Four of six investor routes admit an investor’s parents

Greece, Portugal, Malta and Dominica each name a parent of the main applicant or of the spouse among the relatives who can be included. The United States and Canada do not: the statute carries an EB-5 investor’s status to a spouse and children only, and Canada’s route for parents is a sponsorship that its government paused on 15 July 2026. Positions are as at 5 November 2026.

Four routes name a parent, on four different terms

Each of the four texts reaches the parents of the spouse as well as those of the applicant. Spouses are covered in an earlier article and children’s age limits in a companion article.

Greece’s list is article 95(2) of Law 5038/2023, as replaced on 6 February 2026 by Law 5275/2026; the ascendants limb is unchanged from 2023. The article departs from article 84(1)’s two years of residence and names no other paragraph. Article 84(2) asks the sponsor for accommodation, income and health insurance; whether it reaches investor families is not stated.

In Portugal the parent comes by family reunification under articles 98, 99 and 101 of Law 23/2007, all last amended in October 2025. The two-year wait of article 98(1) does not apply to the family of an ARI holder, and article 101 asks for accommodation and means sufficient for the whole family.

Malta’s regulation 3 defines a dependant to include a parent or grandparent who is not in full-time employment and proves principal dependence. The Residency Malta Agency’s FAQ of September 2024 says No, there is no age threshold. It adds that an adult dependant with accumulated wealth or sufficient income would not be eligible, while retirement income alone does not exclude a parent who is still principally dependent.

Dominica’s regulation 2 sets the age above 65 and asks that the main applicant or the spouse substantially support the parent. A parent is priced as any dependant: Schedule 1 bundles the main applicant and up to three dependants into one figure under each investment option, charges USD 40,000 for each further dependant aged 18 or over and adds USD 4,000 for due diligence on each parent.

After citizenship the main applicant can apply for a dependant left out of the original application, if the dependant qualified when it was made (Schedule 1, paragraph 3(5)); S.R.O. 46 of 2025 changed another paragraph.

The United States and Canada leave parents outside the file

Section 203(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), in 8 U.S.C. 1153, gives a spouse or child of an investor in the fifth employment-based preference (EB-5) the investor’s status if accompanying or following to join, and names no other relative. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) describes EB-5 as open to investors, their spouses and their unmarried children under 21.

A permanent resident has no preference category for a parent. A parent can qualify as an immediate relative of a US citizen aged 21 or over (8 U.S.C. 1151), and naturalisation asks, among other things, for five years of continuous residence as a permanent resident. The route therefore runs through a son or daughter who is a US citizen aged 21 or over, the investor included once naturalised.

Canada’s Regulations define a family member as a spouse or common-law partner, a dependent child and that child’s dependent child. The Quebec investor class and the provincial nominee class sit in the economic class of section 70, and the Quebec ministry’s investor pages name a spouse or partner and dependent children and no other relative.

A parent comes in the family class as the sponsor’s mother or father (section 117). Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) asks on its sponsorship page that the sponsor be invited to apply, be at least 18, live in Canada, be a citizen, permanent resident or registered Indian and have enough income to support the parent.

IRCC’s notice of 15 July 2026 says: To manage this pressure responsibly, IRCC will not receive new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice. IRCC says it will keep processing existing applications.

The notice points parents to the super visa, a visit of up to 5 years at a time hosted by a child or grandchild who is a citizen, permanent resident or registered Indian living in Canada.

What a Vietnamese family meets at each step

A parent aged 64 is outside Dominica’s definition however fully the applicant supports him or her. On the Malta FAQ a parent with sufficient income would not be eligible, and a pension alone does not exclude one; Portugal turns on dependence, and Greece’s text sets no dependency test for the parent.

At the filing, a parent is a dependant on the main application in Malta and Dominica and comes through a family-reunification permit in Greece and Portugal. Malta and Dominica ask the main applicant for an affidavit of support for each dependant over 18, and the Dominica Unit’s list of documents asks that it be notarised.

AIMA’s page on reunification asks for proof of means and lists, among the proofs of economic dependence and of the family tie, transfers made to the country of origin, which for a parent living in Vietnam means transfers to Vietnam. Greece’s article 95(2) names no proof for a parent, and article 84(2), if it applies, asks the sponsor to prove the family relationship.

Where the route is the United States or Canada, the parent is not in the investor’s file at all: the way in runs through an adult son or daughter who is a US citizen aged 21 or over, or through a Canadian sponsor who can be invited to apply, and IRCC is issuing no invitations.

What this article has not established

Greece’s consolidated Migration Code was not read, and article 84 was read in its 2023 text; which documents Greece asks for a parent, and whether paragraph 2 of article 84 applies to investor families, is not established. Portugal’s ordinances on accommodation and means were not read, and no text read says how AIMA tests dependence.

Malta’s FAQ predates the 2025 amendment of the regulations, and no later amendment was found. Dominica’s laws portal could not be queried, and S.R.O. 46 of 2025 is a scan, read as an image. Quebec’s own regulation and the provinces’ entrepreneur pages were not read for family members.

Nothing is said on how long a parent’s route takes in any country. Cyprus, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda were not covered, and no investor programme’s open or closed status was assessed.