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The Ministry of Internal Affairs, with amendments to the Law on Citizenship, prohibits obtaining Macedonian citizenship for a foreigner from being a “transaction” for his rich investment in this country. The proposed changes are published on ENER. As the Ministry explained to “Free Press”, this does not mean that the criterion related to investment in the country is abolished, but only the possibility of its “transactional” abuse is eliminated.
This comes after a number of interesting people secured a Macedonian golden passport and citizenship, just because they have money.
Some of them, with Macedonian passports in their pockets, were arrested abroad. Such is the case with the Iranian Riza Sarafwho was arrested by the FBI in Miami in 2016 while traveling with his family to Disneyland. It was established that he had obtained a Macedonian passport for investment, and then he was tried for money laundering in the United States.
Among the controversial figures who hold Macedonian citizenship due to economic interest are the son and wife of the Indian businessman Subrata Roy which in 2014 by the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was promoted as a future big investor in the country who, apart from having a series of economic projects related to Skopje and Ohrid, promised to build a monument to Mother Teresa in the capital. Shortly after Subrata Roy’s adventure in Skopje, he was arrested and convicted by the Indian authorities for a series of abuses in his country.
If the amendments to the Law on Citizenship proposed by the Ministry of Interior are passed, then it will cease to be valid The decree which determines the criteria for special scientific, economic, cultural, sports or other national interest for acquiring the citizenship of Macedonia.
It is this decree that allows the conditionally speaking “sale” of Macedonian citizenship for money – in article 3 it is written that if the foreigner has invested capital of 400 thousand euros as a direct investment with new capacities, or if he has invested 200 thousand euros in a private investment fund, and at the same time submitted a request to acquire the citizenship of Macedonia, then Macedonia has a “special economic interest” from him.
If the amendments pass, Macedonia will leave the company of Cambodia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Vanuatu, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, Barbuda and the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, which also have programs for citizenship by investment.
The Ministry of the Interior told the “Free Press” that when proposing the legal amendments, they were guided by the Report of the European Commission on the progress of Macedonia, according to which granting citizenship to a foreigner of economic interest may represent a migration and security risk, especially considering the different criteria for granting citizenship.
The Commission remains of the position, as expressed in the Sixth Report within the framework of the visa liberalization suspension mechanism, that Macedonia should refrain from systematic granting of citizenship based on special economic interestand predetermined by an exact minimum investment threshold, because such investor citizenship schemes present serious risks and are incompatible with European Union law.
– The primary motive for the proposed changes is to specify the content of the provisions of the Law on Citizenship, which will enable their appropriate practical implementation. Namely, according to the report and recommendations from the European Commission on the progress of the Republic of North Macedonia, according to which the granting of citizenship to a foreigner of economic interest may represent a migration and security risk, especially considering the different criteria for granting citizenship, the intention is to eliminate all such potential risks through accurate normative regulation, and the legal provisions in that sense to be fully compatible with the law of the European Union, the Ministry of the Interior explains to “Free Press”.
In addition, the changes are approached and guided by the judgment of the European Court of Justice in a dispute between the European Commission and Malta, dated April 29, 2025, according to which it is determined that by establishing and operating an institutionalized scheme for investment in Malta, a “transactional” procedure towards naturalization based on predetermined payments or investments is established in a way, and in this way Malta has violated its obligations.
For this purpose, these amendments are aimed at abolishing pre-determined investments in the state, which de jure establishes a precisely determined price for acquiring citizenship through naturalization of particular economic interest for the state, it is written in the amendments to the Law on Citizenship published on ENER.
With the proposed amendments to the Law on Citizenship, one more amendment is made – the time period for re-admission to the citizenship of Macedonia is reduced, for a person whose citizenship was denied or terminated by dismissal or by international agreement. Now, when at least 3 months have passed, such a person will be able to submit a request for re-admission to Macedonian citizenship instead of waiting 3 years. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the goal of shortening the deadline for reapplying is to restore ties with expatriates, to encourage the return of professionals and investors.
That is why the shortening of the period for access to re-citizenship is a strong incentive for expatriates to think about returning or more active participation in the socio-economic life of the country, states the proposal published by ENER.
From 2013 to 2017, 91 people acquired Macedonian citizenship in accordance with Art. 11 of the Law on the Citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia and the decree for determining the criteria for special scientific, economic, cultural, sports or other national interest for acquiring the citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia.
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