Seychelles · Residency by investment
Residence Permit (Immigration Decree 1979)
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open. There is no published investment threshold — eligibility rests on either a family/domestic connection to Seychelles or having made or intending to make a 'special contribution to the economic, social or cultural life of Seychelles'. That limb is undefined and entirely discretionary.
For a family that wants a legitimate Indian Ocean residence at USD 20k with a five-day-a-year presence obligation and no tax on foreign income, nothing else in the region competes. Understand what it is not: it confers no right to work, and it does not lead to a passport.
Qualifying routes
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Special contribution to economic, social or cultural life
no investment threshold published; the test is discretionary and unquantified
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Family or domestic connection with Seychelles
no investment required
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 150k SCR
- Total landed cost
- Roughly SCR 276,000 for a family of four — SCR 1,000 processing, SCR 150,000 main applicant, SCR 75,000 spouse, SCR 25,000 per child — approximately USD 19,000-21,000 at July 2026 rates. Plus a bank guarantee of at least SCR 20,000.
- Timeline
- 2–9 months — no published service standard; the discretionary 'special contribution' assessment is the variable
- Physical presence
- Only 5 days in any 12-month period — one of the lightest presence requirements of any residence permit anywhere
- Family
- spouse (SCR 75,000)each child (SCR 25,000)
- Permanent residency
- Permanent residence requires roughly 5 years actually resident on a Gainful Occupation Permit or Dependant Permit — a residence permit alone does not obviously satisfy it
- Citizenship
- Effectively none. The investor citizenship route was repealed in 2023; the surviving routes are marriage (15 years married plus 2 years' aggregate residence), constitutional entitlement, and presidential grant for distinguished service.
- Language test
- 80% marks in a citizenship qualifying examination in English, French or Seychellois Creole
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- not a prohibited immigrantfamily/domestic connection OR special contribution to Seychellesbank guarantee of at least SCR 20,000clean criminal recordproof of means
What can go wrong
- The 'special contribution' test is undefined, unquantified and unappealable. There is no threshold you can meet as of right — you are asking for a discretionary favour, and refusals need not be reasoned.
- It does not permit gainful occupation. Working in Seychelles requires a separate Gainful Occupation Permit.
- It does not lead to citizenship. Anyone marketing a Seychelles residence-to-passport path is describing a route that no longer exists.
- A bank guarantee of at least SCR 20,000 is required, and the permit brings no free medical care or social security.
- The permit runs 5 years and renewal is discretionary — this is not permanent status.
- Seychelles has been on and off the EU list repeatedly: Annex I in October 2020, removed October 2021, re-added October 2023, moved to Annex II in February 2024, and removed entirely on 17 February 2026. It is currently on neither list, but the next EU revision is due October 2026 and the track record is volatile.
- Full CRS participant since 2017 — this is a transparent jurisdiction.