New Citizenship by Investment 2026: Which Programs Just Launched or Changed

Jordan formally opened a structured citizenship by investment route in 2024 and is fully operational in 2026. The base investment is a fixed deposit of $1,000,000 held for three years, or a real estate purchase of $1,500,000. Processing takes roughly six to nine months, and there is no physical residency requirement before naturalization. The passport grants visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to approximately 50 countries, making it a utility pick rather than a global travel document, but the cost is competitive for a Middle East passport with Arab League benefits.

St Kitts and Nevis raised its single-applicant donation minimum to $250,000 in late 2023, and that floor held into 2026. Dominica and Grenada remain around $200,000 for a single applicant via the government fund route. Antigua raised family pricing but kept the single-applicant donation at $230,000. The practical change in 2026 is tightened due diligence: all four islands now require enhanced source-of-funds documentation and some have moved to three-tier background checks, which extends timelines from the old 45-day fast-track to a more realistic 90 to 120 days for most applicants. For a full comparison of which of these programs still makes sense given the price increases, see Citizenship by Investment 2026: Which Programs Still Work and What They Cost.

Malta's Community Malta Agency continued issuing under the Malta Naturalisation for Exceptional Services by Direct Investment scheme into 2026, despite ongoing EU political pressure. The minimum outlay remains roughly 690,000 euros for the one-year residency track or 600,000 euros for the three-year track, plus a 10,000 euro donation and a 700,000 euro real estate commitment or 16,000 euro annual rental. The program is capped and approvals are not guaranteed, but Malta remains the only functional EU citizenship-by-investment route that produces a full EU passport, with visa-free access to over 180 countries.

Egypt restructured its foreign investor residency-to-citizenship pathway and as of 2025 allows a direct citizenship application after a deposit of $250,000 held for five years in an Egyptian bank, with no yield paid to the depositor. There is also a real estate route at $300,000 in designated zones. Egypt's passport accesses roughly 55 countries visa-free, so it serves as a complementary or backup document rather than a primary travel passport. The five-year hold period is the main drawback compared to outright donation programs.

Several programs widely discussed in 2024 as likely 2026 additions have not materialized. Indonesia announced a golden visa residency track but has not legislated a citizenship route. Thailand's long-term resident visa is not a path to citizenship under current law. Georgia continues to offer fast naturalization based on residency, not a standalone investment program. If you are planning around a program you read about in 2024 broker marketing materials, verify current status directly with the issuing agency before committing funds or time.

A single new citizenship rarely solves everything on its own. The most effective approach in 2026 is to treat a lower-cost Caribbean or Jordanian passport as a travel backup or banking access document, while keeping a primary high-access passport (EU, US, UK, or similar) as the anchor. If your goal is EU access without Malta's cost, an ancestry route to Portugal, Italy, or Ireland sits alongside a Caribbean CBI more cleanly than stacking two CBI programs. Tax residency is a separate decision from passport collection: acquiring a Grenada passport does not create or break tax obligations by itself.