Politicians have attacked golden visas, such as those in the European Union. In one example, members of the European Parliament have berated Malta, an EU member state since 2004 and a former British possession, for its citizenship programme, saying it facilitated money laundering into the bloc. (Malta has capped and changed its programmes.) 

Organisations such as , which focus on fighting bribery and corruption, have been critical. A 2021 report by the London School of Economics said the programmes attract around €3 billion ($3.19 billion) in investment to the EU annually.

New schemes keep opening and developing. Hungary, for example, recently announced a new 10-year residence permit, obtainable for €250,000. 

Not all programmes are aimed at high net worth individuals. Some, such as the UK’s Innovator Founder Visa, are pitched at builders of business start-ups. There are also “digital nomad” visas that are part of the remote-working trend enabled by the internet and (relatively) cheap travel. 

Taxes, weather and red tape
It is not all a matter of tax and housing costs. Italy, for example, will be attractive to people for many reasons (wonderful scenery, culture, food, sports, etc.), but there are downsides (slow Italian bureaucracy) to consider. There are issues around building a network of friends and the ease, or not, of integrating into a new society, Harvey continued.

Generalising about these schemes is well-nigh impossible, but a few themes emerge. One trend, Harvey said, is families’ desire to live in countries offering high-class education for their children. Because some nations – such as Canada - have caps on how many foreign-born children can attend certain schools, the golden visa route is a way to handle that. This is a particularly important point for Asian families.

The business of advising on these progammes is a money spinner. A cluster of specialist consultancies operate as demand grows. Examples include Bartra Wealth Advisors, Henley & Partners and Apex Capital Partners, for example. An umbrella group – the – now operates to spread best practice ideas, lobby around schemes, and interact with policymakers. Golden visas constitute a big business. 

Just because a programme eventually gets shut, or suspended, doesn’t necessarily mean this is a setback, industry figures argue. As explained in this interview, programmes can be suspended or axed not because of external or internal political pressure, but because, so the industry, a scheme has achieved its purpose of attracting a certain amount of capital.

Language and culture
Harvey said there can be language-group themes, such as how people from the “Francophone” world linked to France by history and culture, can seek citizenship. In the more “Anglosphere” side (not a term that is universally approved of), there are two-way flows between the UK and Commonwealth member states. South Africa, while not without domestic challenges, is a focus of enquiries from some in the UK, Harvey said. His firm has an office in Johannesburg: “We are busy.”

For a man with more than three decades’ experience in this market, Harvey seems upbeat about further prospects in a market that, in many ways, is a temperature check on what is called globalisation.