Seychelles · Residency by investment
Permanent Residence Permit by Investment
Open, but far narrower than the marketing suggests. The investment-promotion agency lists seven criteria that must all be met together, not alternatives. These include USD 1m invested, at least 5 years' business association, and roughly 5 years actually resident on a Gainful Occupation or Dependant Permit. A 2013 State House guide presented these as alternatives. The current official page presents them as cumulative. Assume they are cumulative until Immigration confirms otherwise.
This is the route agencies mean when they advertise Seychelles residency by investment for USD 1 million. In reality, the money is the easy part. The criteria appear to be cumulative, requiring five years of genuine business association and five years of actual residence first. There is no money-in, PR-out route.
Qualifying routes
USD 1m+ invested, plus 5+ years' business association, plus 5 years' residence on a GOP/Dependant Permit, plus self-support for 1 year, plus no absence over 1 year, plus no 1-year+ sentence, plus not a prohibited immigrant
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $1M
- Total landed cost
- USD 1m invested, plus an SCR 1,000 processing fee and an SCR 350,000 approval fee (roughly USD 24,000-26,000). No reliable family-of-four total is established beyond the approval fee.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 6–24 months (There is no published service standard. The five-year residence prerequisite dominates the real timeline.)
- Physical presence
- Substantial. Roughly 5 years actually resident on a GOP or Dependant Permit before PR can be sought.
- Family
- SpouseDependent children
- Permanent residency
- This is the permanent residence status. It gives you the right to work without a GOP and to buy land or residential property at 50% of sanction fees.
- Citizenship
- No investor citizenship route survives. It was repealed by Act 25 of 2023.
- Language test
- You need 80% in a qualifying examination in English, French or Seychellois Creole.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- USD 1m+ invested in a Seychelles business.At least 5 years' business association or affiliation.approximately 5 years' residence on a GOP or Dependant Permitmeans of self-support for 1 yearno absence exceeding 1 yearno sentence of 1 year or morenot a prohibited immigrant
- The criteria are almost certainly cumulative, not alternative. The official Invest in Seychelles page lists them as a conjunctive set. A 2013 State House guide framed them as alternatives. This conflict is unresolved and material. Verify with Immigration before committing USD 1m.
- You must already have lived in Seychelles roughly five years on a GOP or Dependant Permit. The USD 1m does not shortcut the residence requirement.
- PR still does not deliver citizenship. The investor citizenship section was repealed in December 2023.
- USD 1m into a Seychelles business is a concentrated bet on a micro-economy of roughly 100,000 people, heavily dependent on tourism and tuna.
- Non-Seychellois-owned residential property attracts an annual Immovable Property Tax of 0.25% of market value.
- Since January 2025 non-Seychellois may again buy residential property, but only above a market value of SCR 10 million, and sanction duty rose from 11% to 12%.