The budget for residence, by type of basis

What it costs to obtain residence varies by an order of magnitude depending on the basis, and the cheapest routes are the ones with nobody selling them.

Costs close to nothing

• Citizenship by descent. Archive research, document legalisation, consular fees. The strongest outcome in the field at the lowest cost, and it is available to more people than pursue it.
• Family reunification. Application fees and document costs, against an income requirement on the sponsor.
• Employment. Paid by the employer in most systems.
• Study. The visa is cheap; the tuition is the cost.

Moderate cost

• Financial independence and retirement routes. Application fees, insurance, accommodation, and evidence of income — no capital transfer required, only proof that income exists.
• Digital nomad visas. Fees and insurance, with an income test.
• A company. Formation, licence, premises, accounting — an annual cost rather than a one-off, and it recurs for as long as the status does.

Substantial capital

• Property routes, where the qualifying amount is the dominant number and the transaction costs around it are not trivial.
• Fund, bond and deposit routes, where the visible cost is lower and the opportunity cost is the real figure.
• Citizenship by investment, where the contribution or purchase sits alongside government, due diligence and agent fees that scale with family size.

The costs everyone omits

• Legalisation and translation of documents for the whole family.
• Independent legal and tax advice, in both countries.
• Travel for applications and appointments.
• Insurance, which is annual and rises with age.
• Renewals, for every family member, for as long as the status lasts.
• The tax consequence of the move, which for some households exceeds every other line combined.

The instruction

Before comparing programmes, spend an hour establishing whether anyone in the family qualifies by descent, by marriage, or through an employer. Those routes cost a fraction of the alternatives and produce stronger outcomes, and they are the first thing an honest adviser asks about.