Russians became the second among foreigners in the number of residence permits in Spain received for investment

The share of Russians in the Golden visa program in Spain is close to 25 %. Russian citizens in terms of the number of residence permits received for investment are second only to the Chinese, writes Investment Migration Insider.

The Spanish residence permit program for investment in 2019 broke the record for the number of main applicants. According to the Spanish labor Ministry, the number of investors rose to 1,422 last year. While in 2018, 1,188 main applicants received the “Golden visa”.

Since 2014, the “Golden visa” program has attracted 5,515 foreign investors and brought 2.8 billion euros to the country’s budget, writes Investment Migration Insider.

The scheme for obtaining a residence permit in Spain for investment is very popular among Russians. Our compatriots are second only to the Chinese in the number of main applicants. According to data for the second half of 2019, the share of Chinese investors from the total number was 38 %, and Russians — 17 %.

At the same time, over the entire period of the program, the share of Chinese was 35%, and Russians — 24.6 %.

The Spanish Golden visa program has overtaken a similar Portuguese scheme in terms of the number of applicants and the annual volume of investment. In Portugal, 1,245 main applicants received a residence permit in 2019, compared to 1,422 in Spain. In Portugal, attracted investments amounted to 742 million euros last year, and in Spain exceeded 800 million euros.