Montenegro · Citizenship by investment
Montenegro Special Investment Programme (Citizenship by Investment)
CONFIRMED CLOSED. The programme concluded on 31 December 2022, stated directly on Henley & Partners' own Montenegro page. It closed after sustained EU pressure over its potential for abuse and, later, concerns that it could help Russian nationals evade sanctions. Nothing has replaced it, and no CBI programme exists today. Hundreds of applications were still in the pipeline when it closed.
The closure matters for reasons that go well beyond losing the programme itself. Under Montenegro's Citizenship Law, the Special Investment Programme of 1 January 2019 was one of only three exceptions that allowed dual citizenship. When the programme closed on 31 December 2022, it took with it the one realistic path that let a naturalising investor keep their existing passport. Montenegro is now a residence jurisdiction only, and the CBI's closure is the reason why.
Qualifying routes
It formerly required a development investment of EUR 250k in the north or EUR 450k on the coast, plus a EUR 100k contribution to the government.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Not applicable
- Route type
- Citizenship by investment
- Physical presence
- Not applicable
- Family
- Not applicable
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- Not applicable. The only remaining route is 10-year naturalisation with renunciation.
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- Not applicable. Closed 31 December 2022.
- It is closed. Any intermediary still marketing it is selling a programme that ended more than three years ago.
- Its closure removed the dual-citizenship carve-out. This is the single most consequential fact about Montenegro for a UHNW family, and it is almost never stated in comparison tables.
- EU accession makes revival impossible. The Commission has treated investor-citizenship schemes as incompatible with membership, and the ECJ's Malta ruling settled the question.