We have big news coming out of Central Asia as the country of Uzbekistan has officially announced that starting from the 1st of June 2025, they will be introducing their own golden visa program. This is quite an unexpected country to introduce such a thing. I never would have anticipated that any Central Asian country would introduce it. Didn't really seem to be something in their primary interest. But as Uzbekistan has officially stated that they are going to be introducing a golden visa by investment program, frankly, this is major news for anyone in the economic migration realm because this is going to provide a lot of opportunities for specifically Russians and Belarusians in my opinion, but there might be some opportunities for some other nationalities as well who are interested in hitting Central Asia and gaining access to that part of the world.
So this is a golden visa program. It's not a citizenship by investment program. I'll be touching up on the passport itself in due course. But first, we need to go over the details of, okay, what are the requirements for you to be able to qualify for the Uzbek golden visa program and what do you get in return? What are the perks that the country is offering?
So, the government of Uzbekistan has evidently been watching my videos because they have a very diversified list of requirements where there are actually three primary methods that you could do in order to qualify for the different types of Uzbek golden visas.
The first one is to make a donation of $250,000 US to the government. That is not technically an investment. They're calling it a donation. And if you're doing that as a single applicant, it's going to be $250,000 US. If you'd like to add your spouse or maybe a family member, child, or parents, it is going to be an additional 150,000 American each. So, what we can see already is that this is quite an expensive golden visa program. And in return, if you do the investment or donation into the government route, you will gain a five-year residency permit in the country.
The second investment option to qualify for this golden visa would be to invest $250,000 American dollars into a locally registered Uzbek company. So, you're pretty much investing into a company at that point that is registered in Uzbekistan. And in return, you will get a three-year temporary residency, but it is renewable. So you can build that maybe if you're looking to get citizenship in Uzbekistan, which to be honest, I'm not really too sure why. We'll touch upon the citizenship later, but you can build up the residency if you do the investment into an Uzbek registered company.
Or if you're willing to splash out a little bit more, you could also invest $3 million American dollars into a company that is currently producing goods or services. And in exchange, you'll not get a three-year temporary residence permit; you'll get a 10-year residency permit. So, if you're willing to spend 3 million American dollars in Uzbekistan, you'll get a 10-year residency permit.
And the third option to qualify for the golden visa would be that of investing into real estate. Now, the prices that are required for you to qualify for this golden visa program if you're looking to buy property in Uzbekistan do fluctuate depending upon where you are looking to buy property. For example, if you are willing to buy property in the Republic of Karakalpakstan autonomous region within Uzbekistan, then the minimum value is going to be that of $100,000 American dollars. If you want to buy in a place like Samarkand, it's going to increase to 200,000. And if you like to buy in the capital region of Tashkent, it's going to be 300,000 American value minimum.
As we can see, and I've said this throughout this blog, this is quite an expensive golden visa program.
Now, yes, this golden visa program is likely going to lead up to citizenship. They haven't got a citizenship by investment program out yet. Although, to be honest, the Uzbek passport really isn't that great. I could understand maybe if someone from a country like Russia wants to get a second passport, maybe they could qualify it through this way. But just be aware that you're not really going to gain any access to any major country with an Uzbek passport. You will only be able to live in Uzbekistan. You'll have free movement to Belarus. So you have unlimited access to Belarus, and I believe you have fairly good access to Russia as well, but that's pretty much it. You haven't got any major deals other than that.
Also, Uzbekistan doesn't recognize dual nationality. Now, that doesn't exactly mean that they don't allow dual nationality. What it means when someone says they don't recognize dual nationality is if you are in the territory of Uzbekistan, you are an Uzbek citizen. They're not going to care what other passports you have. But just be aware that Uzbekistan isn't the most dual citizenship friendly country, specifically not in the region. Kyrgyzstan is much more friendly in the region alone. So, Uzbekistan might not be the haven if you're looking to diversify your citizenship portfolio. But if you want a golden visa in Central Asia, it might be a perfect option. But it is quite pricey in my opinion.
Now a major question is, would I do the Uzbek golden visa program?
And to be honest with the current information that we have out, no, I wouldn't. If I had minimum 100,000 American to splash out on, I don't think Uzbekistan would be my major country to hit to be honest because there are much cheaper options out there already available that offer you more things.
You can actually get a full citizenship by investment program for about 105 to 130,000 American dollars being in Nauru and Vanuatu respectively. Although yes, both passports don't have the best reputation in the world. I would rather get Vanuatu citizenship every day of the week than an Uzbek golden visa because frankly, it's not really a dual citizenship friendly country. I'm personally not too interested in doing business in Central Asia. I'd love to visit but beyond that, I'm not too interested in the region. I'd much rather go to Kyrgyzstan if any country in that part of the world to be honest.
And for me, I would rather spend my money investing in a passport instead of a golden visa where I can only live in the country about five to 10 years, even if it is renewable, where even if I do get a citizenship, maybe there's questions to be asked about, okay, can I keep my other passports and also the Uzbek passport beyond gaining visa-free access to Russia and free movement to Belarus and the right to live in Uzbekistan.
Frankly, I don't see many incentives to do so.
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