Frequently asked questions.

Every mandate begins with a short, confidential conversation. We listen first. If Ovata is the right firm for the matter, we send a tailored questionnaire within one business day, prepare an initial assessment of the programmes that fit your circumstances, and open a 30-minute window for a senior advisor to speak with you directly. If we are not the right firm, we say so on the first call and, where we can, we point you towards a firm that is.

It depends on the programme. Switzerland's lump-sum route typically takes 3–6 months. Hong Kong's CIES is currently running at 6–9 months. The longer cases — New Zealand's Active Investor Plus, Australia's National Innovation Visa, the Caribbean citizenship programmes — sit in the 9–18 month range. The single largest determinant of timeline is the quality of source-of-wealth documentation prepared up front.

Almost every programme Ovata advises on permits the spouse and dependent children to be included in the principal's application. Some programmes also accommodate dependent parents, adult children in full-time education, and unmarried partners under defined conditions. The detail varies materially by jurisdiction, and we set it out in writing at the eligibility stage.

That depends entirely on the programme. Some routes (Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia) require genuine, demonstrable physical residence. Others (Caribbean citizenship programmes, certain Malaysian and Panamanian routes) have minimal or no day-count obligation. The residence requirement is one of the first things we map for every family, because it determines which programmes are realistic and which are not.

Nothing. The first conversation is confidential, complimentary and without obligation. Fees only begin once a formal engagement letter has been signed, and the engagement letter sets out the fee in writing before any work is done.

Residence is the right to live in a country (and often to work, study and access local services there). Citizenship is the deeper status — full membership of the political community, the right to hold a passport, the right to pass that status to your children, and (in most jurisdictions) the inability to be deported.

Most internationally-mobile families need residence first, and many never proceed to citizenship. Where citizenship is the right answer — for mobility, for succession, or for the family's longer-term plan — we sequence it carefully.

Our anchor jurisdictions are Switzerland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Panama, New Zealand and Australia. Beyond those, we maintain active capability across the wider European tax-driven regimes (Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Malta), the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States investor-visa routes (E-2, EB-5), and the Caribbean citizenship-by-investment programmes. The full list is mapped to your circumstances at the eligibility stage.

The programme is the output, not the input. We start from the family's actual circumstances: where they currently pay tax, what their capital looks like, where the next generation will be educated, what mobility they require, what succession plan is in place, what reputational posture they need, what timeline is realistic. The programme that fits emerges from the analysis — and it is often not the programme the family thought they wanted when they first called.

Yes. The reputational posture of an investor-migration programme matters — for the family's standing in the destination, for the family's banking relationships, and for the durability of the programme itself. We are explicit at the strategy stage about where each programme sits on that spectrum, and we will recommend against routes whose reputational tail-risk is higher than the family's threshold.

Several. Ireland's Immigrant Investor Programme closed to new applications in February 2023. Australia's Business Innovation and Investment Programme (including the Significant Investor Visa) closed in July 2024. Portugal's Golden Visa property route closed in 2023 (the fund route remains). The Maltese citizenship programme has been further restricted following the EU Court of Justice ruling. We track the regulatory perimeter continuously, and the strategy memo we give you reflects the state of play on the day it is issued.

The Caribbean five — Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, and St Lucia — continue to operate citizenship-by-investment programmes, with tightened due-diligence frameworks and an agreed regional minimum contribution of USD 200,000. The mobility utility of these passports remains material; the reputational posture varies. Where Caribbean citizenship is the right answer for the family, we advise. Where it is not, we say so.

Programme parameters change frequently and without much notice. The figures shown on each country page are current at the date of publication and represent the minimum qualifying threshold under the relevant programme. Total programme costs — government fees, professional fees, due-diligence charges, taxes — will be higher. Your private consultation will set out the actual all-in figure for your specific case.

Three differences matter. First, our engagement model is principal-led — the person you speak with on the first call is the person who runs your file. Second, we are independent: we are not aligned to any developer, fund or government, and we receive no introducer fees from the local counsel or service providers we recommend. Third, we deliberately do not run volume. The advice is the advice, and we take only as many mandates as we can run to standard.

No. Every conversation is with a senior Ovata advisor. We do not deploy AI agents on the phone, we do not run an offshore service desk, and we do not rotate relationship managers. When you call, you reach the person who knows your file.

Fees are fixed and set out in writing in the engagement letter, before any chargeable work begins. The structure varies by mandate — a flat advisory fee for the strategy phase, milestone-linked fees for the application phase, and a light-touch retainer (or transactional billing) for the ongoing-stewardship phase. We do not charge a percentage of the qualifying investment, and we do not receive commissions from the funds, properties or service providers we recommend.

Client data, communications and counterparty relationships are treated to institutional confidentiality standards. The secure client portal, the document vault, our internal access controls and our working practices are all built around that expectation. We do not publish client names, we do not market success stories, and we do not discuss client matters externally — including with prospective clients seeking a reference.

Ovata is a private-client advisory firm and a member of the Investment Migration Council in Geneva — the global standards body for residence and citizenship advisory. We do not present ourselves as a regulated legal, tax or financial adviser. The technical legal filings in each jurisdiction are made by named local counsel, the tax advice in each jurisdiction is given by qualified local tax counsel, and Ovata coordinates the work as the principal's single point of advice across jurisdictions.

Yes. Every Ovata mandate is led by a single principal advisor who is your point of accountability for the duration of the engagement. The principal coordinates the named local counsel, the tax advisors, the banking introductions and the relocation network — you experience a single coordinated team, not a series of handoffs.

Almost certainly, yes. The acquisition of a new residence right typically triggers a tax-residency question in the destination jurisdiction and, frequently, a tax-residency exit question in your current jurisdiction. The timing of those transitions, the structuring of your holding companies and trusts, the timing of asset disposals, and the treatment of unrealised gains all need to be considered before the move is made. Good tax structuring in advance is materially more valuable than corrective work afterwards.

No. Ovata does not provide tax, legal or financial advice. We orient: we set out the questions that need to be answered, we identify the qualified local counsel best placed to answer them in each relevant jurisdiction, and we ensure the answers are integrated into the wider plan rather than arriving after the move is complete. The advice itself is given by counsel qualified in the relevant jurisdiction.

The Common Reporting Standard now covers most jurisdictions Ovata advises on. A residence move does not exempt you from CRS reporting and does not break the existing exchange-of-information relationships with your prior jurisdictions. Any structuring that ignores CRS is structurally fragile. We brief principals on the CRS position at the strategy stage and ensure local tax counsel addresses it explicitly.

Yes, in detail. Every credible residence-by-investment and citizenship-by-investment programme now requires documentary proof of the lawful source of the wealth being deployed. The standard is rigorous, the documentation is extensive, and well-prepared source-of-wealth files materially shorten processing times. Ovata coordinates the source-of-wealth dossier as a discrete workstream.

Some, yes. A handful of nationalities face restrictions across multiple programmes (variously, due to sanctions exposure, prior-jurisdiction concerns, or specific bilateral arrangements). We map this for you at the eligibility stage rather than relying on the principal to anticipate it. Where a route is unavailable due to nationality, we say so plainly and identify the routes that remain open.

Settlement begins. Ovata maintains a curated referral network of accountants, financial advisors, credit advisors, law firms and private-bank relationship managers in each of our jurisdictions, and we make warm introductions to the professionals best suited to your circumstances. The relationships you take forward are yours; we do not bind the family to any provider and we receive no referral fees.

For as long as you want us to. The ongoing-support engagement is typically light-touch — an annual review with the family, calendar-managed renewals, named-counsel liaison for filings, and proactive flagging of regulatory changes that affect your position. When something needs to happen, it happens; when nothing does, the file stays quiet.

Lifecycle events are part of the ongoing relationship. Children turn 18 and need transition to their own permits. Spouses are added. Second residences are sometimes planned. Tax positions evolve. Ovata holds the calendar, anticipates the actions, and surfaces them in time to be handled without urgency.

Many of our clients do. Once the first residence is settled and the family has a clear view of where they actually want to spend time, a second (or third) residence is often the logical next conversation. We sequence it in the same way as the first — programme matched to circumstances, not the other way round.

Most residence rights can be voluntarily surrendered, and most can be allowed to lapse by non-renewal. Citizenship is more difficult to relinquish in some jurisdictions and may require formal renunciation. Where a programme has a buy-out or lock-up period attached to the qualifying investment, the exit timing is more material. We discuss the off-ramp at the strategy stage, not the end of the engagement.