Romania

Not any more, whatever the marketing claims. On paper, it is still the widest EU descent route: three generations under Article 11 of Law 21/1991, no domicile requirement, and dual citizenship retained. But approvals collapsed from 88% in 2018 to 0.37% in 2023, with none recorded in 2024 against 50,350 applications. Whatever the statute says about a two-year deadline, files are not moving. Anyone describing this as the fastest route to EU citizenship is working from pre-2023 material. Budget three years or more, and accept genuine uncertainty about the outcome.

Law 14/2025, in force 14 March 2025, reintroduced a B1 Romanian language requirement for both Article 10 and Article 11. That requirement had been eliminated in 2009, and this is the first time since then that Article 11 restoration carries a language test. A grace period lets you file without the certificate at submission stage. It originally ran to 15 March 2026 and has now been extended by one year, to 15 March 2027. This is an extension of the transition, not an abolition of the requirement. Former Romanian citizens themselves, applicants aged 65 or over, and minors are exempt from the test.

It comes down to degree of ancestry, and getting it wrong can undo the whole claim. Article 11 covers loss of citizenship for reasons not attributable to the applicant. That means the Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, Northern Transylvania and Cadrilater territories that were Romanian 1918-1940 and now sit in Moldova and Ukraine. It reaches the third degree, the great-grandparent. Article 10 covers former Romanian citizens and their descendants, but reaches only the second degree, children and grandchildren. Both require no Romanian domicile, and both let you retain your foreign citizenship.

Not one you can use today. A EUR 400,000 residency-by-investment bill was announced on 15 October 2025 as a PNL draft and registered in the Senate. As of July 2026 it has not passed either chamber, so it should not be presented as available. The existing investor route, long-term residence under Article 71 of GEO 194/2002, requires EUR 1,000,000 of investment or more than 100 full-time jobs. The widely-repeated EUR 500,000 figure is wrong. It confuses this route with the monthly subsistence proofs required on the business visa. The EUR 1m figure is corroborated across secondary sources, but it is not confirmed against primary text, since the immigration authority IGI blocks automated access.

The 10% flat personal income tax survived the 2025-26 fiscal consolidation. It was the political red line. Much else did not survive. The well-known 0% income tax for software developers was abolished from January 2025, along with the construction and agriculture exemptions. Dividend tax tripled in three years, reaching 16% from 1 January 2026 under Law 141/2025. VAT rose to 21% on 1 August 2025. Any planning built on Romania's old 5% or 8% dividend rate, or on the developer exemption, is now obsolete.

Not exactly, but a 0.9% special tax applies to residential property over RON 2,500,000 and vehicles over RON 375,000. It is charged only on the excess, and in practice it functions as a partial wealth tax. That is directly relevant to UHNW families, and it rarely comes up in country comparisons. There is no general inheritance tax, except on certain real estate transfers, and no gift tax. On the whole, Bulgaria is the materially better tax jurisdiction of the two neighbours, and it is not close. Romania's dividends are taxed at 16% against Bulgaria's 5%, VAT runs higher, and CASS health contributions of 10% reach dividend income as well.

Romania joined Schengen alongside Bulgaria on 1 January 2025, with air and sea travel starting from 31 March 2024 and land borders following from 1 January 2025. That came after 13 years of being blocked. It is not in the eurozone, though, and has no target date to join. Per the ECB's 2026 Convergence Report of 24 June 2026, it fails every criterion. Inflation sits well above the reference level. The deficit runs above 3%, with an Excessive Deficit Procedure in place since 2020 and a correction deadline extended to 2030. Long-term rates stand at 6.7% against a 5.1% reference, and there is no ERM II participation. Realistic euro adoption is a question for the 2030s, so treat leu exposure as a permanent part of your planning.

Yes. Romania permits dual citizenship and requires no renunciation, the structural opposite of Bulgaria. So for a UHNW client unwilling to surrender an existing passport, Romania's routes can in principle deliver citizenship where Bulgaria's investor route cannot. But ordinary naturalisation still runs eight years of legal residence, with a B1 Romanian test and proof of social and cultural integration. That period can be reduced by up to three years under Law 14/2025 in limited cases. There is no citizenship shortcut for investors.