Lebanon Finance Committee Approves Golden Visa Law Offering Residency for $500,000 Deposits

In Beirut, the Finance and Budget Committee approved a government draft law establishing a Lebanese "golden visa" that would offer wealthy foreigners and expatriates the opportunity to obtain residency in Lebanon and benefit from tax residency under a relatively favorable tax regime.

“Lebanese elites have a new favorite refuge: foreign real estate Real estate is no longer merely an investment for Lebanese capital holders; in recent years it has become a tool for financial protection and a hedge against an uncertain future”

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Committee President and MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the meeting, "We all know that Lebanon needs to attract investors and investment as part of economic, financial, and banking recovery."

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Under details Kanaan provided to L’Orient-Le Jour, the law would grant special residency rights to non-residents, whether foreigners or Lebanese nationals living abroad who need a tax residence, in exchange for a deposit or investment of at least $500,000.

Applicants could place the money in a bank, use it to buy real estate, or invest it in a Lebanese company, and Kanaan said the mechanism would "create jobs, bring money into state coffers, and encourage investment once the conditions are met."

The committee made changes to the version the government submitted a month ago, with MPs adding a minimum requirement of $500,000 in deposits or investments to qualify, while the government had planned to set the amount later by decree.

L’Orient-Le Jour said MPs also introduced additional fees payable to the state from the start of the process: at least $50,000 for the applicant and another $50,000 for each family member included in the application.

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A provision added by MPs states that foreign purchases of property must comply with existing regulations, including the limit of 3,000 square meters of land without a special permit from the Cabinet.

Kanaan said that if Parliament passes the law and authorities implement it, General Security will likely handle the applications, and he added that MPs discussed easing procedures for Lebanese expatriates compared with foreign applicants, with that idea under consideration.

A major question in the draft law’s path is whether the scheme complies with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which has kept Lebanon on its gray list since October 2024.

“BEIRUT — Meeting in Parliament on Monday, the Finance and Budget Committee approved the government's draft law establishing a Lebanese "golden visa," offering wealthy foreigners and expatriates the opportunity to obtain residency in Lebanon and benefit from tax residency under a relatively favorable tax regime”

L'Orient Today

In a post on LinkedIn, tax lawyer Karim Daher said that during Lebanon's latest evaluation from June 17 to 19, the FATF recommended keeping "the same 10 measures already identified in October 2024".

Daher also warned that "the next evaluation might be less lenient [possibly in October] and will no longer consider the exceptional circumstances of the current period."

He said the corrective measures are already known and mainly involve enforcing Lebanese laws through the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, but that "the political decision needed to turn these efforts into concrete action continues to be delayed"—a delay that could shape how the golden visa proposal is received.