North Macedonia

How you qualify.

Global mobility.

What's involved.

Family inclusion

Spouse: under Article 11(3) (read with Article 9) the marital partner of the qualifying investor may also acquire citizenship by naturalisation; the spouse is generally granted after a delay rather than simultaneously. Minor children: under Article 12 of the Law, a child under 18 of a parent naturalised by Article 11 acquires citizenship together with the parent (subject to the standard parental-consent conditions), and dependent minors are included in the application with separate government fees (EUR 10,000 per child under 18). The North Macedonia family scope is narrow: investor, spouse and minor children. Parents, grandparents and adult siblings of the main applicant are not codified as eligible and should be treated as not available unless the Ministry of Interior confirms otherwise in writing.

Due diligence

Multi-body vetting applies: the application for citizenship is filed with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), which runs a dedicated processing team; the MoI requests the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development (FITD) to determine the existence of the special economic interest on the basis of the PIF Programme, realisation reports, Central Registry and SEC registration certificates, share-ownership confirmation and commercial-bank confirmation of the investment. The applicant must satisfy Article 7(1)(8) (admission must not endanger national security or defence). The Government gives an opinion on the existence of special interest (Article 11(3)). Source-of-funds evidence, a clean criminal record, a valid passport, health insurance, a curriculum vitae and proof of financial standing are required. Certain nationalities are restricted; the current due-diligence and restricted-nationality position is confirmed with the MoI and FITD.

Timeline

No statutory fast-track timeline is set in the primary law; the Ministry of Interior states that a dedicated team handles these applications for speedy processing, with due diligence typically running two to five months and overall processing ranging from a few months to twelve months or more. The programme is low-volume: per the European Commission's 8th Visa Suspension Mechanism report (19 December 2025), one citizenship was granted under the special-economic-interest provision in 2023 and two in 2024. Timelines are confirmed directly with the MoI and FITD for each engagement.

Physical presence

No minimum residence, no physical-presence or stay requirement, no biometric-residency obligation and no Macedonian-language test apply to the Article 11 special-economic-interest route: Article 11 operates 'by way of exception to Article 7', waiving the standard naturalisation conditions except age (18 or over) and the national-security check. Biometric data is captured for the passport itself, as North Macedonia issues ICAO-compliant biometric passports, but no physical-presence requirement is imposed on the applicant. Dual citizenship is permitted, so no renunciation of existing citizenship is required.

Tax

North Macedonia levies a flat 10% personal income tax and 10% corporate income tax, with an 18% standard VAT rate. Technological-Industrial Development Zones offer up to ten-year tax holidays on corporate profit, employment income, VAT and customs duties. Acquiring citizenship does not by itself create Macedonian tax residency, which is generally driven by domicile or 183-day presence; clients should assess home-country tax exposure with counsel. Investment-fund and direct-investment income is taxed locally per the relevant regime.

The governing law — in our library.

Article 11 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia (originally Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 67/1992, published 3 November 1992, as subsequently amended; the economic-interest investment specifics were added by the consolidating amendments in Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia Nos. 174/2021 and 67/2022). Article 11(1): by way of exception to Article 7, a foreigner aged 18 or over may acquire citizenship by naturalisation 'if that is of a special scientific, economic, cultural and national interest'. Article 11(2): the Government gives its prior opinion on the existence of the special interest and, by decree, determines the criteria for that special interest. Article 11(3): the spouse may also naturalise under the conditions of Article 9. The two investment thresholds (EUR 200,000 into a private investment fund held for at least two years, or EUR 400,000 direct investment creating ten jobs) are set by the Government Decree on the criteria for special economic interest and operationalised through FITD Guidelines, rather than by the bare text of Article 11. The governing instrument is Article 11 of the 1992 Law (as amended by Official Gazette Nos. 174/2021 and 67/2022) together with the implementing Government Decree. · Administered by The Ministry of Interior (Ministry of Internal Affairs) of the Republic of North Macedonia grants citizenship; the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development (FITD/FITR) determines the existence of the 'special economic interest'; the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia gives the prior opinion on special interest (Article 11(2)) and sets the implementing criteria by decree. The programme is presented on the official government portal mkcitizenship.gov.mk..

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