Visa, residence permit, permanent residence, citizenship: the practical differences

Four words that get used interchangeably and describe four different legal positions. Almost every misunderstanding in this field starts by confusing two of them.

A visa

Permission to travel to a border and ask to be admitted. It is not permission to be in a country — that is granted by the officer at entry — and it is not a status. A visa expires, is issued for a purpose, and confers nothing beyond the journey.

A residence permit

Permission to live in a country for a period, on a basis: employment, study, family, a company, an investment, a property. It is renewable, it is conditional, and it ends when the basis ends. Most of what is sold as "residency" is this.

• It usually carries the right to be there and, depending on the basis, the right to work.
• It is derivative for family members, who hold it through the principal.
• It does not survive the loss of its basis, at any point in its term.

Permanent residence

An indefinite right to live in a country, generally with full access to the labour market and, after qualifying periods, to social systems. The crucial difference from a permit is that it no longer depends on a basis: you may change jobs, close the company, sell the property.

• It can still be lost — usually through prolonged absence, and in some systems through serious criminality.
• It does not confer a passport, voting rights in national elections, or protection from expulsion in every case.
• In several systems it is the sensible destination, and citizenship is an optional extra.

Citizenship

Membership of the state. It cannot ordinarily be lost, it carries a passport and consular protection, it confers political rights, and it usually protects against expulsion absolutely. It also carries obligations that a permit does not: in some countries military service, in one country taxation on worldwide income wherever you live.

Why the distinction matters commercially

Programmes are marketed with the vocabulary of the level above what they deliver. "Golden visa" is almost always a residence permit. "Citizenship programme" in the European Union no longer exists. "Permanent residence" in some systems is a renewable permit with a flattering name.

The test is simple and worth applying to any offer: what happens to this status if the qualifying asset disappears, and what happens to it if I do not visit for two years. The answers place it on the scale above, whatever it is called.