Nigeria · Residency by investment
Investor Visa / Permanent Residence Visa Ladder (N3A-N3E)
Open on paper, but consular only, with no published fee schedule or service standard. Despite being labeled a Permanent Residence Visa, every class is term-limited and non-extendable. There is no true permanent residence in Nigeria. Applicants also need a prior F4B or F4C business visa, which is a real gate to clear. Whether these visa classes are actually used in practice is the key open question, and it is unresolved.
We include Nigeria mainly to advise against it. There is no permanent residence, the passport ranks 90, and the required capital must be imported and retained. Under the 2026 tax reform, an investor holding retained Nigerian capital along with family ties can be pulled into worldwide tax residency on well under 183 days. The investor visa and the residency test simply do not work well together.
Qualifying routes
Requires USD 250k-500k imported and retained. Term: 3 years.
Requires USD 500k-1m. Term: 4 years.
Requires USD 1m-10m. Term: 6 years.
Requires USD 10m+. Term: 8 years.
Covers oil, gas and power. Requires USD 100m. Term: 10 years.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $250k
- Total landed cost
- This cannot be established. No published fee schedule exists for the investor classes. The document that governs day-to-day status, CERPAC, costs USD 2,000 per employed adult per year. It is renewable annually but never becomes permanent.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Physical presence
- Not published
- Family
- Dependants can be included through CERPAC, at USD 2,000 per employed adult per year
- Permanent residency
- There is none. Despite the Permanent Residence Visa label, every class is term-limited and non-extendable, and CERPAC, though perpetually renewable, never becomes permanent.
- Citizenship
- Naturalisation requires 15 years of residence, plus a State Governor's opinion that the applicant is acceptable to the local community and has assimilated into the Nigerian way of life. That judgment is fully discretionary and cannot be appealed.
- Language test
- None required by statute
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- Prior F4B or F4C business visaCapital imported into Nigeria and retained thereCERPAC registrationClean record
- There is no permanent residence in Nigeria, despite the Permanent Residence Visa branding. Every class is term-limited and cannot be extended.
- The residency net widened starting 1 January 2026. You are resident if you are domiciled, or a permanent home is available to you, or you have a habitual abode, or you spend 183 days in the country. You are also resident if you have substantial economic ties or immediate family ties in Nigeria. An investor holding USD 250k+ of retained capital, plus family, can become resident on well under 183 days. Residents are taxed on worldwide income.
- The capital gains position has deteriorated sharply. From 1 January 2026, the distinction between capital and income is abolished. Individual gains are now added to income at rates up to 25%, a 2.5x increase. Indirect offshore transfers are now taxable too, closing the classic offshore-holdco exit.
- A Nigerian resident is legally restricted from buying foreign exchange to invest in foreign-currency securities abroad. For a globally invested family, this restriction is disqualifying on its own.
- Naturalised Nigerians may keep a foreign citizenship they held from birth. The common claim that they must renounce every other citizenship is wrong. But any citizenship acquired afterward must be renounced within five months, and a naturalised Nigerian who later takes on a new citizenship loses Nigerian citizenship immediately. For anyone building a portfolio of citizenships, Nigerian naturalisation actively works against that strategy.
- Section 30 still allows a naturalised citizen to be stripped of citizenship for disloyalty by act or speech.
- There is no confirmation that the Migrant e-Settlement Card exists at all. The exact term returns zero relevant results worldwide, and it appears on no official immigration page. The Brown Card PR permit is equally untraceable. Treat both as non-existent until a client can supply the actual document.
- An official Ministry of Interior page publishes Requirements for Acquiring Citizenship by Investment at USD 1,000,000, for a route that has no constitutional basis. Chapter III provides only for birth, registration and naturalisation. The proposed HB 2059 passed second reading on 26 March 2025. It specifies no threshold and needs two-thirds of both chambers plus two-thirds of 36 State Houses. The USD 300,000 Nigeria CBI advertised on agency sites appears to be fabricated.
- The millionaire population fell 47% over the decade, down to 7,200 residents. The smart money is leaving. This is not somewhere we would advise clients to move to.
- The Expatriate Employment Levy was suspended on 8 March 2024, a week before it was due to take effect. Its own portal still runs on an expired TLS certificate, which is a fair proxy for how much institutional attention it is getting.