Moldova

No. The Moldova Citizenship by Investment programme is confirmed dead. It launched in Q2 2018 at EUR 100,000, applications were suspended in July 2019, Parliament voted for repeal with 80 of 101 MPs in favour, and termination took effect on 1 September 2020, with the final repeal vote on 20 September 2020. Repeal was one of eight EU conditions for a EUR 30m macro-financial assistance tranche, and only 52 people were ever naturalised through it. Anyone marketing Moldova CBI in 2026 is selling a fiction that has been dead for six years, and the EU accession track makes revival inconceivable.

Realistically, fifteen years or more. Do not treat Moldova as a citizenship route. The ten-year naturalisation clock starts only once permanent residence is granted, and permanent residence itself takes roughly five continuous years of temporary residence first. That ten-year period drops to three for spouses, parents or children of a citizen, and to eight for recognised refugees. For an ordinary investor, though, the timeline is genuinely long. A Romanian-language test applies as well.

This is far less than the EUR 100,000 widely quoted. The real figure is roughly EUR 26,000–27,000 at the entry tier. The threshold under Law No. 200/2010, Article 36¹, is defined as 30 forecast average monthly salaries. With the 2026 forecast salary at MDL 17,400, that works out to about MDL 522,000. Several advisory sites cite around EUR 100,000, but that does not reconcile with the official Invest Moldova formula or the published salary figure, and it appears simply to be wrong. Higher tiers, which require more job creation, come with longer permits, up to eight years for the top band.

Of every jurisdiction in this group, Moldova has the most live accession momentum. Screening was completed on 22 September 2025. The first cluster, Fundamentals, formally opened on 15 June 2026. The government's target is to have all six clusters open by end-2026, with an accession agreement signed by end-2028. Independent assessment calls the 2028 signature target ambitious but achievable. It should be read as a political statement rather than a base case, and Moldova's politics have swung before. Transnistria also remains unresolved, and Moldova sits directly on the Ukrainian border, with the security exposure that implies.

It is by a wide margin the strongest passport among the Eurasian jurisdictions covered here. It reaches roughly 119 destinations on the Henley 2026 index at around rank 42, and it already includes visa-free Schengen access. That existing Schengen access, combined with live EU accession momentum, is the real draw. You get a genuinely useful travel document now, with upside if accession completes. The weakness is purely the naturalisation timeline, which is a fifteen-year proposition.

It is a single 7%-of-operating-revenue tax that replaces corporate tax, payroll personal income tax, social and medical contributions and several local taxes. Employees of certified residents pay 0% personal income tax. Crucially, it is state-guaranteed through 31 December 2035, with the park's operational term extended to 2037. That is a stronger and longer commitment than most of the region offers. The caveat is that 7% is levied on revenue, not profit, so on a low-margin business it is worse than it sounds. It also requires genuine certification and qualifying IT activity, not a nameplate.

Yes. Moldova permits dual citizenship, so you do not have to renounce your existing nationality. Personal income tax is a flat 12%, with capital gains included in income at the same rate and no wealth or inheritance tax. One caution: CFC rules are not confirmed in the official text, so Moldova should not be described as having none without a direct check.

Yes. A new biometric Residence Card replaced the old permit and ID from 1 January 2026, so anyone renewing or applying in 2026 should expect the new document rather than the previous format. Moldova also exchanges under CRS, with a first exchange in 2024, so there is no reporting opacity to factor in. These are administrative points, but they matter for anyone comparing pre-2026 guidance against current practice.