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Montenegro.

How Montenegro sells citizenship and residence for investors: 2 programmes, 1 of them open today. Every number and rule below links to the document it comes from.

462
numbers
67
prices and rules
52
events
37
documents and articles
Citizenship·Closed·2018–2022

Special investment programme

Sells citizenship, and with it a passport.

Official name: Posebni program ulaganja od posebnog značaja za privredni i ekonomski interes Crne Gore (Special Investment Programme of Special Importance for the Economic Interest of Montenegro; "economic citizenship")

Lowest price when it closed: €450,000

At closure (31 Dec 2022): EUR 250,000 in a listed development project in the north or centre, plus EUR 100,000 to the fund for less developed municipalities, plus EUR 100,000 to the Innovation Fund (added from 31 Dec 2021). In Podgorica or on the coast the project minimum was EUR 450,000 (t-cf43bc8c78), i.e. EUR 650,000 in total. Fees of EUR 15,000 excluded.

Notes from the research

Created by Government decision of 22 Nov 2018 (Službeni list CG 79/2018 of 7 Dec 2018), in force on the eighth day after publication (15 Dec 2018, the launched date) and applied from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Dec 2021. It rests on art. 3a(2) of the Government decision on criteria for scientific, economic, cultural and sporting interest for naturalisation (Službeni list CG 34/10, 40/16, 62/18). Applicant pays EUR 100,000 into an escrow account for less developed municipalities and invests at least EUR 450,000 (Podgorica or coast) or EUR 250,000 (north/centre) in a government-listed development project (in practice condo-hotel units), plus fees of EUR 15,000 per applicant and EUR 10,000 per family member. From 31 Dec 2021 an extra EUR 100,000 to the Innovation Fund. Cap of 2,000 decisions. Applications only through licensed intermediary agents (Henley & Partners, Arton, Apex), with due-diligence agents. Originally to end 31 Dec 2021; extended on 30 Dec 2021 to 31 Dec 2022, then expired; pending applications still decided in 2026 (5 left on 1 Sep 2026). 1,113 applications filed nationally, 869 approved, 239 refused; the EC counts 556 main applicants with 1,281 family members. Over 70% of passports to 2022 went to Russian citizens (EC).

Applications pending
02505007501k202220232024202520262027

Prices and rules

Rules while it was open

What is measured

  • Applications pending76
  • Applications approved51
  • Money the programme handed to the government38
  • People who became citizens37
  • Applications received36
  • Applications turned down27
  • Hotel rooms in programme real-estate projects25
  • Planned investment in approved programme projects25
  • Jobs created by programme investors25
  • Number of fund contributions (donations) received21
  • Donations paid into the government's fund18
  • Programme money held in applicants' escrow accounts15
  • CBI real-estate investment inflows11
  • Investment projects approved for a programme10
  • Applications for an agent licence8
  • CBI fees collected by the programme unit6
  • Passports issued5
  • Programme projects covered by monitoring reports4
  • Monitoring reports on programme projects adopted4
  • Applications processed3
  • All money paid by buyers, including property purchases3
  • Investors approved, not counting family members3
  • Investment by programme investors3
  • Dependants approved2
  • Applicant share1
  • Share of applications decided1
  • Dependants granted citizenship1
  • Processing time1
  • Project proposals received1
  • Compliance site visits to programme entities1
Residence·Open·since 2015

Montenegro temporary residence for owners of real property (Zakon o strancima, art. 54 (2016 text) / art. 56 (2018 law); EUR 150,000 minimum from the 2025 amendment)

Sells the right to live in the country (a “golden visa”), sometimes leading to citizenship later.

Notes from the research

Montenegro's Law on Foreigners allows temporary residence 'for the use and disposal of rights to real property' a foreigner owns in Montenegro (houses, villas, flats, hospitality and business premises). Until 2026 the law set no minimum value (a 2015 decree on the type and value of such property, Sl. list CG 61/15, was repealed by the 2016 amendment). The amendment adopted on 31 December 2025 requires proof that the property's real-estate transfer tax base is at least EUR 150,000 (EU/EEA/Swiss nationals exempt); media reports of EUR 200,000 are not what the adopted text says. Launched 2015-04-01: the date the 2014 Law on Foreigners applies from (it enters into force on the eighth day after a publication date that isn't stored); the government's 2014 explanatory memorandum calls the property ground new; the 2026 entry-into-force date (eighth day after publication) is not stored, since the Službeni list publication is not stored, so the EUR 150,000 rule has no valid_from. Separate from the closed citizenship programme mne-cbi.

Prices and rules

Ways in that apply today (minimum amounts)

What is measured

No published numbers found for this programme. That is itself worth knowing: see the notes and the documents below.

Explore

All the numbers we have for Montenegro

Pick what you want to see. Each dot is one number from one document; click anything to open its source.

Timeline

What happened, and when

Sources

The 37 documents behind this page

The stories behind the numbers

Who buys passports and golden visas, what they cost, and what happens when governments change the rules. Written from this data, in the newsletter.

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