Permanent Residence in Belgium and in other EU-countries

If you are not that kind of investor who can afford buying a big plant or a profitable hotel in Europe, but still you wish to immigrate to some European country through organizing small or medium-sized business, it is risky. In our view, it is unreliable to tie up your legal immigration status in the country with some start-up business. The following material will explain our stance.

Legislation of almost all European countries provides an opportunity to obtain a temporary residential permit through registration of an enterprise. Legal form of enterprise may be either the analogue of Russian limited liability company (LLC) or the analogue of Joint-Stock Company. Foreign investments through offshore structures generally are not welcome. Legislation of many countries also provides an opportunity to prolong the temporary residential permit up to obtaining a permanent residence.

Investments in Belgium

Unlike some other countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), Belgium has no business immigration program or immigration for investment program. Nevertheless, any foreign entrepreneur can incorporate a legal entity (firm) with For example, in Belgium stages of typical immigration process are the following: at first, residential permit is issued for one year, and then it is being renewed annually. Three years of residence a businessman may obtain permanent residence or even apply for Belgium citizenship. But you must not cherish the dream that after three years in Belgium you can easily get Belgian passport automatically. Automatic registration in Belgium citizenship is possible after seven years of residence in the country. In order to prolong residential permit in Belgium you should have reasons. Your enterprise should operate and pay taxes. In case you annual salary amount to 35,000 EUR the relevant tax will be 12,000 EUR annually. In addition to this in order to obtain residence permit you must rent an office for your company, you must have a local accountant on a pay-roll. And the last but not least, you must buy or rent real estate in Belgium. There is no requirement that from the first months of the work your newly registered company returns interest and give decent profit. European economy is characterized by relative stability. The market structure is mainly formed, and that is why you should not expect super-profits.

But reasonable profitability will be certainly required from foreigner with temporary residence. Otherwise why should Belgium need you? It would be logical to assume that Western countries (and EU-countries included) give residential permits to foreigners only coming from mercantile reasons. Their economy needs investments and taxes, because money is the blood of economic organism. For people who run business in their home country there is no need to explain that any business may become unprofitable or give profits that are not as high as it was expected by business experts or tax advisors. For those who already have a permanent residence status in Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, and other EU-members, unprofitability of an enterprise would not be such a serious problem as for a foreigner who is in the country with the temporary residential permit. In case at some stage during the mentioned period of three years the company of a temporary resident will stop allocation of taxes, then temporary resident would not have an opportunity to prolong the residential permit, in which he has already invested considerable funds. Failure to organize profitable business and pay a certain amount of taxes may lead to a situation when temporary residence is not renewed or application for permanent residence or citizenship is refused. This happens with business immigrants from time to time. And the main reason here lays in the fact that immigrant chose the wrong way of business immigration.

From all that was mentioned above, it follows that if you do not have sufficient amount of free money to enter EU as investor, we would not recommend you to experiment with business immigration. Maybe, the best solution is second citizenship programs that are still in existence in the year of 2011. Legal second passports, obtained for investments, open the whole world of new possibilities – from the new opportunities of vise-free traveling and minimization of taxes to the legal right for job or business in any EU country. Unlike some other Russian companies that offer their clients citizenship Greece through recovery of citizenship (on ethnic basis and ancestry provisions), we may offer to our clients the whole range of the following exclusive programs:

1. Citizenship and passport for investment or for special merits before the state (Saint-Kitts & Nevis, Commonwealth of Dominica, Dominican Republic, Montenegro, Slovakia, and Austria);
2. Permanent residence for investment (USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. Citizenship of these countries can also be obtained but only after period from 2 to 6 years of residence. It depends upon the country. For instance, only three years of residence until Canadian passport in Canada. In Hong Kong it is impossible to obtain citizenship on economic grounds.
3. Residence based on tax accords (Switzerland, Malta). Swiss passport can be obtained after 12 years of residence in the country (10 years on permit B, and two years on permit C). It should be kept in mind that application for citizenship of Switzerland does not guarantee that it will be approved. It is always at the discretion of Swiss authorities.
4. Residence based on purchase of real estate (Lithuania, Cyprus, Bahamas, Saint-Kitts & Nevis, Seychelles).

Considerable experience in immigration cases and communication with people having an experience in prolongation of temporary residence permits leads us to the idea that business immigration option is very often more expensive in comparison with direct passport programs (e.g., Dominica, Saint-Kitts & Nevis, Montenegro or Bulgaria).

If you have any question regarding above-mentioned material or wish to use our legal and technical assistance in obtaining second citizenship and second passport, contact us today