Residency by investment offers you the opportunity to legally acquire permanent residency status in another country in return for an investment in its economy. Permanent residency is a visa status that allows the bearer to legally live, work, go to school and access healthcare in the host country. Having permanent residency can eventually lead to citizenship by naturalisation, provided the resident has lived in that country for a certain number of years.

There are more residency by investment programmes than those offering citizenship. The largest concentration of such programmes are within the European Union, commonly referred to as golden visa schemes. This is because the EU is where many investors tend to carry out business or relocate to.