San Marino elective residence

The application goes to the Department of Foreign Affairs with the receipt for the EUR 1,000 filing fee, an authenticated copy of a travel document, a preliminary purchase contract conditional on the grant of residence (with an engineer's or surveyor's appraisal if works are counted), a bank statement showing the funds are available, residence, criminal record and pending charges certificates, a sworn statement on citizenships, places of residence in the last five years, absence of convictions and tax compliance, a CV and proof of sufficient resources for you and your family.

Option one is buying a building or part of a building for at least EUR 500,000 as a home for yourself or your family; up to EUR 150,000 of completion, renovation or demolition-and-rebuild costs can count towards the amount, subject to energy-efficiency rules. Option two is a non-interest-bearing deposit of at least EUR 600,000 tied up for ten years in San Marino state securities or a fund set up by the state; this route also carries a non-refundable tax of EUR 10,000. The investment must be kept in your name until the residence consolidates. The property purchase pays registration tax at 8%.

The Department of Foreign Affairs submits the complete file to the Congress of State, which decides within 60 days; its decision cannot be challenged. While the process is completed, applicants can obtain a provisional stay permit of up to six months from the Gendarmerie Foreigners Office. The number of elective residences granted each year is capped by law.

The law caps elective residences at 50 a year, not counting family members added to a holder's residence. Only buildings that were finished, awaiting renovation or in shell condition before 31 May 2017 qualify for the property route.

The holder may ask to extend elective residence to the spouse and children who meet the legal requirements, paying a one-off EUR 20,000 for each secondary applicant. Children born to the holder before consolidation are covered without this payment.

Until the residence consolidates ten years after entry in the population register, the holder and added family members cannot be employed in the wider public sector or in bodies owned by the state, cannot receive public benefits linked to residence and must cover healthcare through private insurance against all risks. After ten years these restrictions end.

Breaching these duties leads to immediate revocation of the elective residence for the holder and for the family members it was extended to. Anyone who made false statements or produced false documents loses the residence at once, and the deposit contract or property purchase becomes void, with the money or the property confiscated in favour of the state.