A parent and two children at the edge of a turquoise Caribbean lagoon

Nobody regulates this industry. I don’t work that way.

The freedom to go.
The choice to stay.

Residency and citizenship in 28 jurisdictions — funded without selling what you own.

Work with a Chartered Wealth Manager Or just explore the 28 programmes

Before the programme, the order

Most people buy the visa first. That is the expensive order.

Same programme, same money, same passport at the end. What changes is everything you still own when you get there.

The usual order

1Choose a programme
2Sell assets to fund it
3Pay whatever tax the sale triggers
4The capital is committed for years

Residency, and a smaller portfolio.

The order that keeps the money working

1Build the portfolio first
2Borrow against it
3Buy the programme with the facility
4Nothing is sold, so nothing is crystallised

Residency, and the portfolio still compounding.

The first two steps are investment decisions. The immigration agent arrives at the third, which is why this desk is run by a Chartered Wealth Manager rather than a migration consultant.

Golden limestone cliffs and sea stacks above turquoise water at Praia de Dona Ana, Lagos, on the Algarve coast

Portugal · Golden Visa

The Algarve coast, and seven days a year in the country.

View the programme →

The part nobody quotes you for

Nobody can fix the wait. You can avoid it costing you.

The problem

Up to thirteen years to the passport.

Apply and fund the investmentDay one
Wait for a biometrics appointment12 months or more
First card issues — the five-year clock only starts here18 to 36 months
Five years resident. Eligible to APPLY for permanent residence6.5 to 8 yrs
Permanent residence granted. Earliest the investment is released8 to 10 yrs
Ten years resident. Citizenship, and the capital is certainly free11.5 to 13 yrs

Nobody buys Portugal for the permit. The card alone can take three years, and the €500,000 sits in a Portuguese fund for eight to ten of them.

The answer

Borrow against your portfolio, de-risk from changes and get a dual return.

€569,849

better off after 10 years than paying cash — and the same figure whether the fund does well or badly.

01 — De-risked from rule changes

Portugal doubled its citizenship wait to ten years in May 2026, retroactively. Borrowed into an open-ended fund, you redeem, repay and move.

02 — A dual return

Two engines on one pot of capital: the portfolio you never sold keeps compounding alongside the fund.

03 — Protected if the fund underperforms

A fund that goes nowhere costs you only the fund. The gap between borrowing and selling does not move.

Run your own numbers →

Clear turquoise water between white limestone cliffs and sea arches at the Crystal Lagoon, Comino

Malta · Citizenship by Investment

An EU passport, in 14 to 16 months.

View the programme →

Funding the investment

Borrow against the portfolio. Don’t sell it.

Both columns get the qualifying capital back at the end, and neither is credited with a return on it. Whatever the fund does, it does for both.

Qualifying capital

Horizon10 years

Portfolio growth8% a year

Facility rate3%

50% loan to value. 50% of the portfolio assumed to be embedded gain taxed at 20%. Illustrative, not a forecast.

€569,849

better off after 10 years than paying cash — and the same figure whether the fund does well or badly.

Borrowed against the portfolio€2,083,689

Paid cash€1,513,840

Common to bothWhat the facility is worth

Raised: €518,608; borrowed, not sold
Tax triggered: None; vs €57,623 if sold
Still invested: €1,037,216; vs €460,985 if sold
Interest paid: €155,582; 3% over 10 years

The risk is a margin call. A deep enough fall and the lender wants more collateral. You are told that level before you sign, and if it is not a level you can live with, this is the wrong structure for you.

A wooden schooner and a catamaran at anchor in turquoise water below the cliffs of Kleftiko, Milos

Greece · Golden Visa

Swim before lunch. No minimum stay, from €250,000.

View the programme →

Why this is worth paying for

Greece qualifies at €250,000. You will be quoted more.

What you are quoted

€280,000

A price seen in the market

A typical quote on a conversion or restoration property marketed to golden-visa buyers.

What actually qualifies

€250,000

The statutory threshold

Art. 100(2)(c) and (d). The statutory threshold. A property at this figure earns the identical permit.

The difference

€30,000

Paid by you, earned by the seller

It buys you nothing. The permit, the timeline and the renewal are identical either way.

Nobody earning it has a reason to mention it.

Identical either way

·The same five-year permit, renewable
·No minimum stay, under Art. 100(4)
·Spouse, children under 21 and both sets of parents
·The same Schengen travel

The catch, stated

—Works complete before filing, and after 5 April 2024
—Once per property
—Single property, and not a business seat
—No short-term letting: revocation plus a €50,000 fine

€250,000 is the statutory threshold, checked 2026-09-12: Law 5038/2023 Art. 100(2)(c) and (d) as amended by Art. 64 of Law 5100/2024; Ministry of Migration Circular 1/21.04.2026, which is the operative guidance on the €250,000 categories and the once-per-property rule. €280,000 is a price seen in the market, not a figure from the legislation and not the practice of any named firm. Confirm any route with Greek counsel before committing to it.

A crescent of white sand and palms around a turquoise bay with yachts at anchor

Grenada · Citizenship by Investment

Turquoise water, and the E-2 treaty to the US, from $235,000.

View the programme →

Why this desk

A salesman cannot tell you not to buy.

A consultant is paid when you buy. I am paid whether you do or not. Not dishonesty — arithmetic, and everything below follows from it.

This desk

Paid by you

A Chartered Wealth Manager with postgraduate qualifications in finance and law, tied to no programme, bank or developer.

So the answer is allowed to be no.

A typical consultant

Paid by the programme

No financial qualifications required, and rarely held. Their fee depends on you buying the thing they are placing.

So the answer is always yes.

This desk

A typical consultant

What they are

This desk

A Chartered Wealth Manager, CISI Level 7, with postgraduate qualifications in finance and law

A typical consultant

A salesperson. No financial qualification is required to do this work, and one is rarely held

Who pays them

This desk

You do. A stated fee, agreed before anything starts

A typical consultant

The programme does, out of the price you are quoted

What "do not do this" costs them

This desk

Nothing. The fee is the same either way, which is what lets me say it

A typical consultant

Their entire fee. It is the one answer that pays them nothing

What is covered

This desk

Holistic independent financial advice, your programme of choice and financing options

A typical consultant

No advice, their choice, no financing options

What you can see

This desk

The fee, in advance, in writing. Nothing else is taken from anywhere

A typical consultant

Nothing. The commission is already inside the price they quote you

Who I answer to

This desk

You. Tied to no programme, bank or developer

A typical consultant

The programme paying the commission

Who carries the regulated advice

This desk

FCA-authorised firms, or their local equivalent, named before you commit

A typical consultant

Frequently nobody

Almost none of my clients intend to emigrate. They are buying the option, not the move — and an option is the kind of purchase where the right answer is quite often no. You will not hear that from someone whose fee depends on yes.

Qualifications

MSc Wealth Management, CISI Level 7 (RDR)CISI, United Kingdom
MSc Global FinanceCity, University of London
Postgraduate Diploma, Financial PlanningUniversity of the Free State
Postgraduate Diploma, Investment Analysis & Portfolio ManagementUNISA
LLB, Bachelor of LawsUNISA

Advising on the loan and the pledged portfolio is a regulated activity, so it is carried out by an FCA-authorised firm — or the equivalent regulator in your jurisdiction — named to you before you commit. Advising on the visa application itself generally is not regulated, which is how the rest of this market operates with no qualifications at all.

The Matterhorn rising above snow-covered Alpine peaks under a blue winter sky

Switzerland · Residence by investment

The Matterhorn from the window, taxed on what you spend.

View the programme →

What the fee is for

Four things go wrong. Here is what I do about each.

Problem 1

The capital is committed for the best part of a decade

11.5 to 13 yrs to a Portuguese passport, and the investment is not certainly free until 8 to 10 yrs. Nobody can shorten that queue.

What I do

Borrow against the portfolio instead of selling it

The qualifying money is raised as credit secured on assets you keep. Nothing is liquidated, so the portfolio compounds through the whole wait.

How the facility works →

Problem 2

The commission is already inside the price you are quoted

Grenada publishes the split: 15% of the headline is the agent allocation. Most programmes do not publish it, which does not mean it is absent.

What I do

One fee, stated before you commit, paid by you

Nothing is taken from any programme, fund, developer or bank. That is also why the answer can be that none of this suits you.

What it costs →

Problem 3

The funds you are asked to commit to have no track record

Not one fund built for Portugal's programme has a five-year record. The oldest is 4.7 years old, and most publish no return at all.

What I do

The record, published and dated

Every eligible fund, its manager, its launch date and its return where one exists — including the ones in the red.

See the tracker →

Problem 4

You may not need a golden visa at all

A route asking for income rather than capital can reach the same residence for no qualifying investment, and nobody selling a programme has a reason to raise it.

What I do

5 routes that ask for no capital, written up in full

Thresholds, tax treatment and what each one does not give you. I am paid nothing to place any of them.

Read the routes →

A road lined with cypress trees winding through green Tuscan hills to a farmhouse at sunset, near Asciano

Italy · Investor Visa

Evening in the Tuscan hills, from €250,000.

View the programme →

How this works

Three ways to pay me. None of them a commission.

Three ways in. The first costs nothing up front. What changes is who runs the application and whether I manage the money — not the advice.

An ongoing arrangement

Assets Under Management Model

Nothing up front

1% annual fee to manage the portfolio

Everything in Completion — the $10,000 work, at no charge
The programme run end to end, to the permit
Portfolio managed alongside it
Financial planning included
Ongoing — you can leave whenever you like

Have it managed — nothing up front

Explore →

The same work the $10,000 fee buys — route selection, the financing modelled, the agent appointed and managed, the application run to the permit — and none of it charged for. The portfolio moves into management at 1% of the portfolio a year, and that is what pays for it. It suits someone who wants the money looked after anyway and would rather not write a separate cheque for the residency on top. You are not locked in: the arrangement ends when you say so.

A one-off engagement

Fee Based Model

$10,000

Paid once. Nothing recurring

The programme run end to end, to the permit
Licensed agent appointed and managed for you
Your portfolio stays exactly where it is
No management relationship, no ongoing fee
No clock on it — fourteen months costs what four does

Explore →

Paid once, with no management relationship and nothing recurring. For somebody who wants the programme dealt with and their money left exactly where it is. If you would rather do the work yourself, the build track is free and does not run out.

Before you decide

Assessment Call

$100

30 minutes, one to one

Which programmes you actually qualify for
Whether to borrow against the portfolio or sell
Whether a cheaper visa gets you the same thing
An honest no, where the answer is no
Credited against either of the above

Explore →

Half an hour to work out whether any of this is worth doing, and which of the two above fits, before committing to either. Credited against whichever you go on to choose within thirty days.

Not ready for any of those? Build the specification yourself, free — describe your position and the tool sizes the facility, shows indicative Swiss rates and hands you the result. It does not give advice and never names a holding.

The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in golden evening light, the Bosphorus and the Asian shore of Istanbul beyond

Turkey · Citizenship by Investment

Sultanahmet at golden hour, and a second passport from $400,000.

View the programme →

Before you spend €500,000

You may not need a Golden Visa at all.

Portugal’s D7 asks for €11,040 a year of passive income instead of €500,000 of capital — the same ten years to citizenship, but you have to actually live there.

Golden Visa

€500,000

of capital

Into a qualifying investment fund, exposed to its performance.

About 7 days a year in Portugal.

D7 — passive income

€11,040

a year of income

€920 a month of pensions, rent, dividends or interest. No capital at risk.

You have to live there.

The only question that decides it

Do you want to move to Portugal, or do you want the option to?

If you genuinely intend to move, take the D7 and keep your €500,000. If you want the option without rearranging your life, the D7 cannot give it to you at any price — you would lose the permit. Only one of these two routes pays a commission, which is why you rarely see them side by side.

Autumn trees around the lake in Central Park, the San Remo towers and the Manhattan skyline behind

United States · EB-5 Green Card

Autumn in Central Park, and a green card from $800,000.

View the programme →

Programmes

28 residency and citizenship programmes

Residency by investment and citizenship by investment routes across Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Americas and the Pacific. Sorted as published; minimums are the entry threshold, not the total cost.

Every figure on this page is the current published minimum. Where a route has been closed or rezoned, the programme page says so and gives the date.

Recommended

Golden Visa

Portugal

Minimum investment

€250,000

Investment funds from €500,000
Cultural donation route from €250,000
EU Residency Rights & Schengen Access

Updated Sept 2026View programme →

Greece

Minimum investment

€250,000

€250,000 route for conversions, restorations and startups
No minimum stay requirement
Non-dom tax benefits for foreign income

Updated Sept 2026View programme →

Permanent Residence Programme

Malta

Minimum investment

€99,000 + property

€99,000 in fees and contribution, plus property
Property purchase from €375,000 or rental from €14,000 a year
Permanent residence from the outset, not a renewable permit

The freedom to go.The choice to stay.

Most people buy the visa first. That is the expensive order.

Nobody can fix the wait. You can avoid it costing you.

Up to thirteen years to the passport.

Borrow against your portfolio, de-risk from changes and get a dual return.

Borrow against the portfolio. Don’t sell it.

Greece qualifies at €250,000. You will be quoted more.

A salesman cannot tell you not to buy.

Four things go wrong. Here is what I do about each.

The capital is committed for the best part of a decade

Borrow against the portfolio instead of selling it

The commission is already inside the price you are quoted

One fee, stated before you commit, paid by you

The funds you are asked to commit to have no track record

The record, published and dated

You may not need a golden visa at all

5 routes that ask for no capital, written up in full

Three ways to pay me. None of them a commission.

Assets Under Management Model

Fee Based Model

Assessment Call

You may not need a Golden Visa at all.

Do you want to move to Portugal, or do you want the option to?

28 residency and citizenship programmes

Portugal

Greece

Malta

Malta Citizenship

Cyprus

Italy

Switzerland

United Arab Emirates

Mauritius

Turkey

United States

USA Trump Gold Card

Canada

Antigua & Barbuda

Dominica

Grenada

St Kitts & Nevis

St Lucia

Vanuatu

Nauru

Panama

Thailand

Singapore

New Zealand

Sao Tome & Principe

Latvia

Saudi Arabia

Indonesia

Risk notice and scope of this material

The freedom to go.
The choice to stay.