Investor and Entrepreneur Visa Thresholds by Country

Investor and entrepreneur visa thresholds state how much the qualifying investment must be, while a credible application costs more. Across countries, the effective requirement also includes source-of-funds evidence, professional fees, and, for active businesses, proof of viability. The useful comparison is therefore not simply which country publishes the lowest figure, but which route’s financial and evidential demands an applicant can meet.

The practical answer

The gap between the stated cost and what a program costs in practice is widest when it asks for little or no capital to start with. These routes replace arithmetic with judgment about the business, its funding, and its prospects. Zero is not a reliable preparation budget. Legal, accounting, and endorsement fees sit outside the investment amount, while assembling bank records, tax returns, business valuations, and customer evidence creates a separate preparation burden. A route with a low published threshold can therefore be more predictable than one that says it has no minimum.

Passive investor and Golden Visa programs generally ask applicants to put capital into approved categories, show where it came from, and keep owning the qualifying asset. Their requirements are comparatively concrete. Portugal’s lowest stated Golden Visa threshold is €250,000 for qualifying arts or cultural-heritage support, reduced to €200,000 in low-density areas, while funds, scientific-research, and qualifying company routes begin at €500,000. Across active Golden Visa programs globally, the stated range extends from €50,000 in Latvia to more than $10 million under Singapore’s Global Investor Program. Most such programs ask people to spend little or no time in the country, but permission to live there and the right to apply for citizenship have separate rules.

Active entrepreneur routes instead look at a business that is up and running, an endorsement, or third-party funding that meets their rules. The UK Innovator Founder, Portugal D2, and Germany’s Selbstständigkeit routes have no fixed investment minimum, whereas Ireland’s Start-up Entrepreneur Programme requires €50,000. Nationality can also decide who can apply, especially for the US E-2, though the treaty-country evidence supplied with the brief lists Egypt as one of the countries whose nationals can apply. Program availability comes before affordability as well. Australia’s Subclass 188 closed on 31 July 2024, Spain’s Golden Visa stopped taking new applications on 3 April 2025, and the UK has no passive investor visa in 2026.

What to check

• Treaty eligibility and the US E-2 investment test. Check nationality eligibility before preparing the investment case. The E-2 is restricted to nationals of qualifying treaty countries, and investment size cannot overcome an ineligible nationality. It has no fixed minimum, but the investment must be “substantial” relative to the business’s total cost. The typical range cited for smaller enterprises is $50,000–$150,000. Smaller businesses generally require a very high proportion of their total cost to be invested, while a smaller share may suffice for larger businesses.
• Ownership and the distinction between active and passive investment. E-2 applicants must own at least 50% of the US business or hold operational control. Passive holdings do not qualify for this route. Buying stocks, holding undeveloped land, or placing money in a bank account does not satisfy its active-business requirement. Golden Visa programs, by contrast, accept specified investment categories that may be passive by design. Check the permitted investment structure before comparing amounts, because the wrong category is an eligibility problem.
• Source-of-funds depth and EB-5 job obligations. EB-5 requires comprehensive tracing through bank statements, tax returns, business valuations, and audit trails. Five years should not be treated as a universal limit on the history that may need explanation, since older origins can require further evidence. The capital trail must remain auditable throughout. Separately, each investor must demonstrate the creation of at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying US workers, with full-time work defined as 35+ hours per week. Job creation is an ongoing compliance obligation, and failure to sustain it can affect status.
• The distinction between US funding routes and immigration outcomes. The International Entrepreneur Rule requires at least $311,071 in qualified investment from US investors with established track records, or at least $124,429 in qualifying government grants. It provides temporary parole. Its maximum stay is five years, comprising an initial 30-month grant and one 30-month extension, with no direct path to a green card. The separate US Gold Card program, launched by executive order in September 2025, offers expedited immigrant-visa processing for a $1 million individual donation or $2 million from a corporation on an individual’s behalf. It operates alongside EB-5, whose thresholds remain in effect.
• UK endorsement access and fees. Innovator Founder applicants need an endorsed business assessed as innovative, viable, and scalable, although the former investment requirement was removed in April 2023. Endorsement is the central bottleneck here. UK Endorsing Services, Innovator International, and Envestors Limited openly endorse new applications, while the Global Entrepreneurs Programme can endorse founders already invited into its programme. The 2026 endorsement fee is £1,000, separate from the £1,357 visa fee for applications from outside the UK. The former Tier 1 (Investor) route closed to new applicants on 17 February 2022 and is not an alternative for applicants seeking passive investment.
• Portugal’s qualifying categories and self-sufficiency requirement. The Golden Visa has five principal investment routes, and real estate no longer qualifies. Its job-creation route uses a defined employment requirement as an alternative to the capital-based categories. D2 follows a different test entirely. It has no minimum investment, but applicants must demonstrate roughly €11,000 in financial means for the first year, together with a credible business plan and proof of financial self-sufficiency. That means the investment budget and the resources needed to support the applicant should not be treated as interchangeable figures.
• Germany’s practical capital expectations and Ireland’s stated funding floor. Germany’s Selbstständigkeit route under §21 AufenthG has no fixed statutory capital floor, with viability assessed case by case. In practice, applications below roughly €25,000–€50,000 of demonstrated capital face difficulty, while well-funded cases with signed letters of intent from prospective customers tend to clear faster. Ireland’s STEP, by contrast, requires minimum funding of €50,000 and a detailed business plan. The comparison illustrates why a published amount and a judgment-based funding expectation need different treatment.
• Gulf endorsement and funding requirements. Qatar’s entrepreneur residency, launched at Web Summit Qatar 2026, requires endorsement from a recognised incubator and approximately QAR 36,500, around US$10,000, held in a bank account over three months. Recognised incubators include Qatar Science and Technology Park, Qatar FinTech Hub, Qatar Business Incubation Center, and Scale 7 Hub. Saudi Arabia’s early-stage entrepreneur track starts at SAR 400,000, about US$107,000, in funding from an accredited VC or incubator. Funding provenance is part of eligibility here. A personal balance alone is not equivalent to the specified endorsement or accredited backing.
• Historical figures presented as live options. Australia’s closed Subclass 188 remains useful only as historical context. Its Business Innovation stream required at least AUD 1.25 million in net business and personal assets and at least AUD 750,000 in annual business turnover. The Investor stream required an AUD 2.5 million designated investment, while Significant Investor required AUD 5 million in complying investments. The Entrepreneur stream required an AUD 200,000 third-party funding agreement. None of those amounts represents a currently available new application under that program.
• Residence, citizenship, and filing windows. Check the intended long-term outcome separately from admission. Portugal’s 2026 law raises the residence period for citizenship eligibility from 5 to 10 years for most non-EU nationals, or 7 years for EU and CPLP nationals. Gulf residency programs do not provide a citizenship pathway, even where permits are renewable or particular routes grant permanent status. For EB-5, regional center authorization through September 2027 is distinct from the September 30, 2026 deadline flagged for certain grandfathering protections under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. Current filing-window guidance should be confirmed with an immigration attorney, and program status should be verified directly with the host country’s immigration authority before preparation begins.

What depends on your application

A consulting firm and a restaurant can face different expectations under the E-2 substantial-investment and marginality tests, with the restaurant typically requiring a substantially larger outlay. This depends on how the business plans to operate. Businesses that create jobs or show they have a strong chance of growth get a more favorable review under the marginality rule. For endorsement-based routes, the sector must also fit the endorsing body’s portfolio, because not every body covers every industry.

How interviews work and how long processing takes can vary widely between US embassies in different countries, while people of some nationalities face longer queues or extra security review. Capital does not remove those procedural differences. For Egyptian passport holders planning UK travel, the brief says that as of March 2026 they still need Standard Visitor permission to enter as visitors, and there is no visa-free or ETA route. Applicants therefore need to check the rules for entry separately from what they need for a business-residence application.

Portugal D2 increases the base financial-means requirement by 50% per adult dependent and 30% per child under 18. Most Golden Visa programs let family members join the same application, but each extra person may add fees and paperwork. These extra costs come on top of the headline qualifying investment and can change how routes compare even when an applicant can afford that investment.

Officers assess whether the capital’s origin, movement, and current form are consistent across bank records, tax filings, and business history. Small discrepancies can create substantial review problems. Mismatched names, dates, or figures are practical causes of delays and refusals, so organizing the trail without gaps reduces a risk that additional capital cannot resolve. For applicants using an assistance service, document preparation and human review should be distinguished from legal advice or an approval guarantee, since the embassy or consulate decides the outcome.

Sources and date checked

• The Congressional Research Service describes the statutory reauthorization of the EB-5 Regional Center Program.
• US Citizenship and Immigration Services publishes the current fee schedule.
• UK Visas and Immigration guidance covers Innovator Founder requirements, endorsing bodies, fees, and the closure of Tier 1 (Investor).
• Citizens Information states Ireland’s STEP funding requirement.
• The NSW Government’s Department of Home Affairs page records the closure of Australia’s Business Innovation and Investment Program.

Visa Tooling is published by Veeza AI, a visa application assistance service. The embassy or consulate decides visa outcomes.