Residence Permit in Europe in 2026: What Grounds Work for Russian Citizens and What Each Costs

A complete table of thresholds for all countries where property purchase provides grounds, with the regulatory act and verification date for each row, is in the [Residence by Investment](/residence/) section. Here we cover the European part and grounds that don't make it into the table because they don't involve real estate.

What people call "residence permit in Europe" and why compilations include Serbia

Three different sources understand three different geographies by 'residence permit in Europe,' and what the entire sum means depends on which one is meant. The difference is not linguistic: it determines whether the status gives the right to be in the Schengen area.

Residence permits in Europe need to be separated into three circles, and these circles don't overlap. The European Union — 27 states; an EU country residence permit gives the right to live in it and usually to move through the Schengen area for up to 90 days in 180. The Schengen Area — does not coincide with the EU: it includes Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, and excludes Ireland and Cyprus. Europe as a continent — includes Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, which are neither in the EU nor in Schengen.

A sixth-position Yandex result writes: "The cheapest residence permit in Europe is provided by Montenegro, Spain, Serbia, Hungary, France" — in one list, two countries outside the EU and three inside. Formally, there are no objections; all five are in Europe. Practically, however, Montenegrin and Serbian statuses do not provide what the buyer usually wants a European residence permit for: they do not open free movement through the Schengen area.

Myth-busting: "residence permit in Europe means Schengen is open." The right to enter other Schengen countries is provided by a status issued by a state that is a party to the agreement, and only for up to 90 days in 180. A residence permit from a country not in Schengen does not create this right at all, and a residence permit from an EU country outside Schengen — for example, Cyprus — does not automatically open Schengen borders.

Five Grounds on Which European Countries Issue Residence Permits

There are five grounds on which European countries issue residence permits, and the money in them is organized fundamentally differently. Mixing them in one list "from such-and-such a sum" is incorrect: in some cases the money is invested, in others it is confirmed, in others it is not required at all.

Residence permits in Europe are issued on each of these five grounds, and money behaves differently in each. Hence the first practical consequence. A compilation that lines up countries in a row "from €3,000 to €500,000" puts on one scale a non-refundable fee, a confirmed account balance, and a refundable investment. Three different things, and decisions about them are made differently.

How this looks in practice is shown by a ninth-position Google result. In its summary table, the Maltese entry is listed as €30,000, and several paragraphs below, in the text about the minimum property value, as €220,000. Both figures are on the same page, with a sevenfold difference between them, and neither is marked as relating to different things. A sixth-position Yandex result lists a range "from €10,000 on Malta to €2,000,000 in Spain" — despite the fact that Spain's property purchase residency program was canceled, and the second edge of the range describes a non-existent ground.

The second consequence is more subtle. A third-position Google result gives a table "United Kingdom — from £5,000, Hungary — from €3,500, Germany — from €3,000, Denmark — from €12,900, Spain — from €3,500." This is a price for assistance, not program thresholds: the Hungarian threshold, as explained below, is €250,000. The table contains no error, but it appears in a material that answers the question about residence permits and reads as an entry condition.

Greece: €250,000 in Government Documents and €2,000 for Renewal

The list of documents for permanent investor residence permit published by the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum uses the figure €250,000 and charges an electronic fee of €2,000 for renewal. The ground is Article 20B of Law 4251/2014.

The threshold appears in the list twice, and both times in operational details of the procedure, which is more convenient for verification than a direct statement. First — in the requirement for a notarial certificate in the case where "when purchasing a property, a sum less than two hundred and fifty thousand euros was paid, but the current objective value of the property exceeds this sum or equals it." Second — in the requirement for a lease agreement for hotel facilities or tourist furnished housing, from which full payment of €250,000 must follow.

It is worth noting separately what is not on this page. Stepped thresholds raised in 2024 to higher values for certain territories, the document list does not name — it remains at €250,000. We do not claim that the current rate equals €250,000 today; we note that the ministry list, updated September 3, 2026, uses that figure and has no date qualifications. The territorial threshold we fixed earlier in our analysis of European programs does not follow from this list.

The requirement for a national visa is the point that for a Russian citizen changes the entire arithmetic. You can apply for a residence permit only if you have a valid national visa in your passport; it is issued by the consulate, and this is a separate procedure with its own timeline, usually not included in the program cost.

Portugal: Golden Visa Remains, Real Estate Removed

Portugal's investor residence program continues to work, but property purchase is no longer a ground in it — investment must be in funds and other permitted instruments. This changes the meaning of the question "how much does Portuguese residence permit for real estate cost": such a product does not exist.

In parallel, two routes work without investment. Visa D7 is for financially independent persons with passive income; D8 is for remote workers; the required income in both is calculated by family differently and ranges from €920 to €3,680 per month depending on applicant type and family composition. In these routes, real estate is needed not as an investment but as proof of residence.

A third change concerns the end of the path, not the beginning. Portugal's naturalization threshold was raised to ten years on May 19, 2026; the expedited threshold of seven years is kept for two groups — EU citizens and nationals of Portuguese-speaking states. Those who applied before that date were given the previous conditions by a separate provision in the law. The calculation of "five years to a passport" that appears in compilations written before May no longer works.

Hungary: €250,000 into a Fund, Direct Property Purchase Excluded

Hungary's program issues a residence permit for ten years for real estate fund shares from €250,000; direct property purchase was excluded from grounds on January 15, 2025. The coincidence of the sum with Greece's is deceptive: there the property remains in ownership, here the money goes into shares.

The difference between "buy an apartment for €250,000" and "buy shares for €250,000" matters to the buyer in three parameters at once. You cannot dispose of the object — the fund does. The holding period is set by fund rules, not by the owner's decision. Profitability is the fund's profitability, not the return on a specific rental property.

Here also is the explanation for why the Hungarian route appears so often in "cheap residence permit" compilations. The entry sum is indeed one of the lowest in the EU, and presence requirements are lenient. But entry is not property purchase, and a person who planned to acquire an apartment and get status discovers this only after choosing the country.

Spain and Malta: What Closed and What Remains

Spain's residency program for property purchase was canceled in 2025; Malta's citizenship by investment scheme was closed by an EU Court ruling of April 29, 2025. Both countries have other grounds left, but the ones for which they were chosen have disappeared.

The Spanish €2,000,000 that still circulates in compilations as the upper limit of European entry relates to the cancelled ground and means nothing today. In Spain, the working replacement is the digital nomad visa: the income requirement here is tied to the minimum inter-professional salary and rises with it — in 2026 the indexation was 3.1%. This is a fundamentally different applicant profile: not an investor, but a person with confirmed remote income.

Malta has retained a permanent residency program, which is administered by a separate state agency. On its website, the agency describes the procedure as a four-level review and runs, alongside the main program, authorization for digital nomads and a startup program. Permanent residency and citizenship are different statuses, and closing the latter does not cancel the former.

Myth-busting: "the program closed — so the country is closed." Cancellation of one ground does not close a country: Spain kept a visa for remote workers, Malta kept permanent residency. What changes is not the availability of the country, but the profile of the applicant it suits, and the sum in this case can decrease, not increase.

Bulgaria: Permanent Status Immediately, but Through a Fund for One Million Levs

Bulgaria is the only country in this review where an investor receives permanent status immediately, without an intermediate annual permit; the price of this structure is one million levs invested in a fund, and the law imposes four requirements on the fund itself. A separate threshold for investment in real estate is also provided in the program — 600,000 levs.

The specificity here is in the structure, not the amount. Requirements are imposed not only on the applicant but also on the fund: it must meet the conditions listed in the law, and this is checked before application, not after. Plus a separate stage of preliminary approval by the agency and a D visa for entry.

Bulgaria's threshold is four times higher than Greece's and twice higher than Hungary's, and the presence requirement is more lenient than either. This is the general rule of this section: the lower the requirement to live in the country, the higher the requirement for the sum and the depth of verification. There are no programs in Europe where both are low.

Residence Permits in Europe Without Investment: Income, Employment, Study

There are more grounds without money invested in European countries than investment-based ones, and by the volume of statuses issued, they are incomparably larger. A fourth-position Google result calls them "200 ways"; the order of magnitude is exaggerated, but the direction is right.

Three working groups. Financial independence — passive income or savings are confirmed, the money stays with the applicant; in Portuguese D7 this ranges from €920 per month. Remote work — a contract and income are confirmed, the threshold is usually a multiple of the country's minimum salary; one Google seventh-position result names €3,680 per month for one route. Employment, business or study — an invitation, registration or enrollment is confirmed.

It is important to say what these grounds require in return. All three assume physical presence: residence in the country for an established part of the year — a standard renewal condition. Investment routes more often allow getting by with minimal presence, and it is for this, not speed, that a premium is paid for them.

What Does Not Come With a European Status

Permission to reside gives the right to be in a country and does not give citizenship, nor automatic right to work in other EU countries, nor unchanging conditions. Each of the three limitations is regularly lost in retelling.

Citizenship is membership in a state, and residency is permission to stay on its territory; the procedures are different, and the second does not automatically lead to the first. Naturalization requires its own residence period and its own language and integration exam. Residency starts the countdown of this period but does not replace it: Portuguese ten years from May 19, 2026, are exactly about this.

The right to work is tied to the country that issued the status. Spanish permission does not give the right to be hired for work in Germany; for this, separate mechanisms exist with their own conditions.

No one guarantees unchanging conditions. Over two years, property purchase stopped being grounds in Spain, Hungary and Portugal — three different decisions by three different parliaments, made independently and in different forms. A program active on the purchase date may not be active on the renewal date, and this affects an already-issued status differently in different countries.

How Many Years from Residence Permit to Passport

The naturalization period is a parameter that over the past two years has moved in only one direction, and compilations barely update it.

Practical conclusion for the calculation: naturalization period should be checked on the decision date, not taken from a material that looks fresh. Most compilations put the publication date in the headline as "2026," but inside lie 2023 rules.

Myth-busting: "conditions are fixed as of the application date." This happens, but not everywhere and not automatically. Portugal protected applications filed before May 19, 2026, with a direct provision in the law; Hungary and Spain, excluding property purchase, acted differently. Whether a transitional provision exists is a separate question about the text of the act, not a general rule.

Why "where is it cheaper" Is Not the Right First Question

The entry sum is the fourth most important parameter, not the first: before it come ground, admission, and presence. The order of questions determines whether the chosen country will even be applicable.

First question — what ground do you have. Income, remote contract, investment money, ancestry, work. Ground is what you can confirm with a document; everything else is chosen based on it.

Second — does the country accept applications from Russian citizens on this ground. The answer is not universal: it is different for each program and for each consulate that issues the national visa.

Third — how much time in the country will you have to spend. The difference between "183 days a year" and "one trip a year" affects life more than a difference of one hundred thousand euros at entry. The presence requirement is what distinguishes the Greek investment route from Portuguese D7 more strongly than the sum: in the first presence is minimal, in the second residence is the point of the status.

And only fourth — how much does it cost. And you need to count not the threshold, but the sum of the threshold, non-refundable fees, consular procedure, and status maintenance for the entire period until the goal.

Myth-busting: "cheap residence permits exist." Cheap are non-investment grounds — income, work, study — but they require presence. Investment routes pay a premium precisely for the absence of this requirement. Programs where there is neither sum nor presence do not exist in Europe, and a material that promises such describes not a program.

Five Checks Before Choosing a Program

Each check is done before signing anything and takes a few minutes each.

1. Find a department page, not an agency page. Conditions are published by the authority making the decision. If a program has no government page with a document list — this is a fact about the program, not about your search skills.
2. Verify the sum on the department page against the sum in ads. Discrepancies occur in both directions, and not always the ad is at fault: the Greek document list uses €250,000 without mentioning higher stepped tiers.
3. Separate threshold from fee. Threshold is invested, fee is paid. Greek €2,000 for renewal is an expense that repeats every cycle.
4. Check presence requirement separately from money requirement. These are two independent axes, and compilations regularly glue them together.
5. Look at the date of the last change to the norm. In two years, three European countries excluded property purchase from grounds; material that does not mention any of these dates was written before them.

How We Verify Data

Greek requirements, sums and fees are given from the Golden Visa section of the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum website, updated September 3, 2026, referencing Article 20B of Law 4251/2014 and Article 132 of Law 4251/2014. Maltese data is from the website of the state agency managing the permanent residency program, same date. Portuguese, Hungarian, Spanish and Bulgarian conditions are drawn from our analyses of these programs, where they were verified against national acts; dates of changes are indicated in the text.

Migration department websites for Latvia and Italy did not open in this run, and for these countries' programs we provide neither sums nor timelines. Competitor formulations that we analyze are taken from the first ten results on Google and Yandex for the query "residence permit in Europe," taken on the same date. Who the exact author is does not matter and is not named here: the breakdown concerns the handling of numbers, not a single company.

Homzer works with foreign real estate: property search, verification and purchase assistance. We do not provide immigration services — we do not file applications, represent programs, or take responsibility for the outcome of an appeal to an agency. All of the above describes the situation as of September 3, 2026; this is a reference analysis, not legal advice.

Questions and Answers

Where in Europe is it easiest to get a residence permit in 2026?

The answer depends on what ground you have. If you have a confirmed passive income, the easiest routes are for financially independent persons — Portuguese D7 starts from €920 per month. If you have free funds and don't want to live in the country, the easiest are investment routes, but there the sums start from hundreds of thousands of euros.

How much does European residency for real estate cost?

Depending on where: the Greek document list uses €250,000, the Bulgarian real estate threshold is 600,000 levs. In Portugal, Hungary and Spain, property purchase is no longer grounds, so prices for "residence permit for real estate" in these countries do not exist.

Does a European status give the right to live in any EU country?

No. It gives the right to live in the country that issued it. Travel through Schengen is possible for up to 90 days in 180; the right to work in another EU country does not arise.

What is €2,000 in the Greek procedure?

An electronic fee provided for in Article 132 of Law 4251/2014 and Article 38 of Law 4546/2018, which is paid for renewal of the permit. This is an expense that repeats every cycle, and it is not included in the investment threshold.

Do you need a visa to apply for status?

Under Greek rules — yes: the document list directly requires a valid national visa in your passport at the time of application. It is issued by the consulate through a separate procedure.

Is it true that a residence permit costs from €30,000?

The figure refers to Malta and appears in the summary table of one of the first-ten materials. Lower in the same text, the Maltese threshold is named at €220,000. Within one material a sevenfold discrepancy, and which of the two figures relates to what does not follow from the text.

How many years before you can apply for citizenship?

Each country sets its term separately and changes it without a transition period for future applicants. Portugal as of May 19, 2026, requires ten years for most and seven for EU citizens and CPLP country nationals.

Are Montenegro and Serbia considered European destinations?

Geographically yes, by legal consequences — no: both countries are neither in the EU nor in the Schengen Area, and the status they issue does not provide freedom of movement through Schengen.

Can Russian citizenship be retained when relocating on such a status?

Residency itself does not affect citizenship. At the same time, a Russian citizen must report the fact of obtaining permanent residence rights in a foreign state in a notification of the established form — the procedure and timelines are covered in a separate article.

Where can I see residence permit thresholds for all countries at once?

In our [Residence by Investment](/residence/) section: it collects countries where property purchase provides grounds, with the sum, regulatory act and verification date for each row, and separately marks programs where housing is not a ground.