Luxembourg Investor Visa

Four tiers. At least EUR 500,000 in an existing company with its registered office in Luxembourg, with an undertaking to maintain both the investment and the existing level of employment for at least five years.

At least EUR 500,000 in a company to be created with its registered office in Luxembourg, creating at least five jobs within three years of incorporation, the recruitment to be carried out with the Employment Development Agency.

At least EUR 3 million in an existing or new investment and management structure with its registered office in Luxembourg and maintaining appropriate substance there.

Or at least EUR 20 million deposited with a financial institution established in Luxembourg, with an undertaking to maintain it for at least five years. On the two EUR 500,000 tiers the company must carry on a commercial, craft or industrial activity.

Direct or indirect investment in the purchase or rental of real estate is not eligible

What is issued is an investor residence permit in the form of a chip card carrying biometric data: once approved, the holder must make an appointment at the General Department of Immigration to have a photograph and fingerprints taken, and collects the card in person a few days later.

The part most worth reading, though, is what the permit does not count: any investment in the acquisition or rental of real estate, whether direct or indirect, is not taken into consideration for the permit — the word rental is easily missed, and it closes off the detour through a long lease.

Alongside it runs a condition about whose name the money is in: the effective beneficiary of the deposited or invested assets must be the investor in person, or their spouse, or their registered partner, so there is no room for a third party to hold it on their behalf.

The business receiving the capital must carry on a commercial, craft or industrial activity. Two secondary doors are rarely mentioned in introductory material.

First, a third-country national who already holds long-term resident status in another EU Member State and obtained a temporary authorisation to stay as an investor in Luxembourg before entering may apply, on plain paper, for a long-term residence permit valid for five years and renewable on request.

Second, an investor who has placed at least EUR 500,000 in an existing or newly created business may also apply for a business permit if they meet that permit’s own conditions.

The procedure has two steps. The investment project or proof of investment must first go to the Minister of the Economy for the two EUR 500,000 tiers, or to the Minister of Finance for the EUR 3 million and EUR 20 million tiers, and a favourable opinion must be obtained before the residence authorisation is applied for.

The residence authorisation must be applied for and granted before entry; an application filed while already on Luxembourg territory is declared inadmissible.

The ministry replies within a maximum of three months in principle, and if no reply comes within that period the applicant is to treat the request as refused.

The temporary residence authorisation is then valid for 90 days, the type D visa for a maximum of three months, and a declaration of arrival must be filed with the commune within three days of arriving

The investor residence permit is valid for three years and is renewable for that same period, the only condition for renewal being that the conditions of grant remain met — the authority repeats that sentence, so it is a real condition rather than boilerplate.

But before counting those three years one must know where they start, and this is the easiest thing to miscalculate: the validity of the permit runs from the date of the declaration of arrival at the commune, not from the date of the decision and not from the date the card is collected.

Anyone slow to register at the commune shifts their own three years.

On losing the right, the law sets an absence threshold lower than many comparable programmes: a foreign national who intends to leave the Grand Duchy for more than six months must surrender the residence permit to the Directorate of Immigration and must make a declaration of departure at the commune where they resided.

Note the word intends: the obligation arises from the plan, not from having already been absent six months, so this is not a day count kept behind the holder back but something they must do before leaving.

On the renewal rhythm, the application must be filed with the Directorate within the two months before the permit expires — that two-month window is closed at both ends, so filing too early is also not filing in time.

A separate path for someone who already holds long-term resident status in another EU member state, leading to a five-year permit renewable on request, is recorded in the outcome cell of this table.

The investor permit has no family regime of its own: the holder is a third-country national, so family members follow the general family reunification procedure for third-country nationals, which runs in two consecutive steps.

Step one, before entering the country, is an application for a temporary authorisation to stay submitted to the General Department of Immigration of the Ministry of Home Affairs, holding a valid passport, with visa-subject nationals requesting a type D visa only after the authorisation has been obtained.

Step two, after entering the country, is a declaration of arrival in the new commune of residence, a medical check, and then an application for a residence permit.

The authorisation must be applied for by the person abroad before entering, although they may mandate a third party to submit it on their behalf, such as the family member already living in Luxembourg.

The source states plainly that family reunification is not possible for all family members.

The definition covers three groups. First, the spouse or registered partner of the sponsor, aged 18 or over at the time of the application, with reunification for a spouse not allowed in polygamous marriages, that is where the sponsor already has a spouse living in Luxembourg.

Second, the unmarried children under 18 of the sponsor and/or the spouse or partner for whom they have custody and where the children are dependent on them, or, in the case of shared custody, where the other party sharing custody has given their consent.

Third, the first-degree direct ascendants of unaccompanied minors who have been granted international protection.

Beyond those three, the Minister may widen the possibilities to three further categories provided the applicant has lawfully resided in Luxembourg for at least 12 months: first-degree direct ascendants of the sponsor or their spouse or partner, where they are dependent and lack the necessary family support in their country of origin.

Unmarried children aged 18 or over who are objectively unable to provide for their own needs on account of their state of health; and the legal guardian or any other family member of an unaccompanied minor granted international protection who has no direct ascendants

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Luxembourg passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Luxembourg passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Luxembourg passport reaches 202 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The programme file is entirely silent on tax — the explanatory note of the Directorate General for Immigration contains not one word of it, and the programme page mentions the word only in connection with the EUR 80 permit fee.

The answer sits with the Direct Tax Administration, and its sentence matches down to the statute number: the obtaining of a residence permit under the amended law of 29 August 2008 on the free movement of persons and on immigration does not automatically imply a residence for tax purposes in Luxembourg.

That applies to this record directly rather than by extension, because the programme own explanatory note states that the investor permit is granted under articles 53bis to 53quater of that same law.

The test of tax residence in Luxembourg is qualitative rather than a day count: an individual is a resident taxpayer where they have their tax domicile or their habitual abode in the Grand Duchy, and a non-resident taxpayer where they have neither but have income taxable in Luxembourg.

The source states no six-month or 183-day threshold.

Two definitions accompany it. An individual has their tax domicile at the place where they possess a dwelling in conditions permitting the conclusion that they will keep it and will make use of it.

They have their habitual abode at the place where they stay in circumstances showing that they remain in that locality or country not merely transiently.

One exclusion is forceful, and it forecloses the assumption that an address settles the matter: regardless of their address, a natural person is in principle regarded as a non-resident taxpayer in Luxembourg from the moment they have a centre of vital interests abroad, outside Luxembourg.

The consequence for scope: a resident taxpayer is liable on worldwide income, domestic and foreign alike, while a non-resident is liable only on income arising domestically.

Luxembourg bilateral tax treaties follow the OECD model, with the concept of a resident of a contracting state generally at Article 4.

Some procedural markers of the programme itself, read from the explanatory note: before the residence file is lodged, the investment project must be submitted for the opinion of the Ministry of the Economy under Article 53bis(1)(1) and (2), or evidence of investment for the opinion of the Ministry of Finance under points (3) and (4).

A file lodged after entering Luxembourg territory is inadmissible. On approval a temporary authorisation to stay is issued valid for 90 days.

The residence permit fee is EUR 80 for both first issue and renewal, with renewal filed in the two months before expiry; and five years of continuous lawful residence are required before the next step is considered.

Read this cell within its scope: the Direct Tax Administration page covers the tax-residence line and its consequences for the scope of taxation.

It gives no rates, says nothing about wealth or inheritance tax, and precisely because it holds that a permit does not create tax residence, it offers no special regime for an investor permit holder

The administrative fee is 80 EUR for both the first issue and the renewal, and the authority does not leave it in general terms:

It must be paid by bank transfer into a named account — IBAN LU46 1111 2582 2814 0000, BIC CCPLLULL, beneficiary the Ministry of Home Affairs — and the application must enclose the proof of transfer itself, so the money moves before the file rather than with it.

The accompanying documents include three that cost money and one that is easily missed.

The three that cost money: a copy of the entire valid passport rather than the identity page alone; a criminal record extract; and proof of suitable accommodation, in the form of a lease or a title deed.

The one easily missed is language: documents not in German, French or English must be accompanied by a translation certified by a sworn translator — not an ordinary notarised translation, but one by a translator who has taken the oath.

And at renewal the list shifts in a notable direction: the criminal record must be a recent extract from the Luxembourg criminal record rather than the country of origin record required first time — so after three years in Luxembourg what the authority wants to see is the file it keeps itself, and the holder cannot prepare it from abroad.

The filing mark for renewal and its two-month window are recorded in the residence cell of this table.