08/03/22

MALTA: Golden passport gets Henley's top spot for seventh year in a row.

As published on timesofmalta.com, Tuesday 8 March, 2022.

Malta’s Citizenship by Investment Program has made it to the top spot in the Henley and Partners Global Citizenship Programme Index rankings for the seventh consecutive year.

The rankings were published as part of the 2022 edition of the annual Investment Migration Programs ­­report, which offer “a systematic analysis and comprehensive benchmarking of the world’s most important residence and citizenship by investment programs, providing the gold standard in this field", H&P said in a statement on Tuesday.

This year’s edition was further expanded and now includes comprehensive analysis and comparison of 40 programmes, the highest number to date.

The programs are appraised by a panel of experts including academic researchers, economists, expert immigration and citizenship lawyers and country risk and industry specialists, who consider a broad range of factors.

In the rankings, Malta obtained a score of 77 out of 100, followed by Austria, which obtained a score of 74, and Montenegro, which scored 72.

Portugal headed the Global Residence Program Index, while, Malta’s recently established programme ranked fifth, with a score of 65.

Malta ranks joint second with five other countries where it comes to reputation with Austria leading the pack. Again Austria comes out on top where it comes to quality of life, with Malta placing second above Montenegro.

Malta places top for compliance and transparency and joint first where it comes to relocation flexibility.

Last week, Malta suspended Russians and Belarusians from both its citizenship-by-investment scheme as well as residency through investment scheme, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It said that due to recent developments the necessary due diligence checks cannot be carried out effectively.

Both the European Commission and the United States have said they will be taking measures to stop “golden passport” sales to wealthy Russians, as part of a raft of sanctions against Russia.