Golden Visas Without Physical Presence 2026

I have spent the last month reading every active golden visa program document, every January–April 2026 policy circular, and every Financial Supervisory Commission fund prospectus I could find. The question most plan-B applicants actually ask — and the question most marketing material dodges — is this: which programs let me hold EU residency without having to live in the country? The honest answer in April 2026 is that six programs meet the zero-presence bar (Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, Italy), one is effectively zero (Portugal at seven days per year), and the differences between them are not presence at all. They are investment threshold, time to citizenship, and political stability.

The Plan-B Framework: Why Presence Is the Wrong Top-Line Variable

Here is what I noticed reading the program documents side by side. Most plan-B applicants open the conversation asking about presence requirements. The programs they end up choosing are not the ones with the lowest presence bar — because at the zero-presence tier, the programs are essentially interchangeable on that variable. The decisions that actually matter are secondary. Investment threshold. Time to citizenship. Language requirement for naturalisation. Stability of the program's legal framework. Quality of the fund market or investment ecosystem. Political risk over the holding period.

The plan-B framework I use with guests is this. Start by sorting out which programs meet the zero-or-near-zero presence bar — that is your shortlist. Then rank the shortlist on the single secondary factor that matters most for the specific applicant. Then stress-test the top two picks against political risk over a five- to ten-year holding period, because every EU program in this category has been under active legislative pressure since late 2023 and the direction is not favourable.

What this framework explicitly rejects is the idea that there is a single "best" zero-presence program. There is not. Latvia at €50,000 is the right answer for budget-constrained applicants who do not need citizenship. Bulgaria at €512,000 is the right answer for citizenship-focused applicants who want the lowest language bar. Portugal at €500,000 is the right answer for applicants who want the widest fund market and can accept the seven-day-per-year presence rule. Malta is the right answer for applicants who value Schengen access and immediate permanent residency and can absorb the €150,000+ all-in cost. None of these programs dominates the others on all axes. The matching is the work.

The Six Zero-Presence EU Programs

Per IMI Daily's April 2026 analysis of every active European golden visa, six programs require zero ongoing physical residence to maintain status. Portugal requires seven days per year, which is functionally close to zero but not literally zero. Cyprus requires a visit once every two years. The six genuine zero-presence EU programs are Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Malta, and Italy. Here is what each actually costs and what you get for it.

*Latvia does not recognise dual citizenship for most non-EU applicants, which materially limits its citizenship utility.

Latvia is the entry point by cost and has been since the program launched on July 1, 2010. The €50,000 equity investment must go into a qualifying Latvian operating company that pays at least €40,000 per year in Latvian taxes, employs fewer than 50 people, and generates under €10 million in annual revenue. The €10,000 state fee is paid once. Latvia's parliament has been considering amendments that could reduce the residence permit from five years to two, with grandfathering for existing holders; the timing is not fixed as of April 2026.

Hungary's Guest Investor Residence Permit launched on July 1, 2024, and has become one of the more actively marketed new programs. The €250,000 real estate fund route remains open. The €500,000 direct real estate route was abolished on January 15, 2025, after housing-pressure concerns, and the €1 million donation to higher education alternative is rarely used. Henley & Partners has publicly stated that the Hungarian program has "stalled" and that it does not recommend applying in its current form — which is unusual language from a firm that earns fees by processing applications. I take that warning seriously. Hungary is on the list but at the bottom of it.

Greece restructured into zone-based pricing under Law 5162/2024, effective August 31, 2024. Zone A at €800,000 covers Attica, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and islands with population above 3,100. Zone B at €400,000 covers most of the rest of Greece. Zone C at €250,000 is restricted to commercial-to-residential conversions and protected heritage restoration projects. The short-term rental ban for qualifying properties is aggressive — €50,000 fine plus permit revocation — and the backlog of pending applications stood at approximately 42,390 as of November 2025. Greece works if you are buying in the right zone for the right reason.

Malta's Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP) is structurally different from the other five because it offers immediate permanent residency rather than a temporary-to-permanent cycle. The headline number varies because of how Maltese immigration advisers calculate it, but a realistic all-in cost for a family of four is €150,000 to €250,000 when you add the government contribution, admin fee, property purchase or rental threshold, charity donation, and professional fees. Malta is in Schengen, is politically stable relative to peer programs, and has a mature professional services ecosystem.

Italy's investor visa at €250,000 in a qualifying innovative startup is the cheapest Italian route and is specifically aimed at channelling capital into Italy's technology ecosystem. The investment carries ordinary startup risk, which is substantial. For applicants who want Italy for tax optimisation rather than as a pure plan-B holding, the €500,000 limited company route or €2 million government bond route is typically structured alongside the €200,000 flat tax regime, and the combination is where Italy becomes interesting rather than the residency permit in isolation.

Bulgaria's Golden Visa requires €512,000 in a Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission–licensed fund, which must be an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) or Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) investing primarily in Bulgarian listed assets. Bulgaria joined the Schengen Area on January 1, 2025, and adopted the euro on January 1, 2026, which eliminated the currency risk that previously complicated subscriptions. The approved fund universe is very small — only two fully compliant funds operate as of early 2026, one equity-focused and one fixed-income — and the Financial Supervision Commission has set a €1.5 million minimum fund capital requirement to encourage new entrants into the market.

My Ranking Methodology

Here is the honest output of that methodology across the six zero-presence EU programs as of April 2026.

Note that this ranking will annoy almost everyone. Latvia gets ranked fifth despite being the cheapest, because the dual citizenship restriction cripples the program for most non-EU applicants. Hungary is last despite being well-priced, because the people who process applications for a living are publicly telling clients not to use it. Bulgaria is first despite lower brand recognition than Portugal, because the combination of structural features (immediate PR, five-year citizenship, A1 language, 10 percent tax, Schengen access, euro-denominated) is not matched by any other program at any price point. If your priorities differ from mine, the ranking order will shift — that is the point of the framework.

Matching the Program to the Specific Goal

Cheapest optionality hedge with Schengen travel rights. Latvia at €60,000 all-in through the business investment route, provided you are not from a jurisdiction where the dual citizenship restriction matters. If you are US, UK, Middle Eastern, Asian, African, or Latin American and you want the citizenship option open, Latvia is the wrong answer regardless of price and you should go to Bulgaria instead at ten times the cost. I say this plainly because most marketing material does not.

Fastest credible path to an EU passport with the lowest language barrier. Bulgaria. Five years from PR to citizenship, A1 language achievable in two months of remote study, immediate PR on day one rather than a temporary-to-permanent cycle. No other EU program competes on this specific combination.

Mature institutional investment product in a jurisdiction with brand recognition. Portugal (with the seven-day presence asterisk) or Malta. Portugal has the deepest approved fund market (23+ CMVM-regulated funds) and the longest track record. Malta has the tightest regulatory framework and the most predictable processing. Both are expensive relative to Bulgaria and Latvia, but the ecosystem maturity justifies the premium for applicants who prioritise that factor.

Tax optimisation combined with residency for high earners. Italy, via the €250,000 startup investor visa combined with the Article 24-bis flat tax at €200,000 per year. The residency permit by itself is not the reason to choose Italy. The combination of residency and the flat tax is, and for applicants with foreign income above €1 million per year, the Italian package is often the single best wealth-migration product in Europe.

Mediterranean lifestyle alongside the optionality. Greece in Zone B at €400,000 if you will genuinely use the property as a second home. The Airbnb ban for qualifying properties has closed the "buy it and rent it out" angle — if that was your plan, Greece is no longer the right program and you should look at Portugal or Italy instead.

Programs I Dismissed and Why

Applying the Wirecutter principle that telling you what I rejected is more useful than telling you what I chose, here is the explicit dismissal list for April 2026. These are programs that come up in most golden visa listicles but that I do not recommend to plan-B applicants asking about zero-presence options.

Spain. Killed April 2025. The replacement routes all require 183 days per year of physical presence, which disqualifies Spain from the zero-presence category entirely. If you see a 2026 article recommending the Spain golden visa, the article is not current.

Portugal (Golden Visa real estate route). Closed October 2023 under the Mais Habitação reform (Law 56/2023). The remaining €500,000 fund route works but requires seven days per year in Portugal, which is functionally close to zero but disqualifies it from a strict zero-presence ranking. If the seven days are acceptable, Portugal becomes a top-three choice; if they are not, Portugal is out of scope.

Cyprus Permanent Residency. Not in Schengen as of April 2026, which removes the single most valuable feature for most plan-B applicants. Cyprus has a zero-to-minimal presence requirement (one visit every two years) and a €300,000 headline minimum that looks attractive, but the lack of Schengen access makes it a different product from the six programs above. If Cyprus joins Schengen, I will revisit this.

Romania. Proposed a €400,000 golden visa in November 2025. Cancelled the proposal shortly after the Supreme Council of National Defence raised concerns about Schengen membership, Visa Waiver Program status, and OECD ambitions. Romania has no active golden visa in 2026. If you see marketing for one, verify against primary Romanian government sources before engaging.

Netherlands. Quietly discontinued its investor residence option. Not available in 2026.

Switzerland lump-sum taxation. Not technically a golden visa — it is a cantonal tax ruling, not an immigration product — but it comes up in the same conversations. It requires actual residence in Switzerland and meaningful presence, which puts it in a different category. For wealthy applicants who will genuinely live in Switzerland, the lump-sum ruling can be excellent; for plan-B applicants looking for optionality, it is the wrong instrument.

The Political Stability Risk That Every Program Faces

I want to say this plainly because the marketing material on these programs consistently understates it. Every European golden visa program has been under active legislative pressure for the last 24 months, and the direction of that pressure has been uniformly restrictive. This is the most important single fact about the category that applicants should factor into their planning, and it is the factor that most marketing material either ignores or dismisses in a footnote.

The evidence. Spain killed its golden visa outright in April 2025 under housing-affordability political pressure. Portugal closed the real estate route in October 2023 under the same pressure, and the Portuguese parliament voted in October 2025 to extend naturalisation to ten years — a vote that the Constitutional Court struck down in part in December 2025 and that the President vetoed. Hungary abolished its €500,000 direct real estate golden visa route in January 2025. Greece restructured into zone-based pricing in August 2024 and banned short-term rental use for qualifying properties with a €50,000 fine. Romania proposed then cancelled its €400,000 program in November 2025. The Netherlands quietly discontinued its investor residence option.

Beyond the program-specific changes, the EU-level pressure has also hardened. ETIAS is set to launch in late 2026 and become mandatory by October 2027. The European Parliament's LIBE Committee approved amendments to Regulation 2018/1806 in October 2025 that would allow the EU to suspend visa-free Schengen access for nationals of countries offering citizenship-by-investment programs. The investment migration category in Europe is not becoming easier, it is becoming harder. Applicants who assume today's programs will look the same in five years are making a bet that the last 24 months of pattern do not continue. I would not take that bet.

What this means practically for plan-B applicants: move quickly on the program you choose, document your application carefully, avoid aggressive structures that could be caught by retroactive due diligence, and build your plan-B strategy around multiple jurisdictions rather than a single program. The resilience comes from diversification across plan-Bs, not from betting everything on one program continuing to exist in its current form.

The Plan-B Decision Tree

Here is the simplified version of the framework. Work through it in order. Each question eliminates programs that do not meet your specific constraint.

Step 1: What is your total budget for the investment and fees? Under €100,000 points to Latvia (business route) or nothing else on this list. Between €100,000 and €300,000 points to Latvia (real estate), Hungary, Italy (startup), Malta (MPRP), or Greece Zone C. Between €300,000 and €600,000 points to Portugal, Greece Zone A or B, Italy (company), Bulgaria, or Malta (upper MPRP configurations). Above €600,000 opens Italy (government bonds at €2 million), premium Greek zones, and the combination plays with Italy's flat tax.

Step 2: Do you need Schengen access through the residency permit itself? Yes eliminates Cyprus. No changes nothing because every other program on the shortlist already provides Schengen.

Step 3: Do you want a credible path to EU citizenship from the residency? Yes and you need the fastest, lowest-language-bar path points to Bulgaria. Yes and you want a mature mainstream program points to Portugal (with the seven-day caveat). Yes and you already come from a dual-citizenship-permitted jurisdiction points to Latvia as a budget option. No — you only need residency optionality without citizenship — opens all six programs equally and should be decided on cost alone.

Step 4: Do you have tax-residency objectives alongside the residency permit? Italy's flat tax at €200,000 per year on foreign income is the best wealth-migration tax regime in Europe for high earners with foreign income above €1 million per year. Bulgaria's 10 percent flat tax is the best for applicants with moderate foreign income who can actually become Bulgarian tax residents. Greek non-dom at €100,000 is competitive for mid-range high earners. Portugal NHR has been substantially wound down. Neither Latvia nor Hungary offers a specific tax advantage for plan-B applicants.

Step 5: How much political risk are you willing to absorb on the program continuing to exist in its current form for the full holding period? Low political risk tolerance points to Malta and Bulgaria, both of which have been stable through the 2024–2026 period of restructuring. Medium points to Portugal (despite the ongoing legislative review). Higher political risk tolerance is required for Latvia (pending permit-duration amendments), Hungary (Henley's public warning), and Greece (continued zone restructuring pressure). Italy sits in the middle.

Work through the five questions in order and most applicants will end up with a shortlist of two or three programs. The final decision usually comes down to the specific trade-off between investment threshold and citizenship timeline, and that is a decision the framework cannot make for you.

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