Art. 5 Requirements relating to the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment | Sixth anti-money laundering (AML 6) directive | AML

This article targets a specific subset of Member States — those whose national law permits the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment (so-called "golden visa" schemes).

It recognises that such programmes carry inherent money laundering and terrorist financing risks and requires those Member States to put in place a structured set of mitigating measures.

These include a coordinated risk management process, applicant profiling and due diligence checks, and ongoing monitoring.

The article also feeds directly into the broader national risk assessment framework established under Article 8, meaning the measures adopted must be consistent with those findings.

Alongside the operational requirements, the article builds in a transparency and accountability layer through mandatory annual public reporting and notification obligations to the Commission.

Important points:

Member States operating investment-for-residence schemes must establish a formal risk management process, including applicant checks covering source of funds and source of wealth, and periodic reviews of medium and high-risk applicants.
Publish an annual public report covering application volumes, outcomes, and any evolution in money laundering or terrorist financing risks linked to the scheme.
Member States are required to notify the Commission of their adopted measures by 10 July 2028, after which the Commission will publish those measures in the Official Journal of the European Union.

1. Member States whose national law enables the granting of residence rights in exchange for any kind of investment, such as capital transfers, purchase or renting of property, investment in government bonds, investment in corporate entities, donation or endowment of an activity contributing to the public good and contributions to the state budget, shall put in place at least the following measures to mitigate the associated risks of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing:
  1. a risk management process, including the identification, classification and mitigation of risks under the coordination of a designated authority;
  2. measures providing for the mitigation of risks of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing associated with applicants for the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment including:
    checks on the profile of the applicant by the designated authority, including obtaining information on the source of funds and source of wealth of the applicant;
    verification of information on applicants against information held by competent authorities as referred to in Article 2(1), point (44)(a) and (c), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 subject to the respect of the applicable national criminal procedural law and against lists of individuals and entities subject to Union restrictive measures;
    periodic reviews of medium and high-risk applicants.
1. Member States shall ensure monitoring of implementation of the risk management process as referred to in paragraph 1, point (a), including by assessing it on an annual basis.
1. Member States shall adopt and implement the measures referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in a manner consistent with the risks identified under the risk assessment carried out pursuant to Article 8.
1. Member States shall publish an annual report on the risks of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing associated with the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment. Those reports shall be made public and shall include the information on:
  1. the number of received applications and of countries of origin of the applicants;
  2. the number of residence permits granted or rejected, and the reasons for such rejections;
  3. any evolution detected in the risks of money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing associated with the granting of residence rights in exchange for investment.
1. By 10 July 2028, Member States shall notify the Commission of the measures adopted under paragraph 1 of this Article. That notification shall include an explanation of those measures based on the relevant risk assessment carried out by Member States pursuant to Article 8.
1. The Commission shall publish in the Official Journal of the European Union the measures notified by Member States pursuant to paragraph 5.
1. By 10 July 2030, the Commission shall publish a report assessing the measures notified pursuant to paragraph 5 in mitigating the risks of money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing and, where necessary, issue recommendations.