Luxembourg

It's open, but headed for abolition. Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden introduced a repeal bill to parliament before the 2025 summer recess, arguing the programme offers very little added value for a disproportionate amount of administrative burden. As of July 2026, the repeal has not been adopted, and guichet.public.lu still lists the conditions as current. Even so, anyone considering this route should assume the window is closing. It also isn't yet clear how existing permit holders would be treated under any transitional arrangement. This is a route to enter with eyes open, if at all.

Under the loi du 8 mars 2017, there are three routes. EUR 500,000 into an existing Luxembourg company, held for five years while maintaining employment, or into a new business that creates at least five jobs within three years via ADEM. EUR 3,000,000 into a management and investment structure with genuine local substance. Or a EUR 20,000,000 deposit with a Luxembourg financial institution, held for five years. Real estate is explicitly excluded. Neither direct nor indirect property acquisition or rental counts toward the investment. The EUR 20m deposit route is among the most expensive residence options in the world and has attracted essentially no takers.

No. This is the most instructive failure in European investment migration. Nine people have been approved since 2017 out of just 15 applicants, and four of the six who applied across 2023-2024 were refused. Before you can even file the residence application, the Ministry of Finance has to issue a favourable prior opinion on the investment project. The EUR 500,000 routes carry hard operating obligations rather than passive investment. Luxembourg priced an EU permit high, demanded real substance and real jobs, and refused real estate. It discovered the market wanted none of it. That is why the programme is now being legislated away.

No. That route is definitively closed. New applicants had to request the ancestry certificate from the Ministry of Justice by 31 December 2018. Those who met that deadline then had until 31 December 2025 to sign the recovery declaration before a civil registrar. Both deadlines have now passed. As of July 2026, the Article 89 route is fully extinct. Numerous agencies still advertise it. Any 2026 offer of the 1900 route is a red flag about the adviser. Treat it as negligent or dishonest.

The narrower option procedure remains. It is available to adult descendants of a Luxembourgish parent, adoptive parent or grandparent where nationality did not pass down automatically. More distant ancestry no longer qualifies now that the 1900 route has expired. Where the descent link is clean, the option procedure can be considerably faster than ordinary naturalisation. Descendants who missed the 1900 window should look into this route, or the ordinary five-year route, rather than trust agencies still marketing the closed option.

Ordinary naturalisation requires five years of legal residence, with the final year continuous. That is among the shortest paths in the EU, and dual citizenship has been allowed since 2009. The real filter is the Sproochentest, a test in Luxembourgish that requires A2 spoken production and B1 listening comprehension, plus a civics course called Living Together in the Grand Duchy. Luxembourgish has roughly 400,000 speakers. There is no realistic self-study path and no substitute. French and German do not count. It is the language requirement, not the residence period, that stops most applicants.

No. The net wealth tax on individuals was abolished with effect from 1 January 2006. The net wealth tax still exists, but it now applies to companies only, which is where most of the confusion comes from. There is no inheritance tax in the direct line for most assets, though rates apply between more distant relations. Personal income is taxed at up to 45.78% including the employment fund surcharge, and Luxembourg has both CFC rules and an exit tax. Residence here is a real tax commitment.

Yes, genuine residence is expected. The permit is valid for a maximum of three years and is renewable only if the investment and its conditions still hold. Permanent residence becomes available after five years of legal residence. This is not a durable status you can hold at arm's length. The five-year lock-up, the substance and job conditions, and ordinary tax exposure at up to 45.78% all assume you actually move. For a family seeking passive EU residence, Portugal, Greece and Italy price this far lower.