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Prospera Roatan Honduras
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I actually talked to Matthew Lafferty who is part of the Prospera Development Real Estate project in the ZEDE economic zone on Roatan and Honduras. A ZEDE is a special economic zone that has semi-autonomous municipality governance functions. You have to pay a yearly maintenance fee. Businesses can also be located there as well as apartments, condos, and homes and a golfcourse is already built. The condos looked very modern and nice and run about $100-200k USD but there is no mortgage financing on them.
The only concern I would have is that the current Honduran goverrnmental administration has clashed with the Prospera ZEDE and challenged their right to some governance functions legalally. However, the ownership of land and property has been settled for the most part in Honduran courts I believe.
While Honduras has some issues, I am actually looking at it for a second citizenship/passport option that is low cost and relatively cheap to get if you don't have the money or don't want to spend it on the least expensive CBI program in Dominica or St. Lucia. I would look at either the Bay Islands including Roatan which are mostly English speaking or even La Ceiba or Trujillo on the mainland. I think Honduras gets a lot of negative press on the crime, gangs, and narcotics cartels. You can also get around without hardly knowing much Spanish on Roatan.
For Residency and Citizenship, you can either go the Rentista route which requires a $2500 USD deposit in a Honduran bank (and can be withdrawn that same month) or the Inversionista (Investor route) which requires $50,000 be invested into a business and then an additional $5,000 deposit into a bank. I believe you can purchase a $50,000 lot minimum or condo in a corporation's name and rent out the land or the condo via Air BNB and it would count towards the investor's visa. I don't think you need to have any employees, but, you might need a "business plan" on paper.
Legal fees cost at a minimum of around $2500 (including govt fees and attorney fees) to get Hondruran residency and it takes about 6-9 months to get it from the start of the process. You can either travel to Roatan, San Pedro de Sula, Trujillo (maybe), or Tegucigalpa to open the bank account and do some paperwork or the attorney can get a power of attorney for you to open the bank account and do paperwork like background check. Once you get the Residency Visa, I believe you must travel to Honduras (it does not have to be Tegucigalpa I believe as I know people may be worried about safety there although I don't think it is that bad in certain areas).
Once you get the Honduran Residency card, you can travel annually at a minimum for 1-2 days but probably figure about a 1 week in Roatan each winter would be nice. This would need to be done for 3 years. After 3 years, you can apply for citizenship and this process takes about the same as residency (6-9 months) or up to 1 year.
Citizenship legal and govt. fee costs are around $2500 so the total investment for a passport would be $5-7k in legal and government fees. You need to also invest the $2500 per month in the Honduran bank account which is your money and can be sent back to your other bank account in another country. Or, plan on purchasing some property or investing it an business.
Please double check everything I have said with an attorney. I talked to about 4 attorneys and got slight variations of this process, but, from what I can see, it is correct.
I can recommend Denton's law firm or Carlos Calix. Both law firms are in Tegucigalpa, but, you do not have to travel to their office.
I think it is obviously better to spend more time in country each year towards citizenship, but, there is no mandatory phsyical presence requirement of say 6 months per year in Nicaragua which I don't think is really enforced. Plan on spending like 2 weeks to 1 month per year or more.
Honduras technically only allows citizenship with other Central American countries like Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and I think Panama (not sure) and Spain. You are supposed to renounce your current citizenship, but, it is not enforced like in other countries like Singapore or Netherlands.
You can also get expedited citizenship with Spain if you want an EU passport, but, carefully plan your tax obligations there because Spain is not good for taxes.
If you don't have the net worth of some of the typical HNW on the OffshoreCorpTalk discussion board and you want to get a second passport (not just a residency), you will likely need to spend more time in the country and it will take longer unless you can citzenship by ancestry (which can also take longer).
Some good options that are relatively cheap to get and can take a fairly short amount of time can include Mexico (5-6 years), Honduras (3-4 years), Nicaragua (3-4 years), Ecuador (3-4 years), and Argentina (3 years).
If you want to look at an EU passport, I think the Porguguese D7 (Passive Income) or D8 (Digital Nomad Visa which does lead to citizenship) is the best option. You need to spend about 6 months per year there for 5 years and then apply for cititzenship so the whole process will take 5-6 years.
For just good cheap residency options, I would include Dubai (UAE), Paraguay, and Panama.
Sorry for the long post and it was somewhat off topic from Honduras. Take all this information with the disclaimer I am not an attorney or immigration expert. It is what I have been able to find out from different resources and I could be wrong.
CitizenshipSkr
The only concern I would have is that the current Honduran goverrnmental administration has clashed with the Prospera ZEDE and challenged their right to some governance functions legalally. However, the ownership of land and property has been settled for the most part in Honduran courts I believe.
While Honduras has some issues, I am actually looking at it for a second citizenship/passport option that is low cost and relatively cheap to get if you don't have the money or don't want to spend it on the least expensive CBI program in Dominica or St. Lucia. I would look at either the Bay Islands including Roatan which are mostly English speaking or even La Ceiba or Trujillo on the mainland. I think Honduras gets a lot of negative press on the crime, gangs, and narcotics cartels. You can also get around without hardly knowing much Spanish on Roatan.
For Residency and Citizenship, you can either go the Rentista route which requires a $2500 USD deposit in a Honduran bank (and can be withdrawn that same month) or the Inversionista (Investor route) which requires $50,000 be invested into a business and then an additional $5,000 deposit into a bank. I believe you can purchase a $50,000 lot minimum or condo in a corporation's name and rent out the land or the condo via Air BNB and it would count towards the investor's visa. I don't think you need to have any employees, but, you might need a "business plan" on paper.
Legal fees cost at a minimum of around $2500 (including govt fees and attorney fees) to get Hondruran residency and it takes about 6-9 months to get it from the start of the process. You can either travel to Roatan, San Pedro de Sula, Trujillo (maybe), or Tegucigalpa to open the bank account and do some paperwork or the attorney can get a power of attorney for you to open the bank account and do paperwork like background check. Once you get the Residency Visa, I believe you must travel to Honduras (it does not have to be Tegucigalpa I believe as I know people may be worried about safety there although I don't think it is that bad in certain areas).
Once you get the Honduran Residency card, you can travel annually at a minimum for 1-2 days but probably figure about a 1 week in Roatan each winter would be nice. This would need to be done for 3 years. After 3 years, you can apply for citizenship and this process takes about the same as residency (6-9 months) or up to 1 year.
Citizenship legal and govt. fee costs are around $2500 so the total investment for a passport would be $5-7k in legal and government fees. You need to also invest the $2500 per month in the Honduran bank account which is your money and can be sent back to your other bank account in another country. Or, plan on purchasing some property or investing it an business.
Please double check everything I have said with an attorney. I talked to about 4 attorneys and got slight variations of this process, but, from what I can see, it is correct.
I can recommend Denton's law firm or Carlos Calix. Both law firms are in Tegucigalpa, but, you do not have to travel to their office.
I think it is obviously better to spend more time in country each year towards citizenship, but, there is no mandatory phsyical presence requirement of say 6 months per year in Nicaragua which I don't think is really enforced. Plan on spending like 2 weeks to 1 month per year or more.
Honduras technically only allows citizenship with other Central American countries like Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and I think Panama (not sure) and Spain. You are supposed to renounce your current citizenship, but, it is not enforced like in other countries like Singapore or Netherlands.
You can also get expedited citizenship with Spain if you want an EU passport, but, carefully plan your tax obligations there because Spain is not good for taxes.
If you don't have the net worth of some of the typical HNW on the OffshoreCorpTalk discussion board and you want to get a second passport (not just a residency), you will likely need to spend more time in the country and it will take longer unless you can citzenship by ancestry (which can also take longer).
Some good options that are relatively cheap to get and can take a fairly short amount of time can include Mexico (5-6 years), Honduras (3-4 years), Nicaragua (3-4 years), Ecuador (3-4 years), and Argentina (3 years).
If you want to look at an EU passport, I think the Porguguese D7 (Passive Income) or D8 (Digital Nomad Visa which does lead to citizenship) is the best option. You need to spend about 6 months per year there for 5 years and then apply for cititzenship so the whole process will take 5-6 years.
For just good cheap residency options, I would include Dubai (UAE), Paraguay, and Panama.
Sorry for the long post and it was somewhat off topic from Honduras. Take all this information with the disclaimer I am not an attorney or immigration expert. It is what I have been able to find out from different resources and I could be wrong.
CitizenshipSkr
I think this only works for native born LatAm citizens and not for naturalized ones. Or does it really work ?
This might be correct. I got this source from the following website: Spain Relaxes Minimum Stay for Citizenship. It would be good to verify with an immigration expert or the Spanish embassy. In other words, expedited Spanish citizenship might only apply to people born in Honduran citizenship and not naturalized citizens.
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