Montenegro · Citizenship by investment
Montenegro Special Investment Programme (Citizenship by Investment)
CONFIRMED CLOSED. The programme concluded on 31 December 2022 — stated directly on Henley & Partners' own Montenegro page. It closed after sustained EU pressure over abuse potential and, latterly, the risk of assisting Russian nationals in evading sanctions. Nothing has replaced it and no CBI exists. Hundreds of applications remained in the pipeline after closure.
The closure matters far beyond the loss of the programme itself. Under Montenegro's Citizenship Law, the Special Investment Programme of 1 January 2019 was one of only three exceptions permitting dual citizenship. When the programme closed on 31 December 2022, the single realistic carve-out that let a naturalising investor keep their existing passport closed with it. Montenegro is now a residence jurisdiction only, and the CBI's closure is the reason why.
Qualifying routes
formerly a EUR 250k (north) / EUR 450k (coastal) development investment plus a EUR 100k government contribution
The facts
- Total landed cost
- n/a
- Physical presence
- n/a
- Family
- n/a
- Permanent residency
- n/a
- Citizenship
- n/a — the only remaining route is 10-year naturalisation with renunciation
- Language test
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- n/a — closed 31 December 2022
- It is closed. Any intermediary still marketing it is trading on a programme that ended more than three years ago.
- Its closure removed the dual-citizenship carve-out. This is the single most consequential fact about Montenegro for a UHNW family and it is almost never stated in comparison tables.
- EU accession makes revival impossible; the Commission has treated investor-citizenship schemes as incompatible with membership, and the ECJ's Malta ruling settled the question.