Montenegro Citizenship of Special Interest

There is no capital threshold. The Article 12 test is the special significance of the admission for the interest of Montenegro, not a sum of money, and neither the law nor its implementing decision names any figure.

The implementing instrument is the Government Decision «Odluka o kriterijumima za utvrđivanje naučnog, privrednog, ekonomskog, kulturnog i sportskog interesa Crne Gore za sticanje crnogorskog državljanstva prijemom», made under Article 17 of the law, published in Official Gazette No. 34/2010 and amended in 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2025. It sets criteria by field, each with an authority that gives an opinion:

The economic branch is the only place that mentions investing capital or donating, and it carries no figure either: Article 3(2) leaves the conditions to a separate instrument («posebnim aktom»), but no such instrument was found in the Official Gazette or the gov.me document library as at 30 September 2026. Investment here is a criterion for the advising authority to weigh, not a price at which citizenship is bought.

The state-interest and other-interest branch, where a case enters on a proposal by the President, the Speaker of Parliament or the Prime Minister, has no criteria in this Decision: the instrument covers only the scientific, business, economic, cultural and sporting fields.

The investment figures once associated with Montenegrin citizenship belong to the citizenship-by-investment programme, a time-limited mechanism the Government built on the economic branch of this same Decision; Article 3a, added in 2016, allowed investment or donation «preko posebnog programa ulaganja». That programme ran until 31 December 2022 and has ended, so none of its figures applies to the current Article 12 route.

The outcome is Montenegrin citizenship, conferred by a decision on admission to citizenship issued by the Ministry of Interior. Citizenship takes effect on the day the decision is delivered to the person admitted (Article 31), and the person admitted makes a solemn declaration (Article 30).

The name of this route must be read from the words of the law. The Law on Montenegrin Citizenship does not use the word "merit". Article 12 refers to a person whose admission to citizenship is «od posebnog značaja za državni, naučni, privredni, kulturni, ekonomski, sportski i drugi interes Crne Gore» — of special significance for the state, scientific, business, cultural, economic, sporting and other interest of Montenegro. "Citizenship by merit" is a common label used outside the text of the law, not a legal name. The state gives this route no name of its own; the name used here describes the route in the words of the law.

It is an exceptional power: the law says such a person «može, izuzetno» — may, exceptionally — be admitted to citizenship even without meeting the ordinary naturalisation conditions of Article 8. This route is not an investment programme.

Article 12 has two decision tracks, and in both the Ministry of Interior decides, not the Government:

1. For the state interest and other interest, the Ministry decides on a proposal from the President of Montenegro, the Speaker of Parliament or the Prime Minister (paragraph 2).
2. For cases under paragraph 1, the Ministry decides with the opinion of the authority responsible for the field concerned (paragraph 3).

The English translation of the law published by the Ministry of Interior on gov.me in 2019 says the Government decides, limits the route to persons over 18, and lacks the paragraph on proposals by the three heads of state bodies. None of those three points matches the current Montenegrin text, so that English version cannot be relied on.

Nor is this route a continuation of the citizenship-by-investment programme. That programme, formally the «Posebni program ulaganja od posebnog značaja za privredni i ekonomski interes Crne Gore», was set up by the Government in 2018 on this same Article 12, through its economic-interest branch; the Ministry of Interior writes that the provision allowing foreigners to acquire citizenship «pod specijalnim uslovima» is Article 12. But that programme was a time-limited mechanism and it has ended: the Government confirms it ran until 31 December 2022. Article 12 is a standing legal basis, present since the original 2008 law and still in force after the programme expired.

The route is under review. On 4 December 2025 the Government adopted a Decision establishing a Commission to analyse whether decisions granting citizenship on grounds of special significance for the state and other interest of Montenegro were justified. According to the accompanying draft, the Commission reviews the decisions the Government calls «počasno državljanstvo» (honorary citizenship), excluding citizenship granted under the economic citizenship programme; assesses their actual effects against the benefits the state expected; proposes changes to the legal framework to define criteria more precisely and make the procedure more transparent; and reports to the Government twice a year. The Government amended that Decision on 7 May 2026. No Commission report was found in the gov.me document library as at 30 September 2026.

On a previous citizenship, the law can be read only as far as its words go:

1. The requirement to be released from another citizenship sits in Article 8(1)(2), and Article 12 permits admission «i ako ne ispunjava uslove iz člana 8 ovog zakona» — even where the Article 8 conditions are not met.
2. The law presents dual citizenship only as something that may be established by international treaty, on condition of reciprocity (Article 18(2)).
3. An adult Montenegrin citizen who also holds another citizenship loses Montenegrin citizenship by operation of law on voluntarily acquiring another state's citizenship (Article 24(1)(1)).

The authority publishes no text addressing whether a person admitted under Article 12 may keep a previous citizenship. Nor does it publish how many people have been admitted under Article 12 outside the investment programme that has ended.

The law sets one general deadline for all citizenship cases, not specific to Article 12: the competent authority must decide within one year from the day the procedure is initiated, in writing, with reasons and instructions on legal remedy (Article 29(3)). The applicant may bring an administrative dispute against that decision (Article 29(4)).

The authority publishes no actual processing time for the Article 12 route, and no separate procedure for it. A paragraph 2 case needs a proposal from the President, the Speaker of Parliament or the Prime Minister; a paragraph 3 case needs the opinion of the authority responsible for the field; the law sets no time limit for either step.

Two further general rules affect the clock:

1. If a procedure started on application cannot continue or be completed because the applicant, despite a warning from the authority, fails to take a required step within the time allowed, the applicant is deemed to have withdrawn the application; that decision is made three months after the warning, or six months if the person lives in another state (Article 29(1) and (2)).
2. Applications are filed in person or through a representative on the prescribed form; a person living in another state may file through a diplomatic or consular mission (Article 28).

Citizenship takes effect on the day the decision on admission is delivered (Article 31).

The law sets no residence condition for this route. Article 12 permits admission «i ako ne ispunjava uslove iz člana 8 ovog zakona», and Article 8 is where the conditions for ordinary naturalisation sit.

The following three Article 8 conditions are therefore not mandatory for the Article 12 route:

1. Ten years of lawful and continuous residence in Montenegro before applying (point 3).
2. Secured accommodation and a steady income in Montenegro sufficient for material and social security (point 4).
3. Knowledge of the Montenegrin language sufficient for basic communication (point 6).

The sources read state no presence obligation after admission. The tie to Montenegro is required elsewhere: the case must show special significance for the country's interest, and on the state-interest branch it needs a proposal from the President, the Speaker of Parliament or the Prime Minister.

Article 12 speaks of a single person («lice»); the law sets no dependant regime for this route.

Children have a separate path under Article 16. A child is admitted if it holds no other citizenship or has been released from another citizenship, and if both parents have been admitted to citizenship, or one parent has been admitted and the child lives lawfully and continuously in Montenegro with that parent. Where only one parent has been admitted, the other parent's consent must be filed unless that parent is stateless; a child over 14 must also consent.

The law makes no provision for a spouse to follow a person admitted under Article 12. The marriage path sits in Article 11 and applies to a person married to a Montenegrin citizen for at least three years and lawfully and continuously resident in Montenegro for at least five years before applying.

A wider family-member regime existed only in the instruments of the citizenship-by-investment programme, and those do not apply to the Article 12 route because the programme ended on 31 December 2022.

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Montenegro passport, so the figure in this cell is the figure for that passport itself.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Montenegro passport reaches 126 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 authority publishes no tax regime for persons admitted under Article 12: neither the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship nor the Government's criteria Decision sets any tax concession or tax obligation specific to this route.

The law touches tax in ordinary naturalisation: Article 8(1)(8) requires the applicant to have settled tax and other statutory obligations that have fallen due. Article 12 permits admission even where the Article 8 conditions are not met, so on the wording of the law this point is not a mandatory condition for the Article 12 route.

Tax reappears at the review stage after grant. According to the draft Decision accompanying the Government's conclusion of 4 December 2025, one of the Commission's tasks is «provjera izmirenosti poreskih obaveza u Crnoj Gori» — checking that tax obligations in Montenegro have been met — as part of its review of decisions granting citizenship on grounds of special interest.

The authority publishes no fee specific to the Article 12 route: the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship names no figure, and neither does the Government's criteria Decision.

Article 32 of the law leaves fees to a separate law, with one limit: fees for determining, acquiring and losing citizenship must not be set at a level that obstructs the filing of an application («u visini koja ne predstavlja smetnju za podnošenje zahtjeva»).

Nor does the authority publish an application form specific to Article 12. The naturalisation form the Ministry of Interior publishes on gov.me states Article 8 as its basis, making it the form for ordinary naturalisation.

The contributions and fees once associated with Montenegrin citizenship belong to the citizenship-by-investment programme, which ended on 31 December 2022, and do not apply to this route.