El Salvador plans permanent residency visa for Bitcoin investors

By Uglobal Staff

El Salvador aims to create a new law to allow foreign investors to get permanent residency via Bitcoin investment after the country achieved a historic milestone by adopting the digital currency as legal tender.

The decision was made by the El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele himself while he interacted with participants on his official Twitter Spaces platform before the bill to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender was presented and approved in the country's parliament on June 9.

Bukele said there was now a plan to bring forth a new law that would soon give foreign investors and expats the option to gain permanent residency in the Central American country following a minimum investment of 3 bitcoins, which is equal to around $100,000. Investors would then be able to use this Bitcoin permanent residency stream to either buy real estate or make any other type of investment in El Salvador, he said. The permanent residency status would be issued to investors only after due diligence procedures such as determining an investor's intent as well as financial means etc., he added.

EL SALVADOR MAKES BITCOIN LEGAL CURRENCY

On June 9, El Salvador made global headlines when it announced that its parliament had adopted a bill to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, making it the first country to take such a step.

The text of the Bitcoin law states that the main motivation behind enacting the unique piece of legislation was financial inclusion of citizens of El Salvador, where an estimated 70% of the  6 million plus population still lacks access to traditional financial services. The other big factor was to stimulate economic growth in the country, which has struggled over the decades.

The new law makes it mandatory for vendors in the country to accept Bitcoin payments alongside U.S. dollars. It also enables one to pay taxes in the digital currency.

The president clarified that the Bitcoin law had not been launched as an attempt to de-dollarization of the economy, but it was a move to attract more investors. El Salvador began using the U.S. dollar as its primary currency in 2001 after phasing out its local one because of high volatility.

The new Bitcoin law will become effective 90 days after it gets published in the official gazette. It is expected that the new permanent residency law for Bitcoin investors would come soon after.

The permanent residency stream would also enable investors to gain citizenship in El Salvador within three years.

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