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A summary of new changes


AS ALWAYS THIS WEBSITE IS THE FIRST BE BE FULLY UPDATED !!!!

The change in the law for active and passive residents was passed unexpectedly and without any warning on December 22nd 2022. The sections relevant to Immigration changes were tagged onto the law of digital regulations,  and passed almost by stealth it seems.


However, Immigration made a concession for active resident applications ( Compte Propi),  in that for companies that were consituted BEFORE 22nd December 2022, the old bond of 15,000 EUR can still apply.  "Consituted" means that the company has been signed off at the Notary and NOT necessarily already registered with Government ( Can be 15 days after the Notary signing). Some of you out there may still be affected.

Who is affected?


Any passive residency application made after the 22nd December will be subject to the new requirements.  All exisiting residents who have applied before that date will not be affected.

For active residents due to the new interpretation by immigration, if the company was constituted prior to 22 December, 2022 then the old bond will apply. For all new applications and for companies constituted on or after 23 December, 2022 the new bond requirement of 50,000 EUR will be required.

I am applying for active residency with Company Formation, what do I have to do?


Firstly the minimum shareholding in a company to be eligible to apply has risen from 20% to 34%. This means that under the old law 5 persons could apply on the back of one company,  now by simple maths that has been reduced to 2 persons.

Importantly the bond/deposit payable to the Government has risen from 15,000 EUR to 50,000 EUR with immediate effect for all active applications known as "compte propi" unless, as stated above, the company was completed before the notary on or before 22nd of December 2022.

This is a personal bond and not company related, please see here for details on Category D active residency.

The rest of the application requirements appear to have stayed the same, so just be aware of the above requirements.

I am appying for passive residency ( Category A) what do I need to know?


There have been significant changes to the investment requirement for Category A and these are sumarised as:-

  • The extra investment requirement due within 6 months of approval has risen from 400,000 EUR to 600,000 EUR, less the bond/deposit of 47,500 EUR for the principal applicant and 9,500 EUR for each dependent.  For example a family of four will now pay 75,000 EUR bond/deposit and the extra investment will be 525,000 EUR.  Please note that stamp duty and other expenses incurred in the purchase of a property are not included, it purely is the equity value on the property.

  • If you choose to invest 400,000 EUR into a "Fons d'Habitatge", a Government investment vehicle for low cost housing yet to be up and running then the investment of an extra 200,000 EUR is waived. Details on this will be made known at some stage. In other words the 400,000 EUR (Less the bond/deposit) will be all that is required to be invested, howver you wtill need to find a place to live either purchased or rented.

  • There is a new minimum limit of 400,000 EUR in any one property to qualify for Immigration requirements. This means that you cannot buy 3 apartments of 200,000 EUR each, nor it seems can you buy one for 400,000 EUR and another for 300,000 EUR. If you want to invest in two properties and fulfill Immigration rules then the requirement would be an investment of 800,000 to qualify with two properties.  Otherwise if you buy a property for 400,000 EUR you will require an additional investment in the bank to make up the shortfall. One loophole springs to mind is you form a holding company with a share capital of 600,000 EUR and then you can use that equity to buy properties of any value.


What about Category B and Category C ( the VIP category)?


These seem to be untouched, there are ongoing rumours of a review of Category B since no-one really understands it, but for now, nothing new.

There is a new category of digital nomad, but this is not yet open for business. The law to create the category has been passed but the regulations that govern requirements etc is yet to be determined into law. It seems likely that for applications submitted in this category and where the Minister approves, then a digital nomad will be able to base his company in Andorra and get approval for "work without residency", but let us wait or the details.
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