Relocation news digest - October 25, 2024

🇵🇹 Portugal: new five-year path to citizenship

Portugal's Constitutional Court has approved the country's citizenship law. Nationality can now be obtained five years after the date a residence-permit application is filed.

🇦🇪 UAE: doing business in the country gets easier

The UAE Ministry of Economy has unveiled a new national economic register platform called "Growth" - a single database of business and commercial licences across all seven emirates.

The platform is designed to streamline company formation and make it simpler to run economic activity in the country.

🌍 Middle East: flight cancellations continue

Many countries across the Middle East are seeing disruptions and cancelled flights.

🇫🇷 France: proposed changes to tax law

An amendment to the 2025 budget bill would revise Article 4A of France's General Tax Code, introducing a new tax-residency test. It would apply to French nationals who have lived in France for at least three of the past ten years and subsequently moved their tax residency to a country where the tax rate is more than 50% lower than France's.

Despite living abroad, such individuals would now be taxed on their employment income, capital and assets. They would, however, receive a tax credit equal to the tax paid in their country of tax residence.

The amendment has passed its first reading.

🇭🇺 Hungary: Schengen visa now requires an employment record extract

Hungary's visa centre has added a requirement to provide an extract from the applicant's employment record covering the past 10 years.

The visa centres of Bulgaria, Italy and Spain have begun requesting the same document.

🇷🇺 Russia: airports propose letting passengers check in their own baggage

The International Association of Airports (IAA) has proposed formally allowing air passengers to register and drop off their own baggage at airports.

This would require amendments to the federal aviation rules.

In practice, however, passengers check in their bags more slowly than airline staff: employees need just one to one and a half minutes, whereas passengers spend about five minutes on the whole process.

🇳🇱 Netherlands: authorities want to limit English at universities

The Dutch Minister of Education has proposed restricting the use of English at universities in order to curb the influx of foreign students. If parliament backs the initiative, fully English-language bachelor's programmes will already be hard to find in the Netherlands in the 2025/26 academic year.

🇵🇱 Poland: authorities close the Russian consulate in Poznań

Poland is closing the Russian consulate in Poznań, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced on the social network X. He attributed the decision to sabotage activity on Russia's part.

🇨🇦 Canada: harder to relocate under the skilled-worker programme

Quebec has introduced a cap on the number of foreign nationals from a single country who can be invited to apply for permanent residence under its regular skilled-worker programme.

Until 9 October 2025, the share of invitations issued to foreign nationals from any one country may not exceed 25%.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong: further details published on residency by investment

The Government of the Hong Kong SAR has published the details of its Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES).

To obtain residency, applicants must prove net assets of at least 30 million Hong Kong dollars. Investors who put at least 50 million Hong Kong dollars into residential property are now also eligible for the CIES.

Residency will initially be granted for a period of up to two years.

🇬🇪 Georgia: Wildberries launches sales and delivery in the country

The Wildberries marketplace has launched franchise-based sales and delivery in Georgia. Its catalogue includes 8 million items across a range of categories: clothing, health and beauty products, household appliances, home-improvement goods and more. Orders can be placed on wildberries.ge and via the mobile app.

In the first phase, the partner company will deliver goods to a pickup point on Paliashvili Street in Tbilisi. Delivery is expected to take about a week, with a courier option also under consideration.

🇿🇦 South Africa: new requirements for work visas

The Department of Home Affairs has published the points allocation and criteria for the general work visa and the critical-skills work visa.

The new points-based system has reduced the documentation requirements compared with the previous immigration process for these visas and is expected to shorten processing times for both.

Applicants for either visa type must score at least 100 points.

🇵🇪 Peru: new decree on foreign nationals' obligations in the country

The Peruvian government has published a decree concerning new identity cards for foreign nationals.

The decree sets out the obligations of foreign nationals and their hosts, including the corresponding penalties for non-compliance, the procedure for cancelling an identity card, and the powers granted to migration authorities to request identity cards.

It also clarifies the obligation of landlords to check foreign nationals' identity documents before signing a rental agreement - a rule that came into force in February 2023.

In addition, a state-run online platform will soon be launched requiring all accommodation providers (including hotels and temporary lodgings) to register foreign guests, recording their names, check-in and check-out dates, identity-card numbers and other details.

What became of this news by 2026

• Portugal. The citizenship law was tightened: from 19 May 2026 you need 10 years of legal residence, 7 for Portuguese-speaking and EU nationals, plus a test on language, culture and history. More in Portugal residence.
• Hong Kong. The investment residence scheme was eased: from 1 March 2025 investments through your own company count, and for purchases from 17 September 2025 homes from 30 million Hong Kong dollars qualify. More in Hong Kong residence.
• Canada. The federal startup visa closed on 1 January 2026; provincial programmes remain. More in Canada permanent residence through business.

Recent programme changes with dates are collected in programme changes 2025-2026.

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