Unfortunately, Bulgaria has suspended its Citizenship by Investment programme under the pressure from EU.
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Keep in mind that Bulgaria is not in Schengen, so this can be a nuisance.
One drawback of Montenegro: in addition to a real estate investment of âŹ250k / âŹ450k, you have to donate âŹ200k to the government.
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Montenegroâs total cost is EUR200,000 in addition to the EUR350,000 real estate investment; and EU accession date is unknown. Itâs a casino bet.
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Hi Anthony, I am based in Singapore but hold an Indian passport. That puts me in the category of âworst of both worldsâ - as I need documents from Singapore as well as the full list of documents from home country for my spouse and a few for me and my daughter. Happy to chat about my experience if it is of any help. PM me and I will share my contact details.
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Another summary update:
11/24 My application submitted
11/26 Mine paid
7/29 Mine pre-approved (247 days after submission)
11/29 Spouse + 2 children all submitted
12/1 Theirs paid
8/12 Spouseâs pre-approved (256 days after submission)
8/23 Both children pre-approved (267 days after submission)
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I havenât seen any pre-approvals for December yet⊠I hope they start processing soon
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FYI, my lawyer told me that regardless of the delay in renewals of the residency card, you qualify to apply for citizenship 5 years after the issue date of your first residency card.
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It does, conditioned on you getting the relevant letter from SEF that you were a resident during the periods when you did not have a valid residency card. So while you donât apply for citizenship from SEF, you need their cooperation. We can hope that will be forthcoming and they wonât take two years to issue those letters!
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Thatâs some good news⊠so we wonât be looking at a possible 8 - 10 years to get to Citizenship after all âŠ
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I wouldnât go that far. You will likely wait 2 years to get your initial card, spend five years as a resident, and then spend 2 more years waiting for naturalization. Thatâs 9 years already and assumes the 2 year wait for naturalization doesnât get longer, which I suspect it does. There were a huge number of Ukranians given residency this year who will all be ahead of you in line for naturalization 5 years from now if you dont already have residency.
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Youâre right! Hopefully that wonât be the case
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Hopefully, you already got your card because the delays now seem to be worse than before. In my case, I am assuming 8 years from the date of investment. 1 year for approval (done), 5 years GV, and 2 years citizenship. One potential obstacle getting citizenship that worries me is proving âties to Portugal.â Itâs not clear what that means and I read in one of the boards that itâs rather subjective. My lawyer advised not to sell my properties until citizenship is approved, and I hope that that will be sufficient.
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This has been discussed extensively here in multiple other threads, with the net answer being âunclearâ, and a wide range of beliefs from âthe law says it shouldnât matterâ to âthere needs to be ties (undefined and subjective)â with iterations on âitâs really fuzzy/complicated for kidsâ. I would suggest finding one of those threads and moving any related discussion there.
Donât see any reply to this yetâŠso, assume no Dec 21 applicant got their pre-approval yet! This is really slowing down a lot now with no Covid 19 issues/ excuse around.
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Iâve heard on the vine that they will eventually have to go to âautomatic renewalâ for the GV renewals (2) to help restore some normality to the timelines, otherwise the delays are just going to multiplyâŠ
5-8,000 Ukrainians were issued visas here from the warâŠ
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They are now on Holiday, I think you will see approvals coming from mid September
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I feel and hope so! Awaiting since last 9 months⊠
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Submitted end of November and nothing yet. Hope theyâre enjoying their hols!
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Well, the vagueries of bureaucracy ( and holidays ending 
)⊠whole family was submitted same day but I (main applicant) have just had pre-approval
Application 30th Nov
Approval 1 Sept
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