Do Golden Visas let you skip residency requirements?
Most Golden Visas have a low or zero MINIMUM stay to keep the visa, but to convert to permanent residence or citizenship still requires substantial physical-presence days — usually 5-10 years of residence with annual minimums.
The truth
The Portuguese Golden Visa (when it was open for real estate, now restricted) famously required only 7 days per year in Portugal to maintain the visa — and that was true. But the path to Portuguese citizenship via that visa still required 5 years of legal residence and demonstration of integration (basic Portuguese language, ties to the country). The Spanish Investor Residence (now closed for real estate) similarly maintained on minimal stays, but PR required 5 years and citizenship 10 years (2 for Iberoamerican nationals). The UAE Golden Visa (5/10 year) requires NO minimum stay — but UAE famously has no path to citizenship for most foreigners. Caribbean CBI programs (St Kitts, Antigua, Dominica) genuinely give citizenship immediately — but only because their starting position is offering citizenship, not residence. The misleading marketing is implying that you can sidestep ALL physical presence to obtain a strong passport — that's only true for the Caribbean CBI / Türkiye CBI / Malta CBI programs (which themselves carry significant scrutiny), not for the standard residency-by-investment programs.
Why this rumour persists
Golden-visa marketing emphasises 'no minimum stay' to appeal to internationally mobile clients who want optionality without commitment. The deeper truth — that converting golden-visa residence to citizenship requires real physical presence — is mentioned in fine print but not the headline.
What to actually do
- Read the program's PR / citizenship qualifying terms separately from the visa-maintenance terms — these are different
- Calculate the actual days-in-country required for the path to PR / citizenship — for most EU programs this is 5+ years of substantive presence
- Confirm whether the program is currently OPEN — many Golden Visas have been closed (Portugal RE 2023, Spain RE 2025, Ireland 2023, Greece RE tightened 2024)
- If you're considering CBI for the passport itself, verify the destination passport's visa-free list AGAINST your current passport's — sometimes the gain is smaller than the marketing suggests