The economic citizenship program, which the Government of Montenegro has been implementing since January 2019, will end on December 31, 2022.
This was also confirmed by Prime Minister in a technical mandate Dritan Abazović at a government session. He said that new applications may still be accepted until the end of the year.
Abazović assessed that the program brought numerous benefits to the state, as it created valuable investments and new jobs.
Under the program, foreign investors who invested a certain amount in tourism projects received Montenegrin citizenship. Because of this practice, the program was criticized by the European Commission, which repeatedly called on the Montenegrin authorities to abandon this practice.
As part of the economic citizenship program, 447 investors received passports
As previously reported, under the economic citizenship program, 29 million euros were paid into the Montenegrin budget in taxes, and so far passports have been received by 447 foreign investors. Among them are citizens of Russia — 1211 people, including investors' families, China — 257, Lebanon — 81, Ukraine — 54, the USA — 151, South Africa — 114, Saudi Arabia — 57, India — 56, as well as citizens of Australia, the UAE, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Philippines, Canada, Poland, and Turkey.