The Law on Citizenship of North Macedonia (NM) allows for the acquisition of citizenship without any previous residence requirements for persons who represent a ‘special economic interest’ for the country.
A total of 121 investors received NM economic citizenship between 2005 and 2022, according to EU council report published in 2023. A total of 40 applications were refused with negative decisions, CIP Journal reports.
The EU authorities have warned North Macedonia to refrain operating investor citizenship scheme, saying systematic granting of citizenship in return for investment, may be used to bypass the EU short-stay visa procedure and security risks it entails, and can therefore have an impact on the visa-free regime.
The Acquisition of Citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia for Particular Economic Interest exists, if the foreigner who submitted an application for acquiring citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia, has invested capital in the amount of at least EUR 200,000 (two hundred thousand) euros per person, for a period of at least two years, in a private investment fund
North Macedonia was granted EU candidate status in December 2005, and since then has made substantial progress towards aligning its visa policy with the visa policy of the EU. North Macedonia’s EU accession bid was approved on 24 March 2020. North Macedonia continued to cooperate with Member States on migration and border management. Examples of cooperation included: expert visits, exchanges of information and best practices, technical equipment, and training courses.
Moldova terminated its investor citizenship scheme on 1 September 2020. Montenegro ended their special citizenship programme on Dec 31, 2022 to pursue “EU acquis” goals aligning with the EU policy and to improve relations.
It is worth noting that Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) officially changed its name, renamed to North Macedonia in Feb 2019 after resolving a dispute with Greece.
