The citizenship of Montenegro by investments program continues its work in the fall of 2022 and so far, remains the only legal option in Europe for investors for obtaining citizenship directly, skipping step of being in status of permanent resident. Albania recently made an official statement that it wants to choose a company to promote its own passport program internationally. However, industry experts do not see prospects for a real launch of the finished product in the near future. Moreover, Montenegro has every chance of completing the process of integration into the EU, while Albania is very far from it. The question remains, what could be the competitive advantage of Albania’s passport program?
In Cyprus, the program of granting permanent residence on the basis of real estate investments from €300,000 continues to work. But the local citizenship program has been down for several years and has been officially closed. Moreover, repeated inspections of some applications are still dragging on, which, according to auditors, were not carried out thoroughly enough. Recall that Cyprus until a certain moment carried out the necessary checks by the forces of its departments, without external participation. The conclusion from this can be made as follows — the investment citizenship program should be transparent, work with external licensed contractors for checking candidates (due diligence).
Montenegrin CIP (citizenship of Montenegro by investments program) in this regard meets all the criteria, and you will still have time to apply for participation. Please note that there are only three months left for this, as it takes time to prepare all the necessary documents for application!
❓What are the key objectives of Montenegro’s program and how does it fit them
Montenegro is successfully continuing to work on integration into the EU, which will end in 2025. The investment citizenship of Montenegro program has been developed for several years, it was initially agreed with the EU, and is designed to attract investments in a specific sector of the economy — to develop tourism infrastructure. Moreover, with an emphasis on the north of the country, where ski resorts are located.
The Montenegrin authorities have a development plan, according to which there will be more ski slopes in the north, it will be possible to get north quickly from international airports (in about 30 minutes from Podgorica to the Kolashin region) via the autobahn, which is already open in test mode, and the official launch is scheduled for autumn 2022 year.
But the citizenship of Montenegro by investments program remains a key role in the development of the hotel sector. Actually, the investment scheme is as follows. The investor selects from the list of authorized projects in the north (250,000 euros) or in the south (450,000 euros), and to this is added two non-refundable contributions to state funds totaling 200,000 euros. The current list of authorized projects can always be checked here – MIA.
❓What is the progress of hotel construction under the Сitizenship of Montenegro by investments program? Are there any guarantees that the construction will be completed without delays
During the operation of the citizenship of Montenegro by investments program, the list of projects authorized for it was constantly expanded (in 2019,2020,2021). This is due to the fact that developers had to undergo a multi-stage state audit. Moreover, some projects (such as the AMMA Resort in the south and the Montis Mountain Resort in the north) contributed €2.5 million to a special insurance account as a guarantee of completion of construction on time. The authorities monitor the progress on projects, and the developers themselves regularly send reports, our Montenegrin colleagues from the APEX office personally visit the construction sites with enviable frequency, watch how everything is progressing. If you plan to visit Montenegro and visit construction sites to select a project, please contact us.
Projects are actively being built (for example, Montis Mountain Resort by Splendid in the north and Amma Resort InterContinental in the south), some are already almost completed (for example, BREZA in the north). The construction itself has already provided many jobs. But in the future, all these hotels will take the tourism industry of Montenegro, the most important for the country, to a new level.
❓Will the program be renewed again
It is impossible to exclude such a probability, but we work taking into account the fact that the completion of the сitizenship of Montenegro program has been announced, therefore we do not recommend postponing the decision to participate. This is a unique program and a unique opportunity to obtain European citizenship, and without the obligation of residence, without the requirement to renounce other existing citizenship.
❓Is it possible to have time to submit an application to the investment program of Montenegro
Yes, it’s possible. The main thing is to prepare all the documents, submit them, and, of course, open the necessary escrow accounts, pay fees by December 31, 2022. By the way, you can apply ONLY through an licensed agent, and it does not matter where you are — in Montenegro or in another country. Please note that the investment itself will be in the escrow account until the approval of the citizenship application is received.
