Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of immigration from people who do not have visa-free access to the UK in their home country but use golden visa arrangements to enter through a third-party country which does have visa-free agreements with the UK.

‘Golden visas’ do not in themselves confer nationality, and thus do not automatically grant visa-free access to the UK. They grant residence in the issuing country only. While such schemes do carry risk as they can lead to the granting of citizenship over time, this typically requires a sustained period of lawful residence.

The UK’s visa system, including the Visa National List, is kept under regular review to ensure it operates in the national interest. Decisions on visa requirements, including which nationalities may travel visa-free or instead require permission (such as an Electronic Travel Authorisation), are based on a range of factors. These include security, compliance, returns cooperation and wider prosperity considerations.

Citizenship by Investment (CBI), or so-called “golden passport”, programmes differ from residence-based investment routes in that they offer a direct pathway to a new nationality, in some cases offering visa free access to the UK. The Government keeps the risks associated with such programmes under close review. Where appropriate, action is taken through the visa system. This has included the introduction of visit visa requirements for countries operating CBI programmes: Nauru (2025) and Saint Lucia (2026, principally for asylum abuse, with CBI a supporting factor).