North Macedonia · Citizenship by investment
Naturalisation in the Economic and National Interest (Law on Citizenship, Article 11)
LEGALLY EXTANT, OPERATIONALLY NON-FUNCTIONING. The Article 11 basis and the implementing Government Decree (Official Gazette 9/05, amended 2012, 2019, 2021) have not been repealed. But no investor has obtained a passport via the EUR 200k fund route introduced in 2021; Henley & Partners — the promoter itself — states the government 'is currently in the process of setting up the program'; and the European Commission reported that North Macedonia had received five economic-citizenship applications and processed none. The roughly 121 economic citizenships cited by promoters were granted between 2005 and 2022 under discretionary national-interest naturalisation, not the fund programme. Some 2026 promoter sites claim it is reopening; that claim is commercially interested, uncorroborated and we do not credit it.
This is the clearest case in the region of a programme that exists in law and not in fact. An independent April 2026 analysis put it plainly: it is discretionary naturalisation dressed as investment citizenship. Any adviser presenting the EUR 200k route as a live path to an EU-candidate passport is, on the available evidence, mis-selling.
Qualifying routes
theoretical; per adult, held at least 2 years. No verified delivery since introduction in 2021
theoretical; must employ at least 10 people for at least 1 year
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €200k
- Total landed cost
- Not meaningfully estimable for a programme that has never delivered a passport.
- Physical presence
- None claimed
- Family
- spousedependent children
- Permanent residency
- n/a
- Citizenship
- theoretical, direct
- Language test
- none claimed
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- theoretical: qualifying fund or direct investment, clean record, government discretionin practice: no functioning application pathway has been demonstrated
- ZERO VERIFIED DELIVERIES via the EUR 200k fund route since its 2021 introduction. Five applications received by the state, none processed, per the European Commission.
- THE PROMOTER ITSELF SAYS IT IS STILL BEING SET UP. When the appointed concessionaire describes a nine-year-old programme as in the process of being established, that is decisive.
- THERE IS A SUNSET CLAUSE: the scheme terminates automatically on EU accession. Even in the branch where it revives, it has a fixed expiry.
- THE VISA-FREE REGIME IS THE HOSTAGE. Brussels has explicitly warned North Macedonia against operating an investor-citizenship scheme, citing circumvention of the Schengen short-stay visa procedure and risk to the visa-free arrangement itself. The programme's success would destroy the very asset the passport is bought for.
- Claims of a 2026 'official reopening' come solely from self-described authorised agents and are contradicted by Henley's own page and by independent analysis.