Immigration Diligence | Rest of World by Invest

As a member state of the EU, Italy offers its residents and citizens a number of benefits including high levels of safety and security, excellent education opportunities, robust healthcare options, and a dependable rule of law. Italy’s diverse climate zones, desirable lifestyle, and cosmopolitan cities, coupled with the country’s favorable tax regimes and growing business economy, have led many wealthy individuals and families to make this beautiful country their second home.

Our global network of partners has been personally vetted to ensure they meet the highest standards of professionalism, transparency, and client care. Each partner boasts a proven track record supporting American investors, including familiarity with U.S. documentation norms, tax considerations, and customer service expectations. This trusted network allows us to coordinate your immigration by investment process smoothly across borders, ensuring you receive reliable guidance at every stage.

Application May Include:

Most programs allow applicants to include close family members under a single application. This typically includes a spouse, dependent children (often up to ages 21–30, depending on the country), and in many cases, financially dependent parents or grandparents. Some programs also permit the inclusion of adult children with disabilities or unmarried partners. Exact rules vary by jurisdiction, but in general, families can secure residency or citizenship together through one unified investment.

Residency Requirement:

Residency requirements for maintaining an immigration by investment visa vary widely, but many programs are designed to be flexible for globally mobile investors. Some European programs require minimal annual presence, often just a few days per year or short periodic visits to keep the permit active. Others, especially citizenship by investment programs, may have no physical residency requirement at all. However, more substantial in-country time is usually needed later if the investor plans to pursue permanent residency or citizenship through naturalization.

Citizenship Requirement:

A pathway to citizenship allows golden visa investors to transition from temporary residency to full citizenship after meeting a country’s requirements. This typically involves maintaining legal residence for a set number of years, demonstrating continuous or periodic physical presence, and meeting integration criteria such as basic language proficiency or cultural knowledge, depending on the jurisdiction. The investor must also keep their qualifying investment in place for the required period. Once these conditions are satisfied, they can apply for citizenship through the standard naturalization process.

Application Processing Time:

Processing times for immigration by investment programs vary significantly depending on the country and the type of investment:

- Antigua & Barbuda: Processing times generally fall in the 3–6 month range. Under heavier application volumes, the full process may stretch to 7–9 months from submission to passport issuance.

- Dominica: In the Caribbean, Dominica is often cited as the quickest, with citizenship applications sometimes approved in as little as 3 months under ideal conditions.

- Italy: The typical timeline from initial application submission to obtaining a residence permit is about 4–6 months, with the permit being issued before the investment is made.

- São Tomé & Príncipe: This new, efficiency-forward citizenship by investment program boasts industry-leading processing times of 6-8 weeks.

Who all can be included

Extend your benefits to your spouse, dependent children, and dependent parents.

Residency Requirement

The Portuguese golden visa residency requirement is very flexible, making it an attractive investment migration option for Americans. You can maintain your residency with just an average of seven days per year in Portugal.

When some countries require investors to stay in the country at least six months per year, Portugal only requires seven days. This allows you to maintain your current lifestyle in the United States while fulfilling the golden visa requirements and working towards citizenship by essentially taking a week-long vacation to Portugal once a year!

Citizenship Requirement

After five years of legal “residency” under the golden visa program, applicants may apply for Portuguese citizenship or permanent residency.

To qualify for citizenship, in addition to fulfilling the five years of investment, applicants must also learn basic Portuguese to an A2 level. However, in lieu of a language test, applicants may also attend 150 hours of virtual Portuguese language lessons from a government-approved language school. Upon completion of the 150 hours, the applicant is considered to have satisfied the language requirement.