon moving abroad.
Family Reunification
Family reunification is the ability to include family members in an application or bring them to join the main applicant so they can obtain status together or later.
FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act)
A US law requiring foreign financial institutions to report accounts held by US taxpayers to the US tax authorities; it applies regardless of where the person lives.
Financially Independent Person Visa
A residence permit for foreign nationals able to support themselves from passive income or savings without taking up employment in the host country.
Foundation
A self-standing legal entity with no members or shareholders that holds and manages assets for defined purposes or for the benefit of beneficiaries.
Free Zone
A designated area with a special legal and tax regime designed to attract business and investment.
Golden Visa
A common name for residence-by-investment programs, mostly European ones.
Government bonds
Debt securities issued by a state: the investor lends money to the government for a term and is repaid with interest; in some programs, buying approved government bonds is one investment route.
Green Card
A common name for the document confirming permanent-resident status, best known in the context of the United States.
Health Insurance Requirement
A condition of certain residence programs requiring the applicant to hold a valid health insurance policy covering their stay in the host country.
High-net-worth individual (HNWI)
A person whose liquid assets exceed a high notional threshold; such individuals are the core audience for citizenship- and residence-by-investment programs and a focus of tax planning.
Honorary Citizenship
Citizenship granted by a state in recognition of a person's exceptional merits, usually on a discretionary basis and outside standard procedures.
Inheritance Tax
A tax levied on the transfer of assets from a deceased person to their heirs, whose existence and level depend on the country and the relationship between the parties.
Investment fund
A collective vehicle that pools money from many investors and allocates it to assets under a stated strategy; in investment migration, subscribing to units of an approved fund can be one of the accepted investment options.
Investment Threshold
The minimum amount of investment or contribution set by a program as a condition for obtaining resident or citizen status.
Investor Visa
A residence permit — and in some countries a step toward citizenship — granted to a foreign national in exchange for a qualifying investment in the economy.
Joint Application
An application filed by the main applicant together with family members to include them in a single status-acquisition procedure.
Jus Sanguinis (Right of Blood)
A principle by which citizenship passes to a person from their parents, regardless of place of birth.
Jus Soli (Right of Soil)
A principle by which citizenship is granted on the basis of birth within a country's territory.
Language requirement
A statutory condition to prove command of the country's official language, usually applied at the permanent-residence or citizenship stage.
Licensed agent
A company or professional officially authorized by the state to file applications under an investment migration program; in several programs filing is possible only through them.
Long-Term Residence
A long-term residency status granted after an extended period of continuous legal residence, offering enhanced rights that approach those of citizens.
Naturalization
Acquiring citizenship through long-term legal residence in a country.
Non-domiciled (non-dom)
A tax status in which a person lives in a country but is legally treated as having a permanent 'domicile' elsewhere; in some jurisdictions this changes how foreign income is taxed.
Non-Habitual Resident (NHR)
A special tax regime that some countries offer to new tax residents, granting favorable terms on certain types of income for a limited period.
Non-Refundable Contribution
A non-returnable payment to a government fund that serves as one of the participation options in citizenship-by-investment programs.
Oath of Allegiance
A formal pledge of loyalty to a state, taken upon acquiring citizenship as one of the concluding steps of the naturalization procedure.
Offshore Company
A legal entity registered in a jurisdiction outside the country where its owner mainly operates, typically under a favourable tax and regulatory regime.
Ordinarily Resident
A legal concept for a person who lives in a country on a regular, settled basis as part of their normal way of life; used in tax law and access to public services.
Passport Index
A ranking that shows how many countries a passport allows entry to without a prior visa or with simplified formalities.
Passport Ranking
A comparative assessment of passport 'strength' based on the number of destinations their holders can enter without a visa or with simplified entry.
Permanent establishment
A fixed place of business through which a company operates in another country, giving that country the right to tax the profits attributable to it.
Permanent residence
An open-ended resident status: the right to live in a country indefinitely.
Physical Presence Requirement
A physical presence requirement is a condition under which an applicant must spend a certain amount of time in the country to obtain or keep a status or to qualify for citizenship.
Politically Exposed Person (PEP)
A person who holds or has held a prominent public office (or is closely connected to such a person) and is therefore subject to enhanced vetting due to a higher risk of corruption.
Power of Attorney
A legal document by which an applicant authorizes a representative (an agent or lawyer) to act on their behalf in defined matters during the status process.
Processing Time
Processing time is the period from submitting an application to receiving a decision under an immigration or investment program.
RBI (Residence by Investment)
The right to live in a country in exchange for investment in its economy.
Real estate investment
Placing capital into residential or commercial property; in many investment-migration programs, buying qualifying property at a set threshold is one of the main routes to residence or citizenship.
Remittance Basis
A method of taxation under which a non-domiciled resident is taxed on foreign income only to the extent it is brought into the country of residence.
Renunciation of Citizenship
Voluntary termination of a country's citizenship, sometimes required when acquiring the citizenship of another state.
Repatriation
Return to a country of origin with acquisition of its citizenship, available to certain categories of people on ethnic or historical grounds.
Residence permit
A document granting a foreigner the right to legally live in a country for a set period.
Retirement Visa
A long-stay permit that certain countries grant to older foreign nationals who can show a stable pension or other passive income.
Sanctions Screening
The matching of an applicant's data against international and national sanctions and watch lists to exclude persons under restrictions from the process.
Schengen Area
A group of European countries that have abolished routine passport control at their shared borders, allowing free movement between them; a residence permit from one of these countries usually allows short-term travel across the whole area.
Second citizenship
An additional citizenship an investor obtains without giving up the first one.
Settlement
The right to live in a country permanently without a time limit, close in meaning to permanent residence.
Source of Funds
Source of funds is the documented explanation of where an applicant's money used for an investment or contribution comes from.
Stateless person
A person whom no state considers its national under its own law, and who therefore has no national passport or the rights that citizenship carries.
Sworn Translation
An official translation produced by an authorized (sworn/certified) translator, carrying legal force for submission to government authorities.
Tax Clearance Certificate
An official tax-authority document confirming the applicant has no outstanding tax liabilities — evidence of tax compliance.
Tax identification number (TIN)
A unique number a country's tax authority assigns to a person or company for tax record-keeping, required by banks, registries and counterparties.
Tax residency
The status that determines in which country a person pays taxes on their income.
Temporary Residence
A legal status allowing a person to stay in a country for a limited, renewable period, often serving as the first step toward permanent residence and citizenship.
Tie-breaker rules
A sequence of tests in a tax treaty that decides which of two countries a person is resident in when both treat them as a resident under domestic law.
Travel document
An official document for international travel issued in place of a national passport — to stateless persons, refugees or citizens who lost a passport abroad.
Trust
A legal arrangement in which a settlor transfers assets to a trustee to manage for the benefit of beneficiaries.
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