Residence in Europe: the realistic route through Romania

For investors looking for residence in Europe through investment, options are narrowing. Romania, an EU and Schengen member, offers a realistic route starting at €50,000.

Investment residence in Europe: the doors are narrowing

In recent years Europe's investment-residence programmes have either closed or dropped the real-estate option; where they remain, thresholds have risen to hundreds of thousands of euros and procedures have lengthened. For a non-EU investor the cost and uncertainty of an address in Europe have grown.

What makes Romania different

Romania has no dedicated golden-visa programme; but its general immigration law grants a residence right to a foreigner who brings capital into a company established in Romania and runs it. Two things follow:

• With the right structure the threshold starts at €50,000; no other door in Europe opens at that level today.
• There is no programme that can be closed; the right comes from the immigration law itself, not from a temporary scheme.

What Romanian residence means in Europe

• Romania has been an EU member since 2007 and a NATO member since 2004; it became a full part of the Schengen area with air and sea borders in 2024 and land borders in 2025.
• A Romanian residence permit is the right to live in Romania and run a company there: a settled address inside Europe and a company doing business in the EU.
• After five uninterrupted years you apply for open-ended long-term residence.

Two routes, one method

The administrator route for an investor with €50,000–100,000, the investor route for larger projects. On both, the property is the vehicle of residence, not residence itself. Which property fits which structure and how the conditions are met is part of the method DL.TURC manages; we share the details in the consultation and as the structure is built.

Practical advantages

• Bucharest is under two hours' flight from Istanbul and well connected across Europe; an established international business community and multilingual professionals are on the ground.
• Property prices are far below Western Europe; the same budget can cover both the residence structure and an income-producing asset in Bucharest.
• The company is a legal entity operating inside the European Union, which opens a commercial door as well.

Residence decisions belong to the Romanian authorities and cannot be guaranteed. If no route fits, we say so in the first conversation.

Frequently asked