Belarus

Fifteen thousand base units, under Article 53 of Law No. 105-Z. That is not a fixed sum — the base unit is re-set each January, and it rose from BYN 42 to BYN 45 on 1 January 2026, which puts the current threshold at BYN 675,000, roughly USD 232,000. Older material quoting EUR 150,000 is working from a superseded version of the rule. The investment can go into a business, into intellectual property or into a public-private partnership, by any means not prohibited by law. The route grants permanent residence directly, without the usual years on a temporary permit first.

No. Belarus does not recognise dual citizenship, and Article 14 of the Law on Citizenship requires that you hold no other citizenship, or lose it on acquiring Belarusian citizenship, or at minimum have applied to the foreign authority to terminate it. A narrow presidential exception exists but is not something to plan around. This is the condition that rules the route out for almost everyone considering a second passport rather than a change of life.

Five, and the confusion is understandable because it used to be seven. Article 14 now requires five years of continuous residence after the permanent residence permit is granted. The qualifying residence is strict: you need the permanent permit in hand, and absences of no more than 90 days in any calendar year. Note that the seven-year figure survives in a different place — it is roughly how long you spend on renewable temporary permits before a permanent one becomes available, if you do not qualify on the investment or family grounds.

No, and the Interior Ministry's citizenship and migration department has said publicly that there are no plans to introduce one. Parliamentary discussion of the idea has surfaced periodically and been reported as though a launch were imminent; it has not happened. What exists is the investment route to permanent residence under Article 53, which is a residence permit and nothing more. Anyone offering a Belarusian passport in exchange for money is describing something that does not exist.

Not since 2026, and this is the most commonly repeated stale fact about Belarusian tax. Law No. 127-Z of 30 December 2025 introduced a genuine three-band scale from 1 January 2026: 13% on the first BYN 350,000 of annual income, 25% on the slice to BYN 600,000 and 30% above that. It is marginal, not cliff-edge. The practical trap is that employers withhold only the 13% during the year — the top-up above BYN 350,000 is self-assessed, declared by 31 March 2027 and paid by 1 June 2027, so it is easy to reach the end of the year with an unbudgeted liability.

No. Belarus is not part of the OECD Global Forum, has not signed the CRS multilateral agreement and does not conduct automatic exchange of financial account information. But do not read that as durable opacity. Exchange on request and spontaneous exchange both operate, bilateral mutual assistance agreements exist — notably with Russia — and CIS arrangements provide for exchange by 1 August of the year following the reporting year. Accession to automatic exchange has been publicly floated by the tax authorities without a committed date. There is also no controlled foreign company regime today, though the debate on introducing one was described as active in July 2026.

If you hold one of 38 European passports, yes — the visa waiver has been extended by presidential decree to 31 December 2026. Entry is through all international road and rail crossings and the airports, on a valid travel document. The stay is capped at 30 days per entry, except for Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian citizens and holders of Latvian non-citizen status, who get 90, and total visa-free time cannot exceed 90 days in a calendar year. It is a tourism and business measure, not a relocation route: 30 days does not support living there, and it builds nothing toward residence.

You cannot renew it where you are. Since Decree No. 278 of 4 September 2023, Belarusian embassies and consulates no longer issue or extend passports, and no longer perform a range of other notarial acts — powers of attorney among them. Citizens living permanently abroad must apply through the main consular department of the foreign ministry or through the migration department at their last registered address in Belarus, which in practice means returning. For anyone who might one day be unwilling or unable to enter Belarus, this materially reduces what the passport is worth.