Albania · Citizenship by investment
Albanian Citizenship by Investment ('Golden Passport')
Closed
Last verified July 2026
NEVER LAUNCHED. Announced by Prime Minister Rama, then placed under a moratorium in March 2023 pending the ECJ proceedings against Malta's programme. No Albanian CBI has ever operated and none exists in 2026. We list it because it is still referenced by intermediaries.
This programme is closed. We keep the page up because agents still
advertise it and clients still ask. Nothing below is available to new applicants.
The ECJ's ruling against Malta ended any realistic prospect of an EU-candidate state launching a citizenship-by-investment programme. Albania read the room in 2023 and never opened. Any intermediary still marketing an Albanian golden passport is selling something that has never existed.
Qualifying routes
—
n/a — never launched
moratorium declared March 2023 before any applications were accepted
The facts
- Total landed cost
- n/a
- Physical presence
- n/a
- Family
- n/a
- Permanent residency
- n/a
- Citizenship
- n/a — use the residence route
- Language test
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- n/a — never launched
What can go wrong
- It never launched. There is nothing to apply for.
- Albania's EU accession track makes revival essentially impossible; the Commission has treated investor-citizenship schemes as incompatible with membership.
- The residence route plus naturalisation is the only path to an Albanian passport.