New Citizenship Program of Montenegro for 2022

June 17, 2021

Although the Montenegro’s government established its citizenship by investment program later than similar schemes in the world, it is moving fast in ending the program!

Let’s take a look at the history of the program from the first up to present:

August 2017: to design the program in-house,
July 2018: to announce the CBI regulations introducing investment options,
October 2019: not to open for applications,
January 2019: to open registration,
March 2019: to reject all the applications because of inadequate due diligence requirements,
May 2019: to pick its due diligence providers and to approve the first hotel project,
October 2019: to open the program finally and to submit the first applicants,
November 2019: to approve three more hotel projects,
December 2019: to announce new amendments,
February 2020: to approve the first applicant under the program,
June 2020: to give the first Montenegro passport to the first applicant,
March 2021: to announce the program will not be renewed after the expiration date in December 31^st of 2021.

The Options of Montenegro’s CIP include:

Invest in projects approved by the Government:

250,000 Euro in an undeveloped region (north),
450,000 Euro in a developed region (South).

Invest in primary agricultural production:

€ 2 million + create at least 10 jobs.

Invest in wood processing:

€4 million + employ at least 20 people.

Invest in Fisheries:

€3.5 million in fisheries and processing products + employ 20 people.

It is worthy of mentioning that, through its last declaration, the government of Montenegro announced that it is not going to renew the citizenship program, but attracting the talented workers to make boost the country’s economy.

Skill-based program instead of Montenegro CBI program

The citizenship by investment program of Montenegro allows the applicants not only visa-free access to 124 countries including the Schengen states but also bring several economic and lifestyle advantages.

However, the government of Montenegro announced that the country is not going to extend the Citizenship by Investment Program beyond its expiration time which 31^st December of 2021.

This decision is based on three primary arguments:

First, the government believes that supporting the citizenship program is unmatched with the principles of the European Union. Thus, the country concluded that if the government supports such a program, Montenegro’s accession to the European Union can be gotten complicated and slowed down.
Second, based on the previous data, it is unquestionable to believe that the program is unworkable within the three-year expiration date (2019- 2021). According to the statistics, the government had only received 131 applications out of 2,000 ones envisaged by the end of 2021. In addition, only 37 applications had been approved and 12 had been rejected and others were in different stages of processing.
Third, the government stated that the 15 projects approved under the CBI program would remain available even in the absence of the CIP with the purpose of country’s economic development.

The government also emphasized that they are going to evaluate a new system for Montenegro citizenship. In other words, they plan to introduce a new economic citizenship program for highly qualified workers.

The cabinet is supposed to define the new procedure, manner, and criteria for highly qualified workers to obtain the citizenship of Montenegro.

The Montenegrin government hopes to develop and bolster its economy through the new program and to avoid European alarm.

Warming- up the new economic citizenship program of Montenegro

Experienced investment migration professionals believe that low approval volumes of many Citizenship by Investment Programs during the first years of their operations proves that the first year or two of all CBI programs are considered as a warm-up or set-up stage includes many challenges which should be ironed out.

This is not just related to Montenegro; all of the citizenship programs require to be tested and the applicants also need time to know the program and how it works. Therefore, the new routes to economic citizenship program of Montenegro won’t be opened up until the end of 2021 and many changes may happen in domestic politics in nine months.

For more information, please contact one of our advisors in UAE, Denmark or Canada, and we will do our outmost to guide you through your Montenegro Citizenship by Investment process.

Do not hesitate to comment below, if you have any experiences or any questions relating to Montenegro citizenship by investment program.