If you searched this question expecting a shortcut, here is the honest answer first: the rules changed dramatically in 2025. The European Union no longer has a single citizenship by investment program running.
Malta, the last holdout, was shut down by a European Court of Justice ruling in April 2025. Cyprus and Bulgaria had already exited years before. What replaced these programs is a more structured landscape, one that still rewards investors, but demands more strategy and patience than a simple payment ever did.
That said, "easiest" is not dead. It has just become context-dependent. For a person with Irish grandparents, Ireland remains extraordinarily straightforward. For a high-net-worth investor without European ancestry, Portugal still offers the clearest residency-to-citizenship pathway on the continent. The key is matching your eligibility to the right route before committing capital or time.
This guide breaks down every credible option available in 2026 for globally mobile investors seeking a European second citizenship.
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Why the EU Citizenship Landscape Shifted Overnight in 2025
For years, Malta's Citizenship by Naturalisation for Exceptional Services by Direct Investment (MEIN) allowed investors to acquire Maltese and, by extension, EU citizenship in as little as twelve months. It was expensive, starting at €600,000 in contributions plus real estate and donation requirements, but it was direct.
The European Court of Justice ruled that Malta's program violated European Union law and must be discontinued. The court's position was clear: Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme "amounts to the commercialisation of the granting of the status of national of a Member State and, by extension, Union citizenship," and is thereby incompatible with the very nature of Union citizenship.
Since Malta's programme was discontinued following the CJEU ruling of 29 April 2025, no EU member state operates a citizenship by investment programme in 2026. Spain had already closed its Golden Visa in April 2025. Ireland had shut down its Immigrant Investor Program in 2023. The EU's message to member states is unified: citizenship is not a commercial transaction.
So what does that leave investors in 2026? More than most headlines suggest.
The Right Question to Ask Before Choosing a Route
Before ranking countries by "ease," you need to ask yourself three things.
Do you have European ancestry that could qualify you for citizenship by descent?
Are you willing to genuinely relocate to Europe, or do you need a minimal physical presence pathway?
What is your actual goal: a passport as quickly as possible, or a long-term EU foothold with optionality?
Your answers change everything. Below is how each major European citizenship route performs in 2026, ranked by practical accessibility for high-net-worth investors.
Ireland: The Easiest Route in Europe, If You Qualify
No European country offers a faster or more legally clean path to citizenship than Ireland, provided you have the right bloodline. If one of your grandparents was born on the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland, you may qualify for Irish citizenship by descent, even if you and your parents were born abroad. No residency. No investment. No language test. No interview.
The Foreign Births Register allows the descendants of Irish people who have moved abroad to claim Irish citizenship. If each generation registers their birth before the next generation is born, Irish citizenship can be passed from parent to child.
Once registered, you hold full Irish citizenship and an EU passport. You are formally recognised as a national of Ireland and a citizen of the European Union, with the right to live and work in any EU member state.
What Are the Generational Limits?
In practical terms, Irish citizenship by descent stops at grandchildren unless each generation actively passes it on by registering before the next generation is born. So if your grandparent was born in Ireland and you have not yet registered, this window is still open to you. If your Irish-born ancestor is a great-grandparent and your parent never registered, the claim does not carry through automatically.
After all correct physical documents are received, it takes approximately 12 months to process a Foreign Births Registration application. For an investor who qualifies, this is by far the fastest and cheapest path to an EU passport in 2026.
The answer is yes, as long as the lineage documentation is complete and accurate. Applications fail because of missing records, not because of discretion on the government's part. Hire a specialist, gather originals of birth, marriage, and death certificates across every generation in the chain, and the process is mechanical.
Italy: Citizenship by Descent, Now With Significant Restrictions
Italy's jure sanguinis framework was once one of the most generous in the world. Descendants could theoretically claim Italian citizenship going back generations, provided the bloodline could be documented and unbroken. That era is effectively over.
Italy's Law 74/2025 permanently restricts Italian citizenship by descent to applicants with a parent or grandparent born in Italy. Claims through great-grandparents are eliminated. The emergency decree, issued in March 2025, was converted into permanent law in May 2025, and Italy's Constitutional Court upheld Law 74/2025 in a press release of March 12, 2026, declaring constitutional challenges raised by the Tribunal of Turin partly unfounded and partly inadmissible.
Is There Still a Viable Path?
Yes, but only under stricter conditions. Law 74/2025 limits Italian citizenship by descent to applicants with a parent or grandparent born in Italy. Additionally, the qualifying grandparent must have held exclusively Italian citizenship at the time of their death, without having naturalized in another country at any point.
A new benefit introduced by the same legislation is also notable: recent legislative changes allow individuals with Italian parents or grandparents, who may not qualify for citizenship by descent, to apply for citizenship after two years of residency in Italy. That compressed naturalization timeline is one of the shortest for any EU country outside of descent-based claims.
For everyone else exploring Italy through great-grandparent ancestry, the window closed in March 2025.
Portugal: Still Europe's Best Investor Pathway, Despite a New Timeline
For the high-net-worth investor without European ancestry, Portugal's Golden Visa program remains the most credible, well-established route to EU citizenship in 2026. It is not the fastest, and recent law changes have made it longer, but it is the only minimal-presence pathway to a full EU passport that has consistently survived EU scrutiny.
How the Portugal Golden Visa Works in 2026
The program grants a temporary residence permit to non-EU investors who make a qualifying investment. As of 2026, the main investment routes are:
Fund subscription in a qualifying Portuguese investment fund. This is the most popular current route following the removal of direct real estate investment in October 2023.
Capital transfer deposited in a Portuguese bank account.
Arts and heritage donation toward cultural or artistic projects.
On 1 April 2026, Portugal's Parliament approved a revised Nationality Law that doubles the standard residency requirement for naturalization from five years to ten years, a major shift for anyone on a citizenship pathway through Portugal's Golden Visa.
Under the previous nationality law, Golden Visa investors had the option to apply for Portuguese citizenship after 5 years of holding residency. The qualifying period begins from the issuance of the first residence permit card, not the application submission date.
If your Golden Visa submission fees were paid before the law's publication in the Diário da República, the citizenship clock continues to run from the date of fee payment, even though the duration is now 10 years. For investors already inside the program or planning to apply immediately, this is a strategically important detail.
Why Portugal Still Leads the Field
Ten years is longer than five. But Portugal's offering still stands apart from every other EU country. All other EU nations require citizenship applicants to reside for a minimum of 183 days per year. Portugal's flexibility is exceptionally rare. An investor in Portugal can maintain a primary life in Singapore, Dubai, or New York while legally counting time toward EU citizenship. No other EU member state offers this combination.
Portugal's Golden Visa is unique because it allows you to count your years toward citizenship while only being physically present for one week per year. If you are starting your application today, plan for a 10-year horizon for citizenship, but a 5-year horizon for permanent residency and investment liquidation.
After 5 years of holding your Golden Visa and meeting the 7-day annual stay requirement, you are still eligible to apply for Permanent Residency. Once you have permanent residency, you are no longer required to maintain your investment, giving you the freedom to liquidate your funds while keeping your right to live and work in Portugal. For families thinking in generational terms rather than short windows, Portugal is the most structurally sound EU option available today.
Greece: Strong Residency Program, Demanding Citizenship Path
Greece's Golden Visa launched in 2013 and remains one of the most active residency-by-investment programs in Europe. New 2026 rules introduce tiered investment requirements depending on location and property type:
Ready property in high-demand areas: central Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, or Santorini
Ready property in other regions
Properties requiring conversion from commercial to residential use, or restoration of listed buildings
Golden Visa holders may apply for Greek citizenship by naturalization after 7 years of continuous legal residence. The 7-year period starts from the date the applicant begins living in Greece. Applicants must show they are integrated into Greek society, including demonstrating knowledge of Greek language, history, and culture. Unlike Portugal, obtaining Greek citizenship requires living in Greece for at least 183 days per year over 7 years. Simply holding a Golden Visa without genuine physical relocation does not lead to citizenship.
Greece also offers a notable tax incentive for those who do relocate. Tax residents under the special non-dom regime may instead choose a flat annual tax of €100,000 on global income, regardless of the amount earned. For ultra-high-net-worth individuals generating significant global income, this flat tax can represent extraordinary savings.
Hungary: The Newest EU Residency Program, Longest Citizenship Horizon
Hungary relaunched its investor residency program in mid-2024 under the Guest Investor Program, offering a 10-year renewable residence permit with no minimum stay requirement. The Hungary Guest Investor Program requires either a minimum €250,000 investment in a government-approved real estate fund, or a non-refundable donation of €1 million to a public trust supporting higher education.
After three years, investors can apply for permanent residency. After eight years, they may be eligible for Hungarian citizenship.
Hungary is best positioned as a strategic EU foothold for investors who plan to eventually relocate, not as a remote-path-to-passport play. That said, with the EU's directional push against fast-track citizenship schemes, Hungary's long-game residency program may gain increasing relevance for investors who want to enter the EU ecosystem early and build genuine ties over time.
Comparing Your Options Side by Side
★ indicates the strongest performer for investors prioritising citizenship without relocation
Programs That Are Closed: Know What Is No Longer Available
Investors researching Europe frequently encounter outdated information about programs that have since ended. Here is a clear status rundown for 2026:
Officially ended July 2025 following the ECJ ruling, replaced with a merit-based system that does not allow citizenship through financial investment alone.
Spain passed legislation in January 2025 to abolish its Golden Visa, effective April 2025. No investor pathway to residency or citizenship via investment remains available in Spain.
Terminated in 2020 amid corruption investigations.
Scrapped in 2022 under EU pressure.
Closed in February 2023.
If a consultant or advisor mentions any of the above as current options, that is a serious red flag about the quality of their information.
What Genuinely Makes a European Citizenship "Easy" in 2026
The concept of ease means different things depending on your starting position. For an investor with Irish or qualifying Italian ancestry, ease means paperwork and time, not capital. For an investor with no European roots, ease means finding the program with the lowest physical presence requirement and most predictable legal framework.
Portugal consistently wins for the second group. Its Golden Visa is government-backed, has a decade-long track record, survived repeated rounds of EU scrutiny, and offers flexibility that no other EU member state matches. The citizenship timeline has lengthened, but the core value proposition, EU access, Schengen mobility, permanent residency in five years, and full citizenship without relocation, remains intact.
What you should not do is optimize purely for speed at the expense of legal certainty. Rushing into a program based on a broker's promise of shortcuts, especially post-Malta, is precisely how investors find themselves years later with invalid status and wasted capital.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Since the European Court of Justice shut down Malta's program in April 2025, no EU member state offers direct citizenship in exchange for investment. The concept of "EU citizenship by investment" no longer exists in a legal sense. What remains are residency-by-investment programs in Portugal, Greece, and Hungary, each offering eventual citizenship through naturalization after meeting residency and integration requirements.
For investors with no European ancestry, Portugal offers the most structurally accessible pathway: citizenship in 10 years with only 7 days per year of physical presence required. No other EU country lets you count time toward naturalization with such minimal in-country presence.
If your grandparent was born on the island of Ireland, yes, through Ireland's Foreign Births Register with no residency or investment required. If your grandparent was born in Italy and held exclusively Italian citizenship at the time of death, Italy's jure sanguinis route still applies. Other EU countries do not offer similar ancestral citizenship programs at this scale.
The European Court of Justice ruled on April 29, 2025 that Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme was incompatible with EU law because it granted citizenship based purely on financial payment without requiring a genuine link to the country. Malta formally ended the program in July 2025. No replacement investment citizenship program has been launched.
Yes, but only if you physically relocate. Greek citizenship through naturalization requires 7 years of legal residence with at least 183 days per year spent inside Greece, along with passing a Greek language and culture exam. Simply holding a Greek residence permit from abroad does not count toward citizenship eligibility.
What you should not do is optimize purely for speed at the expense of legal certainty. Getting the analysis right from the start avoids costly restructuring down the road.
Which European Citizenship Route Fits You?
No EU member state offers direct citizenship by investment anymore. The routes that remain are real, legally grounded, and accessible with the right guidance. If you have Irish grandparents, you may qualify for an EU passport in twelve months with no investment at all. If you are an investor without European ancestry, Portugal gives you permanent residency in five years and full citizenship in ten, with only seven days per year in-country. At High Net Worth Immigration, we map your eligibility to the right route before any capital is committed. Book a confidential consultation today.
