
Malta Offers Citizenship and All Its Perks for a Price - sytelus
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/business/dealbook/malta-offers-citizenship-and-all-its-perks-for-a-price.html
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kijin
I'd like to see an offer of the opposite kind: Citizenship or green card for a
relatively low cost, but you need to pay relatively high taxes on your global
income for the rest of your life.

Why would anyone choose that? Well, there are many reasons. A booming economy
with good jobs, excellent educational opportunities for children, and a robust
social safety net (funded by those high taxes) will attract hard-working
people from developing countries to come and work to make your economy grow
even more.

Both Canada and Australia could have used this tactic a long time ago, but
unfortunately both of them are still too strict on skilled workers and trying
too hard to attract millionaires. Guess what, those millionaires will not
contribute a single penny to your economy besides the initial payment, whereas
a thousand skilled workers will actually pay you millions of dollars in taxes
every year.

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jane_is_here
Australia has long offered something similar: "This is a way to achieve Full
Permanent Residence without having strict regulations on yourself to work in
Australia.

To be eligible for this visa, you need to have had AUD750,000 in eligible
assets for the last 5 years = all assets such as stocks, bonds, savings, 2nd /
3rd homes - but not the house that you have lived in.

You also need to have had AUD1,125,000 (1.125 million) in total assets (which
can include the house that you live in) for at least the last 2 years.

If you are eligible, then at the time of the decision you made a government
approved Designated Investment for at least AUD750,000 in a State or Territory
of Australia. This amount must be available for transfer to Australia within a
reasonable period when requested."

~~~
technotony
the USA has a similar scheme. If you invest $1MM in a business (or $500k if
it's an area they are trying to get more investment into) then you get a green
card: [http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-
job/green...](http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-job/green-
card-through-investment)

~~~
grecy
Canada has something similar too.

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bayesianhorse
The war on immigration is failing. Stop restricting it.

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riffraff
On a sidenote, a lot of EU countries will grant citizenship to descendants of
nationals (specific rules vary, but this includes off the top of my head
Italy, Poland, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Croatia, Hungary etc).

This obviously doesn't apply for the world at large, but many people from the
Americas are likely to have some european roots.

~~~
jfoster
The term for this is "citizenship by descent", in case anyone wants to look
into it. Usually it will require that either your parents or grandparents were
citizens when you were born.

~~~
riffraff
thanks, the expression I commonly heard was "jus sanguinis" in contrast with
"jus soli" (citizenship by birthplace).

But: in many cases it's not just close ancestors, i.e. you can get italian
citizenship if you have _any_ ancestor who was born in italy since the 1800,
as long as they didn't renounce it.

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patkai
I think Hungarian citizenship is about 300k, it's a new thing. EU passport and
good location.

~~~
leni536
Any source for this? I don't mind if it's Hungarian.

~~~
patkai
I think the ministry of foreign affairs outsources this operation to different
companies, and each company takes care of a certain region e.g. China etc. You
need to invest in bonds only, and get your investment back in 5 years, so the
actual cost is pretty low. [http://www.residency-
bond.eu/](http://www.residency-bond.eu/) And the info is probably not
available in Hungarian as it is directed to foreigners :)

~~~
leni536
You get lifetime residency and Schengen visa not citizenship and EU passport.
That's a big difference.

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xasos
This is a very interesting move. Estonia is doing something similar, by
offering E-Residency to foreigners for a price [1]. With some very restrictive
governments, this gives wealthy foreigners some leeway to go around the rules.

> “We want to attract individuals who can add value to our country because of
> their ideas, and their networks and their businesses and their talent”

If this goal can come to fruition, this would be a great boost to Malta. I
don't necessarily see it happening, and see more abuse of the citizenship than
anything (probably to gain access to the EU's business benefits). However, it
could potentially be a game changer. I wonder if other countries will follow
suit.

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/26/estonia-
offers-...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/26/estonia-offers-e-
residency-to-world-what-does-it-mean)

~~~
eps
What Estonia has is not similar at all.

Maltese citizenship grants you the right to live anywhere in EU and
Switzerland. Not just visit, but _settle_. On the other hand Estonia's
e-residency doesn't even give you a right to enter Estonia itself.

~~~
xasos
I think I mentioned that, check the linked article :)

It's similar in the fact that you are paying for residency in a way. You get
the benefit of having an Estonian residency online, rather than your own, if
so inclined.

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allendoerfer
Sounds scary to a European. But on the other hand, they have money, we just
have to tax them.

~~~
bayesianhorse
Why is that "scary"? The usual arguments (which I don't subscribe to) about
social welfare etc don't really apply to people willing to pay that much.

I don't care for any immigration restriction at all. The war on immigration is
failing globally. The US pays about 18 billion Dollars a year to enforce these
laws, and has about a dozen Million illegal immigrants. Germany is quickly
approaching the point where it should be deporting something like 500.000
persons a year, roughly the dimension of third-reich deportations, to not
increase the population of illegal immigrants. But of course we can't deport
that many people, even if we wanted to.

There will be a point where the European Union is forced to abandon the war on
immigration. I just hope we don't lose our souls while trying to avoid that
conclusion.

~~~
allendoerfer
Yeah, that position is easy. You are on the side that wants the poor African
childs to live, while I am the bad guy in your story. I am not against
individual immigrants either. But you have to be realistic.

You just can not deny the fact that massive immigration is a challenge for a
society. If we only had an example of a country whose leading film industry
produces movies about China towns, Ghettos, racism, the Italian mafia and the
like, that I could show you …

Blaming the EU for its war on immigration is shortsighted. The European Union
is as pro immigration as it can get. It is a continent with countries that
spend the last thousands of years killing each other and people of 28 states
are now free to move wherever they want. And it is expanding.

Social integration does not magically work. It is a good thing, when it works,
but you need the commitment to invest big sums into it. See how hard it is to
do this inside the EU. If we wanted to fix Greece, it would be a small hickup
in our statistics.

If the EU now opens its borders without investing billions in integration
programs, we will not get our _melting pot_ but our very own _salad bowl_ with
Baltimores and Fergusons all over the place. I would say, pick an easier one
first and take a look at Greece or Romania and Bulgaria, whose people are free
to move here but have problems of similar scale [0] and the bad EU opened up
to recently. That investment will pay dividends enabling us to take on the
next one.

[0]: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285796/Romanian-
gyp...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285796/Romanian-gypsies-
living-condemned-ghetto-mayor-built-wall-around.html)

~~~
bayesianhorse
I'm saying "It's impossible to deport half a Million illegal immigrants,
because of logistic and ethical reasons" and you are saying "We have to, out
of convenience!"

And yes, it's about convenience. The number of immigrants could be a few times
higher before we're actually at a point where it's not just costing some
money.

~~~
allendoerfer
Not deporting 500.000 people != "not caring for immigration restriction at
all"

Where do you get this number from anyway?

You know, Germany has no borders, but the EU has indeed some. You can stop
people there. There are other things you can do. Germany is taking proactive
measures to stop emigrants from the Balkan.

We could stabilize North Africa again - hopefully this time without the
dictators - and get them to stop the smugglers for us, like Gaddafi did.

I am not saying to not let them in either. Just list some requirements like
knowledge of the language, a degree, maybe a job, just like the US, Canada and
Australia do - typical countries Germans emigrate to, where they have to meet
their requirements.

~~~
bayesianhorse
Easy: 2015 there will be roughly 500.000 refugees seeking asylum. An
additional large number (about 200.000, but hard to determine) is arriving in
Germany and doesn't request asylum. Then there's currently about 135.000
people who got refused on asylum.

Projecting a further rise in asylum seekers, it's not unreasonable to assume
that from the currently 100k-300k additional people arriving as either asylum
seekers or poor illegal immigrants, it's not unreasonable to assume that about
500.000 people have to be deported to halt the rise in the "asylum/illegal"
population. The exact number doesn't matter, currently, we can deport maybe
20K, so even 100k would mean scaling the capacity by a factor of five.

The examples of US and Canada are particularly bad. Yes, they have strict
immigration laws, yes they enforce them strictly, but both countries are
losing their war on immigration. The US spends 20 billion Dollar a year on
immigration enforcement, and some people say there are still 30 Million
illegal immigrants. Canada has a lower population, owing to their geography,
but they have roughly 300.000 illegal immigrants that they can't get rid of.

Australia on the other hand fights "illegal immigration" by detaining boat
refugees on sea for months, or for years in extraterritorial concentration
camps ("out of sight, out of mind"). And that doesn't mean that they don't
have a population of illegal immigrants living in their country regardless of
all their efforts...

------
Istof
Does $500k in the USA still buy you permanent residency?

~~~
inerte
Yes, if you're investing in Target Employment Area, $1 mil for the rest:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa)

Strangely, I heard the requirement of 10 jobs being created doesn't come with
a salary requirement, so I heard of folks being hired at $1 per year.

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paulhauggis
I love it. It gives me options when we have undesirable tax laws in the US.

~~~
beagle3
No it doesn't. US citizens and residents are taxed globally, regardless of
where they reside.

And the last NYT report on it, if I remember correctly, the line to give up
one's US citizenship was 5 years long (and you can't actually do that until
you're taxes are all filed and paid)

~~~
paulhauggis
I never said I wouldn't pay all of my taxes.

but you can still move your company to another country and not get double
business taxed (which will save lots of money) and get your money in a
different way than just a pay check.

It's only fair. If the US government decides to make it difficult for
businesses by raising taxes to the point of ridiculousness, I'm going to
leave.

~~~
beagle3
What's "double business taxes"? With relatively minor exceptions, if two
countries have a tax treaty among them (which is usually the case in the
western world), there are no double taxes.

(Although you are likely paying the higher, rather than the lower, of the
relevant two).

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michaelochurch
This is going to be a disaster for Malta. These people don't fuck around when
it comes to damaging the places where they live, and with a population under
half a million on tiny island, the place can't exactly take a lot of abuse.

~~~
dublinben
The entire article is about how these people don't even plan on living in
Malta. They are buying access to Europe, not Malta.

~~~
michaelochurch
That makes it even worse. It'll drive up property prices and make the locals,
relative to cost of living, a lot poorer.

There's so much filthy global money in Manhattan and California real estate
right now that it's mind-boggling. And as Malta is a tiny island nation, and
real estate exhibits extreme price inelasticity, this sort of thing can happen
quickly.

Real estate hyperinflation is a plague that must be fought with any means
necessary.

~~~
meric
Your comment is unpopular with other real estate investors on this board.

~~~
saryant
His comment doesn't make a ton of sense given that you can buy property in
Manhattan and California (and the rest of the country...) without holding
American citizenship.

Moreover, Malta is clearly selling this as a means of entry to the entire EU.
Few will likely choose to relocate to Valletta.

~~~
meric
Property in Manhattan _is_ a lot more expensive, relative to median incomes,
than in countries where property ownership is limited to locals, like in
Indonesia. The yield is at least double.

I suppose the thing with Malta is anyone who was from the EU can already go
there.

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wiradikusuma
Isn't this "single point of failures" for all criminal activities targeting
rich people?

It's like everybody putting their code in GitHub, and all hackers going after
GitHub. Wouldn't it make Malta a good target for kidnappers etc? It's not
exactly country with high security etc, unless I'm missing something.

~~~
jpatokal
Out of curiosity, what exactly _is_ a "country with high security" then? It's
considerably easier to waltz into (say) Switzerland over the unguarded border
from France than to make your way to an island nation three hours by hydrofoil
from the nearest neighbor.

Also, for what it's worth, Malta actually has a pretty good track record for
this kind of thing:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Siege_of_Malta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Siege_of_Malta)

~~~
vizzah
It's actually just 90 minutes on a commercial hydrofoil ferry ;)

