AMSTERDAM – Wealthy billionaires from across the world will no longer be able to get Golden Visas of the Netherlands as it will be scrapped soon.
A statement provided by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service in the Netherlands (NLS) confirmed that the residence permit for inter-investors will no longer be available from 1 January 2024.
The country’s Golden Visa Program allowed wealthy foreign investors to acquire residency in the country if they contributed at least €1,250,000 to the economy and met specific requirements.
According to the conditions, wealthy individuals needed to invest the amount in a company based in the Netherlands or in a fund that, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, is in line with the SEED scheme.
SEED scheme is a venture company or a contractual joint venture that invests in a company in the Netherlands, Schengenvisainfor reported.
“You deposit the amount to be invested into a bank account of a Dutch bank or a bank of an EU Member State with a branch in the Dutch,” NLS had said.
Dutch authorities introduced the Golden Visa Program in 2013 to spur economic growth but as it failed to grab attention, the country made some changes in 2018.
Other European powers also introduced such Golden Visa Schemes including Spain, Portugal, and Greece; however, Portugal is also scrapping the Golden Visa Scheme.
Portugal became the second country after Ireland to do away with the Golden Visa scheme despite the fact that Portugal saw a total of 41.9 percent increase in investments through this programme last year.
Some say that the scheme was scrapped due to a surge in the prices of real estate and housing rents which made it difficult for locals to secure any place.
Meanwhile, authorities in EU countries have repeatedly pressed all European countries that offer Golden Visas to suspend the program citing that this pathway provides criminals an oppurtunity to acquire residency.
