Rule changes
Changes to residency and tax rules: Portugal, Greece, Malta, the UAE, Cyprus, Argentina
Thirty-eight changes to residency and tax rules — in the six jurisdictions this site compares, and in Poland, where its second section is — each with the day it took effect and the instrument that made it. Poland is the fastest-moving of them: three of its five rows took effect in 2026, and one of them closed every channel for filing a residence application except the ministry's own module. Three of them have no instrument at all: Dubai altered two rules in 2026 that thousands of people are now applying under, and Greece has suspended new applications from Russian and Belarusian citizens since 2022 — none of the three has ever been published as a law, a decision or a gazette reference, and we walked the registers to establish it rather than assuming it.
Each row is one change: the date it took effect, what it did, and the act that did it — or, where none exists, that none exists. The last column is the one no competitor publishes: which figure on this site moved with the change, and when it was read again. Malta got its first four rows on 1 September 2026, Cyprus its first four on 22 October 2026, Argentina its first five on 25 October 2026.
| In force | What changed | The act | What moved here |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2, 2026Argentina# | Argentina set the price of citizenship by investment: US$350,000 non-refundable to the National Treasury, or a US$800,000 programme bond; US$100,000 for a spouse or a child of 18–25 and US$25,000 for a minor; applications from the fourth quarter of 2026. | Ministry of Economy announcement of 2 October 2026, under DNU 366/2025 art. 38 and Decreto 524/2025 | Argentina entered the comparison on 25 October 2026 with this figure as its threshold, converted to €313,000 at the ECB rate of 23 October.See the working → |
| September 1, 2026Argentina# | Argentina's minimum living wage rose to 383,800 pesos in September 2026 and is scheduled up every month to 437,000 in April 2027 — and the rentista and pensionado permits are priced at five of it a month, so their threshold moves monthly. | National Employment, Productivity and Minimum Wage Council, Resolution 4/2026, BO 2 September 2026 | The rentista threshold on the Argentina page is given for October 2026, 1,956,000 pesos, with the month it holds for.See the working → |
| June 30, 2026Argentina# | Argentina's electoral appeals court declared DNU 366/2025 void, holding that an emergency decree may not touch citizenship and that citizenship belongs to the electoral courts. The government has appealed; the investment programme rests on the same decree. | Cámara Nacional Electoral, Yang, Liping s/ nacionalidad y ciudadanía, Expte. CNE 8843/2023/CA1, 30 June 2026 | The Argentina page states the programme's contested basis beside the threshold rather than under it.See the working → |
| May 19, 2026Portugal# | Portugal doubled its naturalisation period: seven years for citizens of EU member states and Portuguese-speaking countries, ten for everyone else, against five for everybody before. It also added an examination in culture, history and national symbols, and a declaration of adherence to the democratic rule of law. Proceedings already pending on 19 May are decided under the old five-year rule. | Lei Orgânica 1/2026 of 18 May, art. 6(1)(b), in force 19 May 2026; the transitional rule is art. 7(2) | The whole citizenship section, and the direction of one of this comparison's central findings: Portugal was the fastest route to a passport in this set and is now among the slowest.See the working → |
| May 19, 2026Portugal# | Portugal stopped counting the wait for a residence permit towards naturalisation. Since March 2024 the clock had run from the day the permit was applied for, as long as it was later granted — a provision written for an immigration queue that takes one to three years. It is now repealed. What remains is the general rule: lawful presence under a title, visa or authorisation. Files pending on 19 May keep the old counting. | Lei Orgânica 1/2026 of 18 May, art. 5, repealing art. 15(4) of Lei 37/81 — the paragraph inserted by Lei Orgânica 1/2024 of 5 March; the transitional rule is art. 7(2) | Our own sentence, in three articles, that the period runs “from the issue of the residence permit, not from the application”. That was a paraphrase of the repeal, not a rule the statute states, and it was wrong for anyone whose file was already pending. Corrected on 7 September 2026.See the working → |
| May 4, 2026Poland# | The CUKR card opened: a three-year residence permit for citizens of Ukraine holding UKR status, applied for through MOS. Applications are accepted from 4 May 2026 and only until 4 March 2027 — a window rather than a standing route, and the card's own statute closes it on that date. | Act on assistance to citizens of Ukraine, art. 42a–42x, in the wording of the amendment Dz.U. 2026 poz. 203 — art. 42x sets the 4 March 2027 cut-off | The CUKR page in three languages, and the deadline every Poland page now repeats.See the working → |
| April 27, 2026Poland# | Poland closed every other channel for residence applications. Since 27 April 2026 an application for a temporary or permanent residence permit, or for EU long-term resident status, is filed only through MOS, the interior ministry's case module — not on paper at the voivodeship office. The confirmation of filing changed with it: what used to be a stamp in the passport is now a zaświadczenie issued by the voivode. | Amendment Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1794; the date was set by the announcement of the Minister of the Interior of 10 April 2026, Monitor Polski 2026 poz. 370, under art. 17 ust. 1 of that amendment. The provisions brought into force on that date include art. 105–106l, art. 108 ust. 1 pkt 1 and ust. 3–10, art. 202–203i and art. 218a–219i of the Act on Foreigners | The filing steps on every Poland page, and the whole section on what arrives instead of a stamp.See the working → |
| April 2026UAE# | Dubai removed the AED 750,000 minimum property value for its two-year investor visa. A sole owner now faces no minimum at all; a co-owner's share must reach AED 400,000. | No published act | Our “AED 750,000” row, corrected on 30 August 2026: the figure was never a golden visa threshold and is now a repealed one.See the working → |
| April 2026Greece# | The Greek minimum wage rose from €880 to €920 a month, which moves the income threshold for EU long-term resident status: article 144 §1(a) sets it as the annual earnings of a minimum-wage earner plus 10% for dependants. | KYA 8934/2026, ΦΕΚ Β΄ 1759 of 27.03.2026, in force 1 April 2026 | The article 144 threshold: €12,880 a year, or €14,168 with any number of dependants. Both are computed on fourteen payments, which is the ministry's own convention rather than a rule of the immigration article.See the working → |
| March 5, 2026Poland# | Poland suspended the statutory deadlines for residence cases at the voivode until 4 March 2027 — for every foreigner, not only citizens of Ukraine. While they are suspended a complaint about delay has no basis, which is the fact that most changes what a waiting applicant can actually do. | Act on assistance to citizens of Ukraine, art. 100d ust. 1–4; the date was moved to 4 March 2027 by Dz.U. 2026 poz. 203, art. 17 pkt 50, in force 5 March 2026 | Every sentence on this site about how long a Polish case takes, and the answer to “what can I do about the delay”: until that date, nothing at the voivode.See the working → |
| February 2026UAE# | Dubai stopped requiring that half the property's value be paid before a golden visa application. The requirement was never in the federal annex — it was departmental practice, which is why its removal needed no amending instrument. | No published act | See the working → |
| February 6, 2026Greece# | Greece amended its Migration Code in three places at once: article 95 now includes an investor's adult children who lack legal capacity, at any age; article 160 accepts twelve consecutive years of lawful residence in place of the B1 Greek certificate; and article 161, the ten-year national permit, was replaced outright. | Law 5275/2026, arts. 29, 37 and 38 — ΦΕΚ Α΄ 17 of 06.02.2026 | The twelve-year alternative is new to this site and to the market: we found it on no competing page. The family row was rewritten — the amendment adds one point, not the broad expansion several alerts describe.See the working → |
| January 1, 2026UAE# | The new Russia–UAE double tax treaty began to apply. It replaces the limited 2011 agreement, which reached only sovereign and state financial institutions, and is the first between the two states to cover private individuals and companies. Dividends, interest and royalties at 10%. | Signed 17.02.2025; Russian ratification by Federal Law 189-FZ of 07.07.2025; in force 18.07.2025; applies from 01.01.2026 | See the working → |
| January 1, 2026Portugal# | The Portuguese minimum wage rose to €920 a month, and with it every residence income threshold: the D7 scale is 100% of it for the main applicant, 50% for a second adult and 30% per child, and the investment permit is not exempt from the same test. | Decreto-Lei 139/2025 of 29 December, art. 3, in force 1 January 2026; the scale is Portaria 1563/2007, art. 2(2) | €920, €460 and €276 a month. Note the anchor: these are indexed to the minimum wage and not to the IAS, which is €537.13 for 2026 — a difference of €383 a month for anyone reading the wrong instrument.See the working → |
| January 1, 2026Cyprus# | Cyprus repealed stamp duty altogether, including the duty on a property sale contract. | Law 239(I)/2025, Stamp Duty (Repealing) Law, s. 2, in force 1 January 2026 | The Cyprus cost breakdown carries stamp duty as a zero line, so a reader comparing it with an older guide can see why the two differ.See the working → |
| January 1, 2026Cyprus# | Cyprus took rent out of the Special Defence Contribution, and gave a person deemed domiciled after 17 years the option of a flat €50,000 a year for five years, paid as one sum of €250,000. | Law 245(I)/2025, amending Law 117(I)/2002 — art. 2 and 4(2), new art. 3D; Official Gazette No. 5070 of 31 December 2025 | See the working → |
| January 1, 2026Cyprus# | The Cypriot personal income tax band at 0% rose from €19,500 to €22,000; the rates above it are now 20% to €32,000, 25% to €42,000, 30% to €72,000 and 35% beyond. | Law 118(I)/2002, Second Schedule, para. (c), as amended by Law 244(I)/2025, from tax year 2026 | See the working → |
| December 1, 2025Poland# | The declaration route for short employment was re-regulated: which nationalities it covers, and what filing one costs. Two regulations took effect on the same day, one naming the states and one setting the fees. | Regulations of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy of 21 and 20 November 2025, Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1617 (the states, § 2, 3 and 5) and Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1622 (the fees, § 2); both in force 1 December 2025 | The fee table on the employer page, and the list of nationalities the declaration route is open to.See the working → |
| November 27, 2025UAE# | The UAE added a two-year multiple-entry visit visa for work missions, inserted into the executive regulation as a new article 19 bis. | Cabinet Resolution 179/2025, amending Cabinet Resolution 65/2022 | See the working → |
| November 18, 2025Greece# | Greece's second investor permit became usable. Article 100Α of the Migration Code, which grants a residence permit for €250,000 of equity in a registered startup, had been on the books since December 2024 with no documents prescribed; a joint ministerial decision set them, along with a €2,500 electronic fee. | KYA 216761/12.11.2025 — ΦΕΚ Β΄ 6138 of 18.11.2025, under art. 100Α of Law 5038/2023, added by art. 44 of Law 5162/2024 (ΦΕΚ Α΄ 198 of 05.12.2024) | This route was missing from the Greek pages on this site until 5 September 2026, and the market it is missing from is larger: most pages describing it credit it to the February 2026 law, which neither created nor amended it.See the working → |
| October 22, 2025Portugal# | Portugal made family reunification conditional on already holding a residence permit valid for at least two years, and rewrote who counts as family. Dependent minors and incapacitated persons keep their exemption from the wait, as do holders under articles 90, 90-A and 121-A. | Lei 61/2025 of 22 October, amending arts. 75, 98, 99 and 101 of Lei 23/2007 | See the working → |
| July 31, 2025Argentina# | Argentina set the procedure for citizenship by investment: applications to a new Agency under the Ministry of Economy, a security and financial vetting, and a decision by the National Migration Directorate within 30 working days of the Agency's report. | Decreto 524/2025, arts. 1–4, BO No. 35718 of 31 July 2025 | See the working → |
| July 24, 2025Malta# | Malta closed citizenship by investment and put a merit route in its place — by amending the condemned scheme's own regulations rather than replacing them. S.L. 188.06 had been in force since November 2020 as the rules for the scheme the Court of Justice struck down; it was rewritten into the rules for naturalisation on the basis of merit, which asks for at least eight months of residence and publishes no price. | Act XXI of 2025, Government Gazette No. 21,474 of 24 July 2025, with L.N. 159 of 2025 amending S.L. 188.06 | The Malta citizenship row, which named the Act but not L.N. 159 of 2025 and listed four of the six categories of merit. Re-read 1 September 2026.See the working → |
| July 22, 2025Malta# | Malta restructured what an MPRP applicant pays and, in the same notice, took over the licensing of the agents who sell it. The €60,000 administrative fee became a staged payment, the €37,000 contribution was made identical for buying and for renting, some dependants stopped paying it at all, and agents moved onto a licence issued by the Agency itself at €5,000 a year. | L.N. 146 of 2025, amending regs. 3 to 9, 11, 15 and 25 of S.L. 217.26 and inserting regs. 6A, 6B, 6C and 8A | The Malta cost breakdown on this site — roughly €126,000 above the price of the property. Re-read 1 September 2026 and unchanged.See the working → |
| June 1, 2025Poland# | Poland replaced the law on employing foreigners. The new act rewrote who has free access to the labour market, what an employer must file and what it costs, and it is the instrument the work-based residence routes now hang on. | Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for entrusting work to foreigners, Dz.U. 2025 poz. 621 — art. 3 ust. 1 pkt 6–7 on free access to the labour market, and art. 99 ust. 3a as added by it; in force 1 June 2025 | The work sections of the residence-card pages, and the page written for employers.See the working → |
| May 29, 2025Argentina# | Argentina rewrote its citizenship law by emergency decree: naturalisation after two years of continuous residence with no exit from the country, granted by the National Migration Directorate rather than a judge, and a new route for a foreigner who makes a relevant investment, with no residence at all. | DNU 366/2025, arts. 37–41 amending Law 346, BO No. 35676 of 29 May 2025 | See the working → |
| April 29, 2025Malta# | The Court of Justice held that Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme was contrary to EU law. Naturalisation in exchange for payment ended; what took its place three months later is the row above it. | Court of Justice of the European Union, Case C-181/23, Commission v Malta, judgment of 29 April 2025 | The “Malta — citizenship by investment” row, withdrawn.See the working → |
| March 11, 2025Portugal# | The Portuguese consular fee for a national visa was set at €110. | Portaria 91/2025/1 of 10 March, amending the consular emoluments table, in force 11 March 2025 | See the working → |
| January 1, 2025Malta# | Malta reformed the MPRP property thresholds and abolished the discount for the south of the island and for Gozo: €375,000 to buy anywhere, or €14,000 a year to rent. The €300,000 figure a good part of the market still quotes was the old regional threshold, and there is no regional threshold any more. | L.N. 310 of 2024, amending S.L. 217.26, in force 1 January 2025 | The “€300,000 threshold” row on this site, corrected. Re-read 1 September 2026 and unchanged.See the working → |
| December 23, 2024Portugal# | Portugal replaced the non-habitual resident regime with IFICI: a 20% rate on employment and self-employment income from a listed set of occupations, for ten years. Pensions are outside it and are taxed at 35%, which matters directly to anyone whose D7 income is a pension. | Art. 58-A of the Estatuto dos Benefícios Fiscais, regulated by Portaria 352/2024/1 of 23 December; registration by 15 January of the year after residence begins | See the working → |
| September 17, 2024Greece# | Greece set the income a financially independent person must prove for the type Ι.8 permit at €3,500 a month, with 20% more for a spouse and 15% for each child. The statute itself, article 163 §8, states no figure at all. | KYA 225679/2024, art. 1 §1(ι) — ΦΕΚ Β΄ 5223 of 17.09.2024 | €3,500, and the decision number with it. No competing page we checked cites the instrument for this figure at all.See the working → |
| September 2, 2024UAE# | The UAE created the Blue Residence, a ten-year permit for contributors to environmental protection, by inserting article 77 bis into the executive regulation. Its own annex is referenced by that article and is not published on the government portal. | Cabinet Resolution 95/2024, amending Cabinet Resolution 65/2022 | Nothing of ours, but it is why we can say the amendment log on the UAE legislation portal is incomplete: the portal's entry for this resolution shows only its border-post change and omits article 77 bis, which is visible in the resolution's own text.See the working → |
| September 1, 2024Greece# | Greece replaced one golden visa threshold with four. €800,000 across Attica, the Thessaloniki regional unit, Mykonos, Thira and every island above 3,100 inhabitants; €400,000 elsewhere; and €250,000 twice, for a change of use to residential and for a listed building to be restored. | Art. 100 §2 of Law 5038/2023, as amended by art. 64 of Law 5100/2024 | All four thresholds, and one thing the market prints as a rule of the programme and is not: the 120 m² minimum applies to the first two points and to neither €250,000 route.See the working → |
| June 1, 2023UAE# | The UAE brought a natural person's business within corporate tax above AED 1,000,000 of annual turnover — and put three sources outside it regardless of amount: wage, personal investment income and real estate investment income. The test for the third is whether the activity requires a licence, not how much it earns. | Cabinet Decision 49/2023, art. 2, in force 1 June 2023 | See the working → |
| May 2, 2023Cyprus# | Cyprus's fourth revision of the regulation 6(2) criteria raised the income requirement from €30,000 to €50,000 and the amount per child from €5,000 to €10,000, required the full €300,000 to be paid at application instead of €200,000, removed parents as dependants, and added annual proof that the investment and the health insurance are kept. | Migration Department, criteria for an Immigration Permit under regulation 6(2) of the Aliens and Immigration Regulations, 4th revision, in force 2 May 2023 | The €50,000 income line on the Cyprus page; what the old version required is what most guides written before 2023 still describe.See the working → |
| March 1, 2023UAE# | The UAE acquired a statutory test for the tax residency of a natural person for the first time: the centre-of-interests test, 183 days, or 90 days combined with a residence permit and either a permanent home or employment or business in the country. Property ownership appears in none of them. | Cabinet Decision 85/2022, art. 4, and Ministerial Decision 27/2023, both in force 1 March 2023 | See the working → |
| April 1, 2022Greece# | Greece released renewals and kept new applications suspended for citizens of Russia and Belarus. A month earlier both issuance and renewal had been suspended for Russian citizens. It is not an EU sanction: the underlying instrument is a Commission recommendation, which binds nobody, and no law, ministerial decision or gazette reference for the measure has ever been published. | No published act | The ministry's own figures show the two tracks: 458 investor renewals to Russian citizens in March 2026, about 6% of all renewals, against no appearance at all in the top ten nationalities for initial issuance.See the working → |
| January 1, 2016UAE# | The Poland–UAE double tax treaty began to apply a definition of an Emirati resident individual that requires UAE citizenship. A Pole on a golden visa is outside the treaty's personal scope. The 1993 original had the ordinary symmetrical formula and no citizenship element at all — the gate is ten years old, not thirty-three. | Art. 2 of the Protocol of 11 December 2013, Dz.U. 2015 poz. 312, in force 1 May 2015, applying from 1 January 2016 | It is the whole frame of the Polish version of the Emirates guide — including the part where the conclusion drawn from it in the Polish market is overstated, and a tax authority interpretation says so.See the working → |
The whole log was last gone through on September 20, 2026. A row last changed on October 25, 2026. It is reviewed in full whenever a jurisdiction is researched for a guide, which is the cadence this project can actually keep rather than a month it cannot.
Citing one of these rules? Each row carries its own address — the # beside it — and the whole log is published as data at /changes.json. Free to quote and to build on, with attribution. The instrument named in each row is the authority; this page is a record of it.
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