Moldova · Residency by investment
Investor Residence Permit (Law No. 200/2010, Article 36¹)
Open. The legal basis is Law No. 200/2010 (Articles 31 and 36), together with Law No. 81/2004. The threshold is defined as 30 forecast average monthly salaries. With the 2026 forecast salary set at MDL 17,400, that works out to roughly MDL 522,000, or about EUR 26,000–27,000. Several advisory sites claim this route requires around EUR 100,000. That figure does not reconcile with the official Invest Moldova formula or the published salary figure, and appears to be wrong.
Moldova is the only jurisdiction in this group with real EU accession momentum. Screening was completed on 22 September 2025, the first cluster (Fundamentals) formally opened on 15 June 2026, and the government is targeting all six clusters open by end-2026, with an accession agreement signed by end-2028. The passport already carries visa-free access to Schengen. Entry is genuinely cheap, roughly EUR 26,000, not the EUR 100,000 that gets widely quoted.
Qualifying routes
Roughly MDL 522,000. A 2-year permit.
A 3-year permit.
A 4-year permit.
A 5-year permit.
An 8-year permit.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €26k
- Total landed cost
- The investment itself, plus a MDL 3,600 application fee and roughly EUR 2,000–5,000 in legal and formation costs. There is an alternative to the capital threshold: creating at least one full-time job paying at or above the average wage.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 1–3 months (Processed by the Bureau for Migration and Asylum.)
- Physical presence
- Required. This is what builds the permanent-residence clock.
- Family
- SpouseDependent children
- Permanent residency
- Roughly 5 continuous years of temporary residence.
- Citizenship
- 10 years, counted from the grant of permanent residence rather than from arrival. Realistically, that means 15+ years in total.
- Language test
- A Romanian language test.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- A qualifying investment or job creation.A registered Moldovan company.A clean criminal record.Health insurance.Proof of accommodation.
- Naturalisation is a fifteen-year proposition, not ten. The ten years run from the grant of permanent residence, and permanent residence itself needs roughly five continuous years of temporary residence first. Do not sell Moldova as a citizenship route. The requirement drops to 3 years for spouses, parents or children of citizens, and to 8 years for recognised refugees.
- The EUR 100,000 figure circulating on advisory sites is wrong. The official formula is 30 forecast average monthly salaries, which works out to roughly EUR 26,000 to 27,000 for 2026. If an adviser quotes EUR 100,000, they have not read the source.
- EU accession is the entire thesis, and it is reversible with one election. The 2028 signature target is a political statement, not a base case. Independent assessment calls it ambitious but achievable. Moldova's politics have swung before.
- Transnistria remains unresolved, and Moldova sits directly on the Ukrainian border, with the regional security exposure that implies.
- A new biometric Residence Card replaced the old permit and ID from 1 January 2026.
- CFC rules are not confirmed in the official text. Do not represent Moldova as having none.