Armenia · Residency by investment
Special Residence Status ('Special Passport')
Closed
Last verified July 2026
CLOSING — hard deadline 1 November 2026. No new issuance after that date; existing special passports remain valid to their printed expiry. This is the single most time-critical item in the region: applications must be filed before 1 November 2026, roughly fifteen weeks from the date of writing.
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 special passport carried two rights nothing replaces: direct ownership of agricultural land, and extended-family sponsorship reaching siblings, grandparents and grandchildren. Both die with the status on 1 November 2026. Any family that qualifies and might ever want either should file now, not next quarter.
Qualifying routes
—
Ethnic Armenian origin or business ties to Armenia
10-year status; no investment threshold
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Roughly AMD 150,000 in state fees plus legal costs — USD 1,500–4,000 all in.
- Timeline
- 2–4 months — Apply now or lose the status entirely.
- Physical presence
- None
- Family
- spousechildrenand uniquely siblings, grandparents and grandchildren — extended-family sponsorship rights that disappear with the status
- Permanent residency
- converts to the ordinary permanent residence framework
- Citizenship
- 3 years of permanent residence
- Language test
- Armenian language and constitution familiarity — waived entirely for persons of Armenian origin
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Armenian ethnic origin or demonstrated business ties to Armeniaclean criminal recordin-person biometrics in Armeniaapplication filed before 1 November 2026
What can go wrong
- THE DEADLINE IS 1 NOVEMBER 2026. After that the status cannot be obtained at all.
- A FORCED-DISPOSAL TRAP ON A TEN-YEAR FUSE. Holders who own agricultural land directly must transfer it to an Armenian company, naturalise, or sell before their special passport expires. Nothing in the replacement framework preserves direct agricultural land ownership by a non-citizen.
- Banking for Russian nationals has deteriorated sharply — see the ordinary residence programme's watch-outs. The status does not solve it.
- Armenia has exchanged under CRS since September 2025; there is no opacity here.