The world is changing: new perspectives are opening up for some, and old opportunities are closing up for others. First of all, the changes concerned immigration programs and the possibility of obtaining citizenship for investments. Today we will talk to the emigration expert of Apex Capital Partners Corporation Yulia Gotskaya about the situation with obtaining citizenship and residence permits for citizens of Russia and Belarus: what options remain open, and what to do for those who have already started the process, but have not yet been received any documents?

— Please tell us about the main changes in obtaining citizenship (residence permit) for investments.

— At the moment, all programs for obtaining a residence permit or citizenship for investments are working, but some states have suspended the receipt of documents from citizens from Russia and Belarus. Citizenship of Turkey, the Arab Emirates (including for the opening of a company) and permanent residence in Canada and Cyprus are still available for Russians and Belarusians. One of the most popular destinations now is Turkey, because it is a more understandable route for Russians and Belarusians, and the threshold of entry there is relatively low (buying real estate from 250,000 US dollars). Read more about obtaining Turkish citizenship for investments (and apply) here.

Also, for Russians, there are difficulties in transfer of funds to accounts of foreign banks. For those who already have the citizenship of another country, there are questions with movement, because air communication with many countries is closed.

— What should Russians for whom the process of obtaining citizenship for investments is already started, but who haven’t received citizenship yet, do? Will they still be able to obtain citizenship?

— At the moment, there is no information about the cancellation of citizenship or residence permit in the already launched programs. Therefore, with those Russians and Belarusians who have managed to apply for citizenship or residence permits for investments, we have kept working strictly according to the plan. 

— Has the number of Russians who want to obtain citizenship or residence permits for investments increased?

— Yes, the number of Russians and Belarusians who were dragging their feet and had doubts before joining this program, and now want to receive citizenship or a residence permit for a different country, has sharply increased. In 2020, we already saw an increase in applications at the start of the pandemic, but it is not comparable to the number of applicants we received after February 2022.

In doing so, people often just want to be safe and feel freer in today’s world. 

— Is it possible to make at least a rough forecast in relation to immigration programs?

— Now available programs for citizens of Russia and Belarus are catastrophically few, and people simply choose from what little there is. All we can do now is wait. No one can make any predictions now just because the world is changing by the day. In my opinion, the question of programs for obtaining citizenship by investment for Russians and Belarusians is up in the air. But I try to be optimistic and hope for the best.

We remind you that we talked about emigration trends in three other articles with APEX Capital Partners: