Second passport or Golden Visa: citizenship versus residence permit

A passport is a right, not a permission. That one sentence settles the whole question. A visa can be refused, left unrenewed or withdrawn; a citizenship belongs to you. Once that has sunk in, you read every Golden Visa brochure with different eyes. For an overview of every route to a second passport, see the second passport guide.

What is a golden passport, and what is a Golden Visa?

The two terms sound related, and that is exactly where the confusion comes from. Yet they describe two completely different things.

A Golden Visa is a residence permit in exchange for an investment. A state allows you to live there because you buy property, invest capital or set up a business. You remain a foreigner throughout. You keep travelling on your German passport, you receive a residence card, and that card almost always has an expiry date. The United Arab Emirates themselves describe their Golden Visa as a long-term, renewable residence visa valid for five or ten years. Greece grants investors a residence permit that likewise has to be renewed. And renewable always means one more thing: someone else decides on the renewal.

A golden passport is citizenship by investment, CBI for short. You make a contribution to a government fund or buy approved real estate, pass a background check and become a citizen. At the end you hold a passport of your own, issued in your name as a national. How these programmes work in detail is set out in the overview Buying citizenship.

The difference in one sentence: the Golden Visa answers the question of where you may live. The golden passport answers the question of who you are in law.

Residence permit or citizenship: what counts?

A residence permit is an administrative decision. It is granted, it is renewed, it can be refused. It comes with conditions: the investment you have to keep, often minimum stays, the renewal fee, and the politics of the country five or ten years from now. If the state changes its rules, your status changes with them.

Citizenship is a status. It does not expire. Your passport has an expiry date, your nationality does not. You renew the document, not your right. That is exactly what the phrase "a right, not a permission" means, and it is argued in full in A right, not a permission.

Here is what that means in everyday life:

As a German, you have one more point to weigh, one that long counted against a second passport and no longer applies. Since 27 June 2024, Germany generally accepts multiple citizenship. Anyone who acquires another nationality no longer loses their German one, and no retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) is needed. The golden passport complements your German passport; it does not replace it.

When the Golden Visa ends: lessons from Spain and the UK

A residence permit is only as stable as the law it rests on. Two examples from Europe make this tangible.

Spain

In Article 63 of Law 14/2013, Spain provided for a residence visa for investors, the "Visado de residencia para inversores". Organic Law 1/2025 of 2 January 2025 emptied that article with effect from 3 April 2025. In the official text of the law, the heading is now followed only by "Sin contenido". Anyone hoping to build a Plan B on this visa today will find no legal basis for it.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom also had an investor visa, the Tier 1 (Investor) visa. The British government now puts it in a single line: you can no longer apply for a new Tier 1 (Investor) visa.

The lesson

Laws change, and no state asks you first. The difference lies in what you are holding when the rules change. With a Golden Visa, your next renewal depends on the new rules. With citizenship, you remain a citizen, whatever the legislature changes later. That is why a second passport is insurance you take out before you need it. More on this in Second passport as insurance.

What does a golden passport cost, and what does a Golden Visa cost?

The common assumption goes like this: the Golden Visa is the cheap option, the passport the expensive one. A look at the figures tells a different story.

The United Arab Emirates require property and capital investors to put in a minimum of AED 2 million for the Golden Visa. Many citizenships by investment start well below that:

These amounts are the minimum contributions for the main applicant on each programme's cheapest donation route. On top come government fees such as application and due diligence fees, and for families additional contributions for each dependant. You'll find the full calculation for each programme under Costs, and every programme side by side in the comparison.

A second point is easily overlooked with a Golden Visa: the investment is often not a one-off expense but tied-up capital that you have to hold to keep the permit renewed. A contribution to a CBI fund, by contrast, is a one-off payment, and after that you are a citizen.

If you're planning on a smaller budget, the most affordable routes are in Buying citizenship cheaply. Plan B Projekt sets out residence permits and citizenships by investment side by side in Buying citizenship and Golden Visa: all routes (in German).

Living there or not: residence requirements compared

For most Germans looking for a Plan B, this is the deciding question. You don't want to emigrate straight away. You want a door that stands open when you need it.

With a Golden Visa, the answer differs from country to country. The Emirates explicitly present it as an advantage of their Golden Visa that you can stay outside the country for longer than the usual six months without losing the permit. That wording alone reveals the logic of a residence permit: stay away too long and you put your status at risk, and an exception to that rule becomes a selling point. Which Golden Visas manage without a residence requirement is shown, for instance, on the pages about the UAE Golden Visa and the Greece Golden Visa (both in German).

With many citizenships by investment, the question never even arises. Dominica's Citizenship by Investment Unit states clearly that you need to live in Dominica neither before nor after naturalisation. St Kitts and Nevis advertises "No mandatory travel or residency requirements". São Tomé and Príncipe requires no move, either during or after the application. And Sierra Leone runs entirely remotely: no trip to the country, no embassy appointment, and the oath of allegiance is notarised over Zoom.

That is the heart of the comparison. A Golden Visa is a right of residence that you have to keep alive by being there, or whose exemption you pay for. A citizen has nothing to keep alive. A citizen is a citizen, whether they live in the country or not.

From Golden Visa to passport: naturalisation takes years

Many Golden Visas are marketed with the promise that after a few years you can apply for citizenship. That is often true, but the promise usually leaves out the condition: naturalisation generally requires years of genuine, lawful residence. If you chose the Golden Visa precisely because you don't want to move, this route will not get you to a passport.

That doesn't make naturalisation the weaker route. Quite the opposite: naturalisation is the free route to citizenship, and in the end often the better one. All it takes is time, language skills, paperwork and a real life built in the country. Which countries naturalise fastest is shown in Fastest naturalisation, and the whole route is explained in Naturalisation abroad.

So the smartest answer is not either/or, but both. The golden passport protects you after just a few months, while naturalisation through genuine residence builds a second foundation over the years. CBI buys you the time that naturalisation needs. How to combine the two routes is covered in CBI and naturalisation.

Sierra Leone: Golden Visa and passport from one country

One programme shows both routes side by side with particular clarity: Sierra Leone. The country offers a Golden Visa and citizenship through Special Naturalization, and the difference is plain to see.

Sierra Leone's Golden Visa is permanent residence without a passport. It starts at 60,000 USD, including an investment in 1 kg of gold held at the central bank of Sierra Leone. You receive a lifelong residence permit, but no passport. An upgrade to citizenship later on is possible.

Citizenship through Fast Track Citizenship starts at 140,000 USD for the main applicant, plus dependants and due diligence. Spouses, children, parents, grandparents and siblings can come along. From a complete application to the passport usually takes 90-120 days, and everything runs remotely. Sierra Leone accepts multiple citizenship without restriction, so your German passport is left untouched.

The numbers show the principle in miniature. The Golden Visa is the cheaper way in and gives you a safe place. The passport gives you a right, a travel document and the option of including your family. All the details are on the programme page Sierra Leone, and the rules for dependants under Family.

Tax: what neither visa nor passport changes on its own

One misunderstanding refuses to die: that a Golden Visa or a second passport takes you out of the German tax net. It does not. In Germany, what decides is not your passport but whether you have a residence or your habitual abode here: if you do, you have unlimited tax liability under § 1(1) of the Income Tax Act (Einkommensteuergesetz). Under § 8 of the Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung), a person is resident wherever they have a home under circumstances suggesting that they will keep and use it.

As long as you live in Germany, neither a residence permit abroad nor a second citizenship changes anything about your tax liability. For tax purposes, what counts is the move itself. Once you actually leave, the difference matters again: the residence permit allows you to live in one country, while citizenship makes you independent of any permission. How residence, citizenship and tax interact is covered under Tax.

Combining a Golden Visa and a second passport: the strongest solution

Once you understand both tools, you stop setting them against each other and start putting them in order. The second passport is the foundation: a permanent right, a second travel document, a second embassy, a status that does not hang on a renewal. The Golden Visa is the place: a country where you may live because you have invested there.

This is what a well-thought-out Plan B looks like in practice:

1. The passport first. Citizenship by investment in a country that allows multiple citizenship and has no residence requirement. It is in place within a few months and includes your family.
2. Then the place. A residence permit where you actually want to live, whether on the Mediterranean, in the Gulf or in Latin America.
3. Naturalisation in the long run. If you really live in your new country, the residence permit can turn into a further citizenship after some years.

The passport makes you independent of whether the Golden Visa will still be renewed in ten years' time. The Golden Visa gives you the place where you want to live today. Together they are stronger than either one alone. Why a second passport is worth having at all is set out in eight reasons under Why a second passport.

In the end, the question from the kitchen table remains. A Golden Visa buys you a permission. A golden passport gives you a right. Build your Plan B on a right, and you sleep more soundly.

Frequently asked questions