Home / Compare / CBI vs Golden Visa
CBI vs Golden Visa · 2026 Q3 EditionCitizenship by investment delivers a passport; a Golden Visa delivers the right to live, and can carry a published path to one. Compare the ranked programmes of both kinds on cost, mobility, speed and outcome; there is no universal winner.
MCP
The guided chooser
Filter and re-rank the table below by the priority that matters most to your family. Each preset re-sorts on the matching published dimension of the Mirabello Index; the default order is the Index ranking. A metric lead is not a recommendation, and there is no universal winner.
| # | Programme | Type | From | Processing | Mobility | Outcome | Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇰🇳 St. Kitts and Nevis | Citizenship | $250,000 | 4-6 months | 157 visa-free | Passport | 89.4 |
| 2 | 🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda | Citizenship | $230,000 | 4-7 months | 154 visa-free | Passport | 86.9 |
| 3 | 🇩🇲 Dominica | Citizenship | $200,000 | 4-6 months | 145 visa-free | Passport | 85.5 |
| 4 | 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia | Citizenship | $240,000 | 4-5 months | 144 visa-free | Passport | 85 |
| 5 | 🇲🇹 Malta Global Residence Programme (GRP) | Residency | €220,000 | 3-6 months | Visa-free travel within Schengen Area | Residence permit | 84.6 |
| 6 | 🇦🇲 Armenia Residency | Residency | n/a | Up to 30 days from submission for the residency decision | Armenia residence only | Residence permit | 84.5 |
| 7 | 🇬🇩 Grenada | Citizenship | $235,000 | 6 months | 147 visa-free | Passport | 84.4 |
| 8 | 🇬🇷 Greece Golden Visa | Residency | €250,000 | 90 days statutory maximum | Schengen Area | Residence permit | 83.1 |
| 9 | 🇧🇷 Brazil Residence by Investment | Residency | BRL 700,000 | n/a | Brazil residence only | Residence permit | 82.8 |
| 10 | 🇺🇸 USA EB-5 Investor Visa | Residency | $800,000 | Rural TEA reserved: 6-12 months | United States residence only | Residence permit | 82.7 |
| 11 | 🇲🇹 Malta Permanent Residence (MPRP) | Residency | €99,000 | No fixed official timeframe | Visa-free travel within Schengen Area | Residence permit | 82.2 |
| 12 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia MM2H | Residency | $150,000 | Approximately 2-3 months after complete document submission . | Malaysia residence only | Residence permit | 82.1 |
| 13 | 🇵🇦 Panama Qualified Investor Residency | Residency | $300,000 | Article 15 of Decree 17 sets maximum service standards: up to 15 business days for the Ministry of Commerce and Industries to issue the investment certification once the file is admitted, and up to 30 business days for the Servicio Nacional de Migracion to decide the application once the complete file is received. Advisers commonly report an overall 30 to 90 days in practice. | Panama residence only | Residence permit | 81.5 |
| 14 | 🇬🇪 Georgia Residence by Investment | Residency | $150,000 | n/a | Georgia residence only | Residence permit | 80 |
| 15 | 🇨🇾 Cyprus Permanent Residency | Residency | €300,000 | 4-6 months | EU member state | Residence permit | 79.9 |
| 16 | 🇮🇹 Italy Investor Visa | Residency | €250,000 | Approximately 3-6 months end to end; nulla osta decision by law within 30 days of a complete application | Visa-free travel throughout the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 78.7 |
| 17 | 🇲🇺 Mauritius Residency | Residency | $375,000 | 2-6 months | Mauritius residence only | Residence permit | 77.7 |
| 18 | 🇵🇹 Portugal Golden Visa | Residency | €250,000 | 12-18 months | Schengen Area | Residence permit | 77.6 |
| 19 | 🇱🇻 Latvia Golden Visa | Residency | €60,000 | Approximately 2-4 months | Visa-free short-stay travel throughout the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 76.1 |
| 20 | 🇻🇺 Vanuatu | Citizenship | $130,000 | 45-60 days | 90 visa-free | Passport | 75.9 |
| 21 | 🇲🇽 Mexico Residence by Investment | Residency | $300,000 | n/a | Mexico residence only | Residence permit | 73.2 |
| 22 | 🇳🇷 Nauru | Citizenship | $90,000 | 3-4 months | 86 visa-free | Passport | 72.5 |
| 23 | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica Investor Residency | Residency | $150,000 | Approximately 6-12 months from filing to resolution | Costa Rica residence only | Residence permit | 72 |
| 24 | 🇦🇪 UAE Golden Visa | Residency | AED 2,000,000 | 2-3 months | United Arab Emirates residence only | Residence permit | 71.6 |
| 25 | 🇸🇹 São Tomé and Príncipe | Citizenship | $90,000 | 6-8 weeks | 61 visa-free | Passport | 71.1 |
| 26 | 🇪🇬 Egypt | Citizenship | $250,000 | 2-4 months | 51 visa-free | Passport | 70.1 |
| 27 | 🇯🇴 Jordan | Citizenship | $493,000 | Approximately 3-6 months for the citizenship route | 52 visa-free | Passport | 68.7 |
| 28 | 🇨🇻 Cape Verde Residence by Investment | Residency | €80,000 | Approximately 2-4 weeks from a complete submission | Cape Verde residence only | Residence permit | 67.9 |
| 29 | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | Citizenship | $140,000 | around 90 days | 62 visa-free | Passport | 67.5 |
| 30 | 🇲🇻 Maldives Pearl Residence | Residency | $250,000 | Maldives residence only | Residence permit | 65.6 | |
| 31 | 🇧🇸 Bahamas Residency by Investment | Residency | $1,000,000 | Approximately 3-6 months under the streamlined process | Bahamas residence only | Residence permit | 64 |
| 32 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Premium Residency | Residency | SAR 800,000 | 60-90 business days for review; 2-4 weeks for card issuance after approval | Saudi Arabia residence only | Residence permit | 63.9 |
| 33 | 🇴🇲 Oman Golden Visa | Residency | OMR 200,000 | 3-6 weeks | Oman residence only | Residence permit | 58.9 |
| 34 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | Citizenship | $400,000 | Approximately 3-6 months from complete application to citizenship | 114 visa-free | Passport | null |
| 35 | 🇪🇨 Ecuador Investor Residence | Residency | $48,200 | ~60 days from application to approval | Ecuador residence only | Residence permit | 87.6 |
| 36 | 🇦🇱 Albania Residence by Investment | Residency | €100,000 | Approx. 10-25 working days for the residence-permit decision once documents are complete | Albania residence only | Residence permit | 85.4 |
| 37 | 🇵🇪 Peru Investor Residence | Residency | $130,000 | Approx. 30 business days for the Migraciones decision once the file is complete ; total project time | Peru residence only | Residence permit | 83.7 |
| 38 | 🇭🇳 Honduras Investor Residence | Residency | $50,000 | Honduras residence only | Residence permit | 82 | |
| 39 | 🇯🇵 Japan Business Manager Visa | Residency | ¥30,000,000 | Approximately 1-3 months for the residence-status examination once a complete application is filed. A Certificate of Eligibility | Japan residence only | Residence permit | 81.7 |
| 40 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia Business Residence | Residency | €50,000 | n/a | Yes | Residence permit | 81.7 |
| 41 | 🇬🇬 Guernsey Investor Residence | Residency | £200,000 | Adviser/market guides: Open Market property identification ~4-12 weeks; conveyancing ~8-16 weeks; Housing Licence & Population Management registration ~2-6 weeks post-completion, total end-to-end to arrival typically ~4-7 months. | Guernsey residence only | Residence permit | 81.1 |
| 42 | 🇰🇭 Cambodia My Second Home (CM2H) | Residency | $50,000 | 4-6 months | Cambodia residence only | Residence permit | 80.7 |
| 43 | 🇷🇸 Serbia Residence | Residency | €50,000 | Statutory decision deadline 30 days from a complete application; in practice ~30-60 days. Residence card ready ~10 working days after biometrics. | Serbia residence only | Residence permit | 80.7 |
| 44 | 🇦🇮 Anguilla Residence by Investment | Residency | $150,000 | Approximately 3 months to approval | Anguilla residence only | Residence permit | 80.6 |
| 45 | 🇬🇹 Guatemala Investor Residence | Residency | $100,000 | Approximately 2-6 months from complete submission | Guatemala residence only | Residence permit | 79.3 |
| 46 | 🇨🇴 Colombia Migrant Investor Visa | Residency | $191,930 | Approximately 2-6 weeks from a complete online application; visa decisions are issued electronically by the Visa Authority. | Colombia residence only | Residence permit | 78.1 |
| 47 | 🇸🇻 El Salvador (Freedom Visa) | Citizenship | $1,000,000 | Government online review reported at up to ~6 weeks; advisory pages cite 6-8 weeks end-to-end including a ~30-45 day due-diligence window and passport issuance. | 135 visa-free | Passport | 78 |
| 48 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan Investment Residence | Residency | TWD 15,000,000 | Investment approval | Taiwan residence only | Residence permit | 77.1 |
| 49 | 🇪🇪 Estonia Business Residence | Residency | €65,000 | Decision within 90 days | Estonia is an EU member and full Schengen Area member; the residence card permits visa-free travel across the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 76.3 |
| 50 | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic Residence by Investment | Residency | $200,000 | n/a | Dominican Republic residence only | Residence permit | 75.6 |
| 51 | 🇲🇸 Montserrat Economic Residence | Residency | XCD 400,000 | n/a | Montserrat residence only | Residence permit | 75.6 |
| 52 | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria Investor Permanent Residence | Residency | €512,000 | Approximately 3-7 months from application to permanent-residence card in hand | Bulgaria is an EU member and a Schengen Area member | Residence permit | 75.2 |
| 53 | 🇰🇪 Kenya Class G Investor Permit | Residency | $100,000 | Approximately 3-6 months for a complete and accurate application | Kenya residence only | Residence permit | 75 |
| 54 | 🇭🇷 Croatia Business Residence | Residency | €26,545 | Typically several weeks to a few months for the stay-and-work permit decision; company formation adds time. | Visa-free travel throughout the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 74.2 |
| 55 | 🇫🇯 Fiji Investor Residence | Residency | FJD 250,000 | 21 working days | Fiji residence only | Residence permit | 73.6 |
| 56 | 🇰🇷 South Korea Investment Immigration | Residency | KRW 1,000,000,000 | Approximately 3-4 months from complete application to F-2 issuance | South Korea residence only | Residence permit | 71.6 |
| 57 | 🇨🇱 Chile Investor Residence | Residency | $500,000 | Official pages do not publish a fixed SERMIG decision time; investor/InvestChile-sponsored files are prioritised but timelines vary. | Chile residence only | Residence permit | 70.9 |
| 58 | 🇿🇦 South Africa Business Visa | Residency | ZAR 5,000,000 | 2 months | South Africa residence only | Residence permit | 70.7 |
| 59 | 🇲🇪 Montenegro Residence by Investment | Residency | €150,000 | ~40 days from a complete application | Montenegro residence only | Residence permit | 70 |
| 60 | 🇨🇼 Curaçao Investor Residence | Residency | $281,000 | n/a | Curaçao residence only | Residence permit | 69.7 |
| 61 | 🇹🇨 Turks & Caicos Permanent Residence | Residency | $300,000 | n/a | Turks & Caicos Islands residence only | Residence permit | 69.7 |
| 62 | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg Investor Residence | Residency | €500,000 | n/a | Holders of a Luxembourg residence permit may travel visa-free within the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 69.2 |
| 63 | 🇳🇦 Namibia Residence by Investment | Residency | $300,000 | ~3 months | Namibia residence only | Residence permit | 68.5 |
| 64 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand Active Investor Plus | Residency | NZD 5,000,000 | 4 months to approval in principle | New Zealand residence only | Residence permit | 65 |
| 65 | 🇶🇦 Qatar Residence by Investment | Residency | QAR 730,000 | Typically 1-3 months end-to-end | Qatar residence only | Residence permit | 63.6 |
| 66 | 🇵🇭 Philippines SRRV | Residency | $15,000 | Approximately 1-2 months from the date PRA receives the complete application package and the time deposit. | Philippines residence only | Residence permit | 63 |
| 67 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam Investor Visa | Residency | $115,500 | n/a | Vietnam residence only | Residence permit | 61.5 |
| 68 | 🇧🇭 Bahrain Golden Residency | Residency | BHD 130,000 | 5 working days for property owners, employees | Bahrain residence only | Residence permit | 61 |
| 69 | 🇨🇿 Czechia Residence for Investment | Residency | CZK 75,000,000 | n/a | Czech residence card permits visa-free short-stay travel throughout the Schengen Area | Residence permit | 57.2 |
| 70 | 🇸🇬 Singapore Global Investor Programme | Residency | SGD 10,000,000 | Approximately 12 months for a GIP application to be processed, subject to complete document submission and due-diligence checks. | Singapore residence only | Residence permit | 55.5 |
| 71 | 🇳🇬 Nigeria Investor Visa | Residency | $250,000 | , NIS pages state the visa is valid 90 days from issuance but do not state an adjudication timeline | Nigeria residence only | Residence permit | 53.7 |
| 72 | 🇷🇼 Rwanda Residence by Investment | Residency | $250,000 | n/a | Rwanda residence only | Residence permit | 51.4 |
| 73 | 🇰🇾 Cayman Islands Residence by Investment | Residency | KYD 1,000,000 | R41: approximately 4 months. R42: approximately 3-6 months | Cayman Islands residence only | Residence permit | 51.1 |
| 74 | 🇸🇨 Seychelles Permanent Residence | Residency | $1,000,000 | n/a | Seychelles residence only | Residence permit | 51 |
| 75 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia Golden Visa | Residency | $350,000 | No fixed statutory SLA published; Golden Visa marketed as streamlined/priority immigration handling. Advisory estimates commonly cite a few weeks once documents and funds are in place. | Indonesia residence only | Residence permit | 49.2 |
| 76 | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Golden Paradise Residence Visa | Residency | $200,000 | n/a | Sri Lanka residence only | Residence permit | 41.4 |
| 77 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong CIES | Residency | HKD 30,000,000 | No single official end-to-end figure is published; practitioners typically estimate several months from Net Asset Assessment approval to investment completion and grant of stay, | Hong Kong SAR China residence only | Residence permit | 38.4 |
| 78 | 🇦🇩 Andorra Passive Residence | Residency | €400,000 | The applicant undertakes, when filing, to complete the investment within six months, extendable by a further six months where force majeure or the fault of a third party prevented it | Andorra residence only | Residence permit | 37.1 |
| 79 | 🇰🇼 Kuwait Investor Residency | Residency | KWD 5,000,000 | Kuwait residence only | Residence permit | 23.6 |
Generated from the Mirabello verified programme dataset, 2026 Q3 Edition. Only programmes with rank_status "ranked" appear here; provisional and reference entries are tracked in the full Index.
Indicative routing only, never an eligibility determination. The AI assessment maps your answers against all 98 tracked programmes.
Methodology and integrity
Each programme is scored 0-100 on seven dimensions, combined into a weighted composite. Where a dimension has no verified data it is excluded and the remaining weights are re-normalized (see data_completeness). The full weights, dimension definitions and official-source hierarchy are published on the Index methodology page. This comparison is rules-based: it reports where each programme leads on published criteria, and it does not recommend one programme over the other, because there is no universal winner.
Generated from the Mirabello verified programme dataset, 2026 Q3 Edition.
Head-to-head
Every pair page compares the two programmes metric by metric on the same verified dataset, with per-row sources, family cost computation where verified fee schedules exist, and the observatory change log for both.
Questions
On the current 2026 Q3 Edition, St. Kitts and Nevis holds the highest composite in this table (89.4 / 100). The ranking is rules-based against published, weighted criteria; it is not a recommendation and there is no universal winner, because the right programme depends on the criteria you weight.
Each programme is scored 0-100 on seven dimensions, combined into a weighted composite. Where a dimension has no verified data it is excluded and the remaining weights are re-normalized (see data_completeness). The full weights and dimension definitions are published on the Index methodology page, and every headline figure carries field-level provenance with a verification date.
Published minimums in this table run from $15,000 upwards, before government fees per family member. Family totals differ materially by programme; the pair pages linked below compute government-side family costs from published fee schedules where verified data exists.
On published processing scores in the current dataset, Armenia Residency currently leads this table on the speed dimension. Published timelines are indicative lower bounds; individual files vary with due diligence and documentation.
Yes. Governments amend thresholds, fees and rules; verified changes are recorded in the public Mirabello observatory change log with official sources, and this page regenerates from the dataset each edition. Verify time-sensitive figures against the linked official source.
A confidential, no-obligation conversation with a Mirabello specialist, in your language, on the verified figures.
Book a free consultation WhatsApp usMirabello Consultancy provides information and advisory services on investment-migration programmes. Figures on this page are indicative, verified against official sources and provenance-tracked; they are informational only, not an eligibility determination and not legal, tax, immigration or investment advice. Programme terms change; confirm the detail with a specialist and seek independent advice where appropriate.