Ireland, Spain also bar Russians from residency programs

By Uglobal Staff

Ireland and Spain have become the latest European countries to announce a blanket ban on investment immigration programs for all Russian nationals. They are joining the ranks of other EU states, Greece, Malta and Portugal, which recently announced similar restrictions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On March 16, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares was quoted in the media as saying that his country would not issue any residency visas to Russians despite them wanting to invest half a million euros.

The Spanish diplomatic office estimates that 492 golden visas were issued to Russians between 2020 and the end of January 2022.

Earlier this month, the Irish Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, said that Ireland's Immigrant Investor Program would no longer accept applications from Russian citizens.

"I have recently instructed that no further applications from Russian citizens will be accepted into the Immigrant Investor Program," McEntee said, according to media.

Since 2012, only three Russian citizens availed the IIP program, which offers permanent residency visas to investors in exchange for a minimum million-euro investment, according to the Irish Department of Justice.

On February 26, the European Commission issued a joint statement with several Western countries, among them the non-EU states of the UK, Canada and the US, which outlined a host of sanctions against Russia, including a commitment to prohibit all golden visas, also known as residency by investment, and golden passports, also known as citizenship by investment, for all Russians. 

Portugal suspended its RCBI program for Russians and Belarusians on February 26; this was followed by Greece and Malta, and several Caribbean states.

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