Citizenship in Europe — The Honest Position

The European investor-citizenship era has ended. What remains is residence, and patience.

For more than a decade, several European Union states offered citizenship in exchange for investment. That era is effectively over, and any adviser still marketing a fast EU passport is selling something that no longer exists.

What has changed. Cyprus terminated its programme in 2020 following a governance scandal, and has revoked citizenships granted under it. Bulgaria followed in 2022. On 29 April 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Commission v. Malta (C-181/23) that conferring citizenship in exchange for predetermined payments is incompatible with EU law — holding, in essence, that EU citizenship cannot be the subject of a commercial transaction and must rest on a genuine bond with the member state. Malta has discontinued its investor route accordingly.

What this means for you. There is no longer a straightforward route to acquire an EU passport through investment. The lawful paths to EU citizenship today are two: genuine residence followed by naturalisation over a number of years, or descent. Investment can open the first of these — through a residence-by-investment programme that, after a qualifying period of real residence, may lead to naturalisation — but it is a journey of years, not months, and it requires substance, not merely capital.

How Moore Law helps. For clients who want a European future, we map the realistic residence-to-citizenship routes, advise on the residence and tax substance that naturalisation genuinely requires, and coordinate the plan with your existing affairs. For clients who want speed and mobility now, we direct attention to the credible non-EU programmes, several of which deliver Schengen visa-free access without the EU’s closed front door.