Lebanon is considering a new investment-based residency proposal that would grant residency or tax-residence status to non-residents who invest at least US$500,000 in the country. The bill was approved by Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee on 22 June, but still needs a full parliamentary vote and implementing regulations before becoming law.
Proposed investment and residency structure
Committee chair Ibrahim Kanaan described the proposal as a tax-residency instrument rather than a standard golden visa.
The bill would apply to non-residents in Lebanon, including foreigners and Lebanese citizens working abroad who need tax residency. It would grant what Kanaan called “golden residency,” conditioned on an investment of at least US$500,000.
The investment would need to be made across three approved sectors, but those sectors have not yet been named. Real estate purchases would still be subject to Lebanon’s foreign-ownership law.
Funds would have to come from abroad and pass strict scrutiny intended to prevent money laundering. This means the program would rely on Lebanon’s “fresh dollar” channel: post-2019 money that still moves freely, while pre-2019 deposits remain frozen in the banking system.
Each family member seeking the same tax-residence status would pay an annual fee of at least US$50,000.
How it differs from existing residence options
Foreign nationals can already obtain Lebanese residence permits without local employment through the independent-means route. That existing route is based on self-support.
The proposed program would be different because it requires a large, monitored investment and grants tax-residence status. It is not yet clear whether the new route would sit alongside the existing independent-means permit or replace it.
The tax-residence element is important because Lebanon taxes income on a territorial basis. This means Lebanon taxes income from activity inside the country, not worldwide income. For some non-resident Lebanese professionals, a formal tax home in a territorial-tax system may be more valuable than the residence card itself.
Risks and unresolved issues
The proposal comes at a difficult time for Lebanon.
Since October 2024, Lebanon has been on the Financial Action Task Force gray list, and the June 2026 plenary kept that status in place.
The country is still dealing with the effects of the 2019 banking collapse, including billions of dollars in frozen deposits. The proposal also comes amid continuing security uncertainty. A US-Iran framework signed on 17 June called for ending military operations in Lebanon, but Israel and Hezbollah did not sign it, Israeli forces had not withdrawn, and strikes continued in the days before the committee acted.
Maria Wehbe, an advisor at Arton Capital, described the draft as “somewhat ambitious” and questioned the timing and structure. She noted that Lebanon has not yet modernized other laws, including rules that prevent Lebanese mothers from passing Lebanese nationality to their children or non-Lebanese spouses.
Her main concern is whether investors would commit US$500,000, plus US$50,000 per year per family member, to Lebanon when the same capital could be placed in jurisdictions that are not on the FATF gray list, have not experienced a major banking collapse, and are not dealing with frozen deposits.
She also raised practical doubts about verification and administration:
- if bank deposits are excluded, the remaining routes may be real estate or company investment;
- in a heavily cash-based economy, it may be difficult to verify that the full US$500,000 was genuinely and transparently invested;
- it is unclear whether General Security could process and manage a large volume of applications efficiently.
Wehbe said the intent to create new initiatives is welcome, but argued that this may not be the right timing or framework, especially given the proposed thresholds, mechanisms, internal dynamics, infrastructure challenges, and other sensitivities.
Wider investment migration context
Tony Ebraheem, founder of Triple One Immigration Services, viewed the proposal as part of a wider trend. He said more government officials in different countries are becoming aware of golden visas and citizenship-by-investment programs as tools to attract high-net-worth individuals.
He expects more countries to follow, leaving investors to choose among competing options.
What happens next
The bill still needs a vote in the full Parliament. If approved, implementing regulations would need to define the three eligible investment sectors, set the compliance process, and assign the workload to General Security.
Until those regulations are published, the US$500,000 investment threshold and US$50,000 annual family-member fee are based on the committee chair’s summary, not final published law.
Source article: www.imidaily.com
