Best Citizenships, an online platform and comparison site for Citizenship and Residence by Investment Schemes (CRBI), has ranked Malta’s residence by investment scheme as the second best one in the world.

One of the scheme’s cornerstones is indisputably the due diligence process adopted, which is considered by the industry as the “gold standard”. Every application must pass the scrutiny of a strict 4-tier investigative procedure, which includes cross-checks using EU’s centralised information systems. As a result, 25% of the applications are rejected every year, compared to only 10% of other jurisdictions.

The screening process may take several months in order to be completed; however, once granted Permanent Residence Permits have a validity of five years. All other countries in Europe provide Temporary Residence Permits with limited validity of up to three years with the possibility of extensions.

The healthcare system is another competitive advantage Malta has over other countries offering similar programmes, notes the study from Best Citizenship. Malta’s healthcare system was rated as one of the best ones together with those of Italy, Spain, and Portugal.