Over 5,300 new citizens and €1.6 billion later - Malta’s ‘golden passports’
The scheme has been in place for a decade
Just over 5,300 people were granted Maltese citizenship and more than €1.6 billion was spent by applicants to Malta’s golden passport scheme in its first 10 years, government data shows.
From 2014 to the end of 2023, Malta’s controversial two citizenship by investment schemes netted the country’s sovereign wealth fund around €620 million, and its consolidated fund – essentially the country’s bank account – over €400 million.
Charitable donations amounted to almost €7.2 million, and stock and bond investments more than €235 million. Property sales and leases injected a further almost €360 million, according to the most recent regulator report for the scheme.
A total 1,549 main applicants were made Maltese citizens, bringing with them some 3,754 dependents, who also received citizenship, the report shows.
Malta started offering passports for money in 2014 with the launch of its Individual Investor Programme (IIP), later replaced by the Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services (GCES) scheme.
Despite the lucrative nature of the programme, Malta faced repeated criticism over security and corruption concerns. A European delegation once described Malta’s IIP as risking “importing criminals and money laundering into the whole EU”.
On Tuesday, Europe’s top court ruled Malta’s ‘golden passport’ scheme violates EU law, leading the government to announce it would review the judgment and update the programme.
The government has defended the programme, however, with Prime Minister Robert Abela saying shortly after the decision that the scheme had invested some €1.4 billion in the Maltese and Gozitan people.
A total 1,549 main applicants were made Maltese citizens, bringing with them some 3,754 dependents
Contributions and commissions
2016 yielded by far the biggest contributions, when the government raked in almost €280 million from the IIP. By the end of 2023, the new GCES had brought in around €80 million.
The most recent report of the Office of the Regulator for Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services also reveals that former passport concessionaire Henley & Partners netted almost €56 million from Malta’s ‘golden passport’ scheme.
The contract entitled the company to earn four per cent of every contribution fee paid by successful citizenship applicants, which equated to around €26,000 for every applicant.
The London-based citizenship consultants lost the concession when the scheme was rebranded to GCES in 2020 but continued to receive payments in subsequent years. In 2023, it earned €684,000.
Applicants paid citizenship authorities Identity Malta Agency (now Identità), Malta Individual Investor Programme Agency (MIIPA) and Community Malta Agency some €67.5 million since 2014.
Investments
Under the current GCES scheme, applicants are required to invest a minimum €600,000 in Malta and reside in the country for 36 months, which can be reduced to 12 months for a larger investment of €750,000.
Applicants are also required to buy a property worth at least €700,000 or rent one for at least €16,000 per year for a minimum of five years.
A donation of at least €10,000 to a charity or cultural, sporting, scientific or animal welfare NGO is also required, according to the government website of Community Malta Agency, which administers the scheme.
Since 2014, applicants have brought an average of 2.4 dependents with them, with past regulator reports indicating around a third were spouses, up to half minors and around a fifth adult dependents.
On average, two out of five applicants held a degree, while around a quarter held a master’s degree, the reports indicate.
While most applicants tended to come from Europe – including former Soviet states – by 2023 the highest proportion of applicants came from North America, followed by Asia.
Some 179 properties were purchased by applicants since 2014 and a further 1,445 rented, regulator reports indicate.
Citizenship authorities reported more than 50 cases for suspected money laundering and collaborated on more than 100 more.
Malta excluded Russian and Belarusian applications for ‘golden passports’ following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Europe cracked down on Kremlin-linked individuals.