Immigrant investor programs are programs that allow individuals to more quickly obtain residence or citizenship of a country in return for making qualifying investments.

Broadly, the programs offer either citizenship by investment ("golden passport" or "cash-for-passports"), residence by investment ("golden visa") or a hybrid with immediate residence followed by accelerated citizenship.

Program applicants must usually fulfill multiple qualification criteria. Investment can take a variety of forms including a contribution to government funds; purchase of qualifying real estate (e.g. specific government-sanctioned projects); investment in a qualifying business (e.g. a specific industry); or creation of a set number of jobs.

A growing number of countries offer immigrant investor programs, with approximately one quarter of all countries issuing such visas as of 2015.[1] There are few statistics on the number of people pursuing these programs in aggregate.