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Guides & Research

Golden visa and citizenship by investment: guides with sources

Guides that follow one decision to the end, and research on what has changed in the rules: the golden visa and citizenship routes of five jurisdictions, and living in Poland as a foreigner. Every entry lists the sections of our sources page its figures were checked against, and carries the date it was written — because a threshold that was right in August may not be in March, and an article that does not say when it was written is asking to be believed on trust.

  • Rules

    Company bank account blocked by the tax authority in Poland (STIR): 72 hours, extension to 3 months and what can still be paid

    What people in Poland call an account block by the tax office is, in the statute, a block of a qualified entity's account, and it is not imposed by the tax office but by the Head of the National Revenue Administration — Szef KAS. It is not about unpaid tax; it is about the risk of tax fraud flagged by the STIR system. The first block lasts no more than 72 hours and cannot be appealed; an extension to 3 months needs a formal order and a feared liability above EUR 10,000, and that order can be appealed. Throughout, the bank will not tell you about the block on its own initiative, because the statute forbids it. Here: which accounts it covers and which it does not, how to count the deadlines, which payments the Head of KAS can allow from a blocked account, and the point at which a block turns into a seizure.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Bank account blocked in Poland: who can block it, for how long and how to unblock it

    A blocked bank account in Poland is not one event with one deadline. A bank acting on its own suspicion may block funds for 72 hours at most, and only up to the amount it suspects. The General Inspector of Financial Information has 96 hours, and before its demand an institution may hold a transaction for no more than 24. Only a prosecutor can hold money for long — up to 6 months, extendable by another 6 — and a prosecutor's order can be appealed to a court. But there is a fourth case where none of these deadlines applies, because the law sets none: when the bank asks for documents. Here: the text of the rules, every deadline in one table, and what a bank is allowed to tell you if you ask.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Bailiff seizure of a bank account in Poland: how much must be left and what to do if more was taken

    When a bailiff seizes a bank account in Poland, article 54 of the Polish Banking Law leaves the holder 75% of the minimum wage in every calendar month of the seizure — 3,604.50 zł in 2026. The limit is one per person regardless of how many accounts they have, so a second account does not double it, and on a joint account it does not grow with the number of holders. A business account is not among the accounts the article names. Here: the exact rule, which payments are fully protected, what about 800+, and how to tell a seizure from three other reasons money on an account stops being available.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Property

    Property transfer tax in Greece for foreign buyers: 3.09%, the value it is charged on, and the relief you cannot use

    Three things about Greek property transfer tax are stated wrongly almost everywhere. The rate is 3.09% rather than 3%, because the municipal surcharge is charged on the tax and not on the price. The tax falls on the assessed value from the register, which is not what you paid. And the first-home exemption requires residence in Greece, so the buyer who most often reads about it is the one who cannot use it.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Property

    Buying property in Portugal as a non-resident: the 7.5% IMT rate, stamp duty and what it costs every year after

    Most pages about buying in Portugal still show a progressive IMT scale that starts at zero. For a non-resident buying a home, that scale no longer applies at all: Decreto-Lei 97/2026 added a paragraph to the transfer tax code under which the rate is always 7.5%, with no relief and no discount. There are three ways out of it, and one of them can be claimed after the purchase.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Relocation

    Best country to move to from the USA: the income each route asks for, and the two clocks that follow

    The first page of results for this question is Reddit, a moving company, an expat tax service and three YouTube videos. Between them they will rank the weather. None of them states the number that decides whether an American is eligible at all: the monthly income each route requires, which differs between two neighbouring EU countries by a factor of nearly four.

    Jurisdictions pt · gr · mt · ae

  • Rules

    Short-term rental rules in five jurisdictions: what a listing must show in 2026

    Every jurisdiction this site covers now answers the same question in its own way: before a property can be advertised for short stays, it must carry a number issued by the state. Dubai calls it a holiday home permit, Portugal a registration in the RNAL, Greece an AMA, Cyprus a registration number, Malta a licence. From 20 May 2026 an EU regulation makes the number itself part of the listing across the four European jurisdictions, and makes the platform check it. This is what each one requires, who issues it, what it costs and what happens to the owner who skips it.

    Jurisdictions pt · gr · cy · mt · ae

  • Taxes

    UAE tax residency certificate for individuals: who qualifies, which one to ask for and what it costs

    A UAE tax residency certificate is issued by the Federal Tax Authority to a person who meets one of three tests in Cabinet Decision No. 85 of 2022: 183 days, 90 days with a residence permit and a home or a job, or a centre of life in the UAE. There are two kinds, one for a named double tax treaty and one for other purposes, and they are not interchangeable. Below: how the days are counted, which documents go with which test, the EmaraTax steps, the fees and the timing, each with the decision or guide section that sets it.

    Jurisdictions ae

  • Rules

    Taxes in Poland for foreigners: income tax, reliefs and refunds

    A foreigner pays income tax in Poland exactly as a Pole does once they become a tax resident: more than 183 days here in a year, or their centre of vital interests here. The rate is 12% up to 120,000 zł and 32% above it, and because of a 3,600 zł reduction the first 30,000 zł of income a year is in effect untaxed. Income of a person under 26 is exempt up to 85,528 zł, and a Pole's Card holder who moves to Poland gets the same limit for four years. The return is filed from 15 February to 30 April, and an overpayment on an electronic return is refunded within 45 days. All of it under the PIT Act as it stands in 2026.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    PESEL number in Poland for foreigners: how to get one, with or without address registration

    PESEL is an eleven-digit number from the population register, and a foreigner gets it in one of two ways. The first is automatic: when you register your address (zameldowanie), the number is assigned without a separate application. The second is an application at any gmina, when you cannot register but need the number; the application must name the legal provision that obliges you to have one, and a non-EU citizen has to come in person. Both are free. PESEL UKR is a separate procedure for holders of temporary protection, with a photograph, fingerprints and no appeal against a refusal. All of it here by article of the Population Register Act as consolidated in March 2026.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Residence in Poland for foreigners: how to stay legally and what to do at each stage

    Legalising your stay in Poland is not one document but a ladder: a temporary residence permit, for citizens of Ukraine the UKR status and the CUKR card, then permanent residence or EU long-term resident status and, finally, citizenship. This page maps the whole ladder: which grounds exist, what each step costs and how long it takes in 2026, how an application goes through MOS, and what to do while you wait, after a refusal, when you change jobs and when your card runs out. Each section leads to a detailed page with the articles of the statutes.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    How to start a business in Poland as a foreigner: sole trader (JDG) or sp. z o.o., registration and a bank account

    Not every foreigner may open a JDG, the Polish sole trader business, in Poland: the law gives that right to EU citizens and a closed list of residence statuses, and leaves everyone else with companies only, above all the sp. z o.o. Since 5 March 2026 the special rule that let any Ukrainian lawfully in Poland open a JDG no longer applies. Here, article by article: who may run a business and in what form, registration in CEIDG and KRS with fees and deadlines, ZUS and taxes in the first year, the 240,000 zł VAT threshold, and why a bank may refuse or block an account.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Temporary residence permit in Poland: residence card types, grounds and how to apply in 2026

    A residence card (karta pobytu) is the document that confirms a permit to stay in Poland. A temporary residence permit is granted for at most 3 years on one of several grounds: work, the EU Blue Card, business, study, marriage to a Polish citizen, family reunification or other circumstances. This page takes every ground article by article: its conditions, the minimum wage, the 30 days without work, which cards are not tied to an employer, the five grounds open to UKR status, filing through MOS, and the fees that are no longer refunded on a refusal.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Citizenship

    Polish citizenship for foreign residents: recognition by the voivode or a grant by the President

    A foreigner living in Poland becomes a Polish citizen in one of two ways. Recognition by the voivode follows the statute once its conditions are met: usually 3 years on permanent residence or long-term EU resident status, income, housing and B1 Polish; 1 year with a Pole's Card, 2 years if married to a Polish citizen. A grant by the President has no conditions in the statute, but no deadline and no appeal either. Two bills would raise 3 years to 10, and both keep the old rules for applications already filed.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Permanent residence in Poland and the EU long-term resident permit: the difference, the requirements and how to apply

    "Permanent residence in Poland" usually means one of two different permits. Permanent residence is granted on special grounds: Polish descent, the Card of the Pole, marriage to a Polish citizen, certain cases of work and protection. EU long-term resident status comes after 5 years of lawful stay, with income above a threshold, Polish at B1 and a legal title to housing. Both permits here by article of the Act on Foreigners: who qualifies for which, what absences are allowed, how to apply through MOS and how each is lost.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Residence card case status in Poland: how to check it, and what to do when the case runs past its deadline

    There is no single service in Poland for checking the status of a residence card case: the case is run by the voivode for the place where you stay, each office has its own way of showing it, and MOS does not show a status at all. Time limits in these cases are suspended by statute until 4 March 2027, so a complaint about delay (ponaglenie) does not work today. The main risk while you wait is a letter from the voivode you did not collect: after 14 days the law treats it as delivered.

    Jurisdictions Poland

  • Rules

    Living in Malta from the UK

    Malta's attraction for British residents is usually described in one sentence: foreign income is taxed only if you bring it in. That sentence is about Maltese law, and Maltese law is only half the arrangement. The other half is article 23 of the UK-Malta convention of 1994, which limits the relief the United Kingdom gives to the part of the income Malta actually taxes. This page quotes both, with the dates each was read.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Rules

    Living in Greece from the UK

    Every guide to this move answers the Brexit question and stops. The instrument that decides a British person's tax position in Greece is older than that by two generations: a convention signed on 25 June 1953, in force since January 1954, with no protocol since. It has no tie-breaker for dual residence and no article on dividends at all. This page sets out what it does say, with the dates each document was read.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Rules

    Dubai in 2026: what changed on 28 February, and what the British government actually says now

    Search demand for moving to Dubai from Britain fell by four fifths between February and April 2026 and has not recovered. This page records what happened, quotes what the British government's travel advice says today and when it last changed, and does not tell you whether to go. That last part is deliberate: nobody writing a relocation page is in a position to make that call for you, and several are making it anyway by saying nothing.

    Jurisdictions ae

  • Rules

    Moving to Dubai from the UK

    Two tests decide a British citizen's tax position after this move, and neither is administered in Dubai. The first is the UK statutory residence test, which decides whether you have left the UK tax net at all. The second is article 4 of the UK-UAE convention of 2016, whose tie-breaker looks at a home available to you in Britain before it ever looks at your passport. This page sets out both, with the dates each instrument was read.

    Jurisdictions ae

  • Rules

    Moving to Portugal from the UK: the 2025 tax treaty that replaced the 1968 one

    Search this and you get the Brexit answer: freedom of movement ended, you need a visa now. True, and five years old. The instrument that actually decides a Briton's tax position in Portugal was replaced at the end of 2025 — a convention signed in 1968 gave way to one signed in September 2025, which reached UK income tax on 6 April 2026. The tax advisers' page on the first screen was written before it was signed.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Moving to Portugal from the US: the ten-year citizenship clock and the treaty's saving clause

    Most pages for Americans have caught up with the ten-year citizenship period. Almost none of them says when the ten years begin, and since 19 May 2026 that answer has changed for everyone whose file was not already open. The second thing nobody expects: the sentence letting the United States keep taxing you is not in Article 1 of the tax convention. Article 1 is one sentence long and does not contain it.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Living in Greece as an American: the 1950 tax treaty and the social security agreement

    The first page of results for this question is Reddit three times, three YouTube videos, a Facebook group and a shipping company. Between them they will tell you what the light is like on Crete. None of them mentions the two instruments that actually govern an American's position in Greece: a tax convention signed in 1950 that has never been rewritten, and a social security agreement that decides which country you pay into.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Rules

    Greek citizenship law: three periods, not one, and almost nobody prints the other two

    Search for how long naturalisation takes in Greece and every page says seven years. The Code says three, seven or twelve, and which one applies to you turns on two things: your nationality, and whether your residence title appears on a closed list in article 5(1)(ε). The investor permit is on that list. Many others are not, and that is a five-year difference nobody is telling you about.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Relocation

    The cost of living in Malta: what the rent register says, and why nobody quotes it

    Ask what it costs to live in Malta and the first page of results will give you figures between 782 and 2,205 euros a month for the same single person, none of them sourced. Malta happens to have something most countries do not: a register of every private residential lease actually signed since 2020. This page uses it, says what it does not cover, and names the one official statistic that is ten years old.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Rules

    Portugal's D8 digital nomad visa is two different visas, and only one of them goes anywhere

    Portugal has two digital nomad visas. They share a name, a nickname and an income threshold, and they lead to entirely different places: one is a stay of under a year, the other is a residence visa that ends in a permit. The market prints one euro figure and lets readers guess which visa it belongs to. Underneath that, the regulation that governs the second one still routes anybody already in Portugal through paragraphs of the law that were repealed in June 2024.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Portugal's nationality law in 2026: what Lei Orgânica 1/2026 actually changed, article by article

    Search for Portuguese citizenship and the first page of results will tell you five years and ten years at the same time, and almost none of it names the law that changed. Lei Organica 1/2026 did two things on 19 May 2026, in two different articles, and the second one is missing from the English-language market entirely: it repealed the paragraph under which time spent waiting for a residence permit counted towards naturalisation.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Malta citizenship by investment after the Court of Justice: what closed, and what stands in its place

    Sixteen months after the Court of Justice ruled against it, the market still calls Malta's citizenship scheme suspended. It was not suspended. Its own regulations were amended: Part IV was deleted, together with the Second and Third Schedules, and the instrument was retitled. What replaced it grants citizenship on the basis of merit and publishes no price for it. Every step below carries the act, the gazette number and the date.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Costs

    Cost of living in Portugal, from the figures the Portuguese state publishes

    Almost every page answering this question prints a monthly budget and names no source for it. The first result at the time of writing is one couple's household costs, with no statistic behind it at all. Portugal's statistical office publishes median rent per square metre by municipality, from signed contracts rather than advertisements, and median purchase prices by region. Those are the figures below, each with the release it came from and the date it was read.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Portugal golden visa requirements in 2026, and what is left of the programme

    The Portuguese golden visa still exists, and almost nothing about it works the way the guides describe. Property was repealed in 2023 and no tier of any amount survived. The income requirement everyone says is waived is not waived, and the article that would have waived it names one exception only. Since 19 May 2026 the route ends at ten years of residence rather than five. Every figure below is quoted from the instrument that sets it, with the date the text was read.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Rules

    Greece golden visa process in 2026: the fifty days, the apostille, and three routes the market fuses

    Search interest in the Greek golden visa process has risen more sharply than in any other query on this subject, and the reason is a real one: a law passed in February 2026 rebuilt the country's admission routes. What the market then wrote about that law is wrong in a specific and correctable way. The 250,000 euro startup golden visa is not invented — it is fourteen months older than the law it is credited to. And the provision the February law actually added is an employment visa that ends the day the job does.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Rules

    Malta residence permit and card: the eight-week wait, the weeks you cannot travel, and what it costs

    Malta does not issue a TRC card. The document is the eResidence card, Identità issues it, and the part nobody writes down is what happens between applying and holding it: eight to ten weeks, during which the receipt in your hand is expressly not a travel document and cannot get you back into the country. The renewal window is narrower than most people assume, the fee depends entirely on the basis you applied under, and the portal withdraws applications on its own after sixty days.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Relocation

    Malta digital nomad visa: the income, the five months, and the wall at four years

    Malta's nomad permit is the cheapest way into the country and the only Maltese route that counts your days rather than your money. It also ends. Four years is the maximum, the agency states in terms that it leads to no permanent residence and no citizenship, and it forbids you from earning anything at all from a company registered in Malta. Every one of those is published, and almost none of it appears in the pages selling the permit.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Rules

    Golden passport: what a golden visa actually leads to, and how long it really takes

    Golden passport is a phrase with no legal referent anywhere in these four jurisdictions. What each of them actually offers is a residence permit and a clock, and the clocks do not count what most people think they count. Three separate periods get collapsed into one in almost every comparison table: the permit's own renewal conditions, the presence test for long-term residence, and the naturalisation period. They are different lengths, they count different things, and only one of them ends in a passport.

    Jurisdictions gr · mt · pt · ae

  • Rules

    How a golden visa application works: who files it, what the state charges, and what stops it

    Every golden visa guide answers the same question, which is how much. Almost none answers the one that decides whether your file moves: who is allowed to submit it, whether the money has to be in place before you apply or after, and what an administration does with a file when something is missing. Those answers are published — in national procedure registries, agency FAQs and legal notices — and they differ enough between jurisdictions that a process described in general is a process described wrongly.

    Jurisdictions pt · gr · mt · ae

  • Relocation

    Portugal residence card, renewal and permanent residency: what happens after the permit

    Almost everything written about Portuguese residency stops at the moment the permit is granted. What follows is five years of renewals, a plastic card that expires on a different schedule from the permit behind it, and a permanent status that most pages confuse with a different one created by EU law. This page is about that part, and every rule in it is quoted from the statute that sets it.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Relocation

    Living in Greece: what it costs, by the state's own numbers

    Every guide to living in Greece prints the same confident numbers and none of them says where the numbers came from. This one gives the source for each: the state's own household survey, the ministerial decision that sets the minimum wage, the circular that sets social contributions, and two rent datasets that measure different things — what landlords ask, and what tenants signed.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Relocation

    Malta permanent residence programme in 2026: the cost, the presence rule, and what replaced the passport

    Malta sells three different things under one word. The permanent residence programme costs about €126,000 above the price of a property and publishes no rule about how long you must be on the island. The nomad permit costs a fraction of that and will not renew unless your bank statements prove five months a year. The expensive route asks for your money and nothing else; the cheap one asks for your time. That is the opposite of how both are sold.

    Jurisdictions mt

  • Rules

    UAE golden visa rules in 2026: what changed, and which instrument says so

    Two Dubai rules changed in 2026 and thousands of people are applying under them. Neither has been published as an instrument — the report every other page relies on says so in terms, and we walked the registers to check. Meanwhile pages updated in July and August are still selling a threshold that was repealed in April. Every figure below carries the article that sets it, or a statement that none does.

    Jurisdictions ae

  • Relocation

    Greece golden visa requirements, residency and the 7% tax in 2026

    Greece asks €800,000 in Attica and €400,000 elsewhere, and the two €250,000 exceptions carry no minimum floor area at all. It asks a person living on their own income to prove €3,500 a month under a ministerial decision no competitor page cites. And whether either route ever reaches permanent residence turns on something almost nobody writes down: not which permit you hold, but how many days you spend in the country.

    Jurisdictions gr

  • Relocation

    Portugal D7 visa requirements in 2026: €920 a month, indexed to the minimum wage

    Portugal asks a D7 applicant to prove €920 a month — the national minimum wage, indexed to it and not to the IAS. It asks a golden visa investor to prove the same, which almost no page about the golden visa mentions. And since 19 May 2026 it asks for ten years of residence before citizenship, not five. Every figure below is quoted from the instrument that sets it, with the date the text was read.

    Jurisdictions pt

  • Costs

    Golden visa income requirements, and what each country actually publishes about living costs

    The routes that cost the most money test income the least. Greece, Malta and the UAE ask investors to prove nothing about their income; Portugal is the one exception and almost nobody writing about it says so. Every threshold below is quoted from the instrument that sets it, and the cost-of-living half explains why one comparison table would be a lie.

    Jurisdictions pt · gr · mt · ae · cy

  • Property

    Which countries still give residency for buying property in 2026

    Buying property gets you residency in far fewer places than the advertising suggests. Portugal removed property from its qualifying routes in 2023, Greece raised the threshold to €800,000 across half the country, and on Malta the property is one of five payments rather than the route itself. Five jurisdictions read against the statute: thresholds, the full cost on top of the threshold, real processing times, and the restrictions that get a permit revoked.

    Jurisdictions pt · gr · mt · ae · cy

What gets published here

Two kinds of thing. Guides that work one decision through end to end — what a route actually costs once the government fees, the lawyer and the purchase taxes are counted, rather than what the advertised threshold says. And research: what changed in a statute, when it changed, and which of the figures elsewhere on this site moved with it.

Why every entry names its sources

Each one carries a line under its opening paragraph listing the sections of our sources page its figures were checked against. That line is not decoration. A threshold quoted without a statute number is indistinguishable from a threshold somebody remembered wrong, and the difference tends to surface only after it has cost someone money.

Why every entry carries a date

Because the answer expires. Greece redrew its property thresholds by zone; Portugal removed property as a qualifying route altogether. An undated article about either is worse than no article, because it reads as current and is not. Where an entry has been revised, the date of the revision is shown beside the date it was written.

What is deliberately not here

No aggregated news. No pieces written to occupy a search term. Nothing at all until there is something worth saying — and if that keeps the list short, the list stays short.