Bermuda

Effectively, no. That is the deliberate design, not an oversight. The Economic Investment Residential Certificate (EIRC) expressly does not confer Bermudian status, spouse-of-Bermudian status, or a Permanent Resident's Certificate (PRC). Bermuda closed the PRC route to most people decades ago, and Bermudian status is, in practice, unobtainable by investment. Anyone selling the EIRC as a route to a British passport is misrepresenting it. If a client understands they are buying indefinite residence and never status, it works.

The EIRC requires a USD 2.5m qualifying investment. You can combine it across Bermuda real estate, Government bonds, the Sinking or Trust Fund, a registered charity, or a Bermudian business. That investment must stay at threshold value for at least five years. You must also be physically present in Bermuda for a minimum of 90 days in each of those five calendar years. Both conditions continue for the full five years, and they are enforced in practice, not just on paper. Failing either puts the certificate at risk. After five years the holder may apply for a Residential Certificate, which allows indefinite residence.

For investment income, yes. There is no personal income tax, capital gains tax, wealth tax or inheritance tax, on a territorial basis. But employment income bears payroll tax, and the employee's share reaches roughly 12.5% at the top band. That only matters if you actually work in Bermuda. Land tax runs as high as 18.23% of annual rental value in the top band on residential property, which is a meaningful annual carrying cost on exactly the kind of property an EIRC holder tends to buy. A 15% corporate income tax applies from 1 January 2025, but only to multinational groups with EUR 750m-plus revenue, so it does not touch the individual.

Bermuda is one of the most expensive places on earth to live. Housing, healthcare, food and utilities are extraordinary even by Caribbean standards. Non-Bermudians can only buy real estate at the top of the market, restricted to high-ARV properties that carry a substantial licence fee on purchase. So the zero-tax result gets clawed back, in large part, through the cost of living and the cost of carrying property. Hurricane exposure adds to the bill too. Bermuda sits alone in the North Atlantic, and insurance is priced accordingly.

Yes, dual citizenship is permitted. The EIRC does not require you to renounce anything, and in fact it does not lead to any Bermudian nationality in the first place. The certificate covers a spouse and specified dependants. It suits US East Coast principals and reinsurance, fund or family-office people with genuine Bermuda ties who want a no-income-tax base within a two-hour flight of New York. It works best for those content with indefinite residence and no citizenship endgame.

It was launched in 2021 and has attracted over USD 600 million of associated investment across its first five years. This is a working programme with real uptake, assessed by the Ministry of Labour and Department of Immigration in roughly 3–9 months. Bermuda is a genuinely blue-chip jurisdiction, the world's reinsurance capital. Its honest limitation is structural, not operational. It is designed to take your capital and your 90 days a year without ever letting you become Bermudian.