With their residency, you are given the opportunity to live in another country and all you have to do is visit the place once in 12 months to keep your residency valid.

There are two investment programs in Ireland, which started from 2012 (a Start-up Entrepreneur Programme (STEP) and an Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP).

IIP - requires the investor to invest at least 1 million Euro into the low interest Government Bonds (Currently suspended). Successful applicants and their family members (unmarried minor children and spouse) are entitled to obtain Irish residency permit for 5 years. The residency permit is renewed after 2 years. Another alternative is the investor to invest at least 1 million Euro in one or several Irish enterprises. In this case the investment must be sustained at least 3 years. The investment can be done in brand new business, but the mandatory thing is that the investing company must be registered in Ireland. Investing in Real property can be another alternative. In this case investor shall invest at least 450,000 Euro in residential real property and plus 500,000 Euro into the Immigrant investment bond (Currently suspended). 2 Million Investment in real estate investment Funds, can be another alternative. The real estate investment Funds shall be listed in Irish stock exchange. The 500,000 Euro of philanthropic endowment is also considered to be the pre-requirement for applying the residence permit.

The program is eligible for non-EEA nationals and gives them opportunity to enter the country on multiple visa bases. This program is a possibility for the investors and their families to establish a permanent bond with the country. There is no rule for mandatory residency in Ireland. The investor is obliged to arrive in Ireland only once per year. The application procedure will be controlled very scrupulously by the competent authority. They will only grant it to the investors who are potentially beneficial for the country and its economy.

Start-up Entrepreneur Programme (STEP) – this program was established to motivate and boost the creative business plans in Ireland. The applicants of this program can be the company decision makers, like: CEO, CTO, CFO, CIO and etc… According to this program, the first founder must have minimum funds required (50,000 Euro). The subsequent founder should have 30,000. The applicants are obliged to introduce the robust business plan. As soon as the business is established and needs more staff, the applicant is obliged to hire those employees, who has Irish working permit.It is not mandatory that the employee has Irish ethnicity.

The process of examination is very scrupulous and the competent authority will check it independently, evaluating the benefits of the country.