Montenegro

No, it is confirmed closed. The Special Investment Programme concluded on 31 December 2022, as stated directly on Henley & Partners' own Montenegro page, after sustained EU pressure over abuse potential and the risk of assisting Russian nationals in evading sanctions. Nothing has replaced it, and no CBI exists in 2026. Hundreds of applications remained in the pipeline at closure. Any intermediary still marketing it is trading on a programme that ended more than three years ago.

Almost certainly not, and this is the single most consequential fact about Montenegro for a UHNW family. Article 8(2) of the Citizenship Law requires renunciation of your previous citizenship for naturalisation, unless a bilateral treaty provides otherwise. Article 24 goes further. A Montenegrin who acquires another citizenship loses Montenegrin citizenship, so the rule bites after naturalisation too. The narrow exceptions are dual citizens as at independence on 3 June 2006, a ratified reciprocal bilateral treaty, and the Special Investment Programme, which closed on 31 December 2022. When the CBI closed, the single realistic carve-out that let a naturalising investor keep their existing passport closed with it.

EUR 150,000. That figure changed very recently. Amendments to the Law on Foreigners were adopted on the final day of 2025 and entered into force on 17 January 2026. They impose a minimum property taxable value of EUR 150,000, where previously there was no official minimum. The government's opening position in November 2025 was EUR 200,000 before parliament settled lower. Here is the critical part. The EUR 150,000 is assessed on the Tax Authority's transfer-tax value, not the contract price. So a property bought at EUR 160,000 could still be assessed below the threshold and fail. Any research on file dated before 2026 is now wrong.

It is the region's best near-term accession bet, targeting 2028. Commissioner Kos has endorsed the timeline, and 16 of 33 chapters are provisionally closed. A residence permit acquired now could convert to EU residence rights within a few years, and that is the real value proposition here. But accession cuts both ways. It brings EU tax transparency, DAC and the end of arbitrage. The Pillar Two domestic minimum top-up tax, gazetted on 10 March 2026, already shows the 9% corporate rate being fenced in for in-scope groups.

No. The property permit is purely passive. It does not allow employment or business activity in Montenegro. Families who want to run a business need the company route instead. It is an easy distinction to get wrong, and an expensive one to unwind. The property permit also requires proof that you actually use the property, not just that you own it, so it is not a pure paper residency.

For most clients, yes. A Montenegrin company can be formed with share capital as low as EUR 1, it was unaffected by the January 2026 property amendments, and, unlike the property permit, it actually permits economic activity in Montenegro. Advisers often default to the property route because it generates a commission, but the company route usually serves the client better at a fraction of the EUR 150,000 capital cost. Self-employment is mandatory, though. Owning the company is not enough, and payroll plus social contributions follow.

No. The ten-year clock and the 2028 accession date do not align. A family starting today reaches permanent residence after five years and naturalises around 2036, long after accession. So there is no path to catching EU citizenship at the moment of accession via naturalisation. And even at year ten, renunciation of your existing passport would be mandatory. The realistic value in Montenegro is EU residence rights, not EU citizenship.

Personal income tax runs to 15%, with a municipal surtax of 13% (15% in Podgorica and Cetinje) levied on the tax amount. There is no wealth tax, and inheritance and capital gains are exempt for close family and on a principal residence. Montenegro uses the euro but is not in the eurozone, so it has no central bank of its own and no lender of last resort. You get euro-denominated stability without eurozone institutional backing. EU nationals plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and their family members regardless of nationality, are exempt from the EUR 150,000 property threshold entirely.