A consultant who helped design Argentina’s new citizenship-by-investment program predicts it will become a status symbol for wealthy Americans.
“I expect that the Argentina program will become so popular with the American [high-net-worth individuals] that really wealthy Americans will be embarrassed if they do not have an Argentina passport,” said Nuri Katz, founder of Apex Capital Partners, told Fortune on Friday.
Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced the program in Paris, saying applications will open in the fourth quarter of 2026. It is billed as South America’s first. AP described it as the kind of “golden passport” scheme common in other markets, as Argentine President Javier Milei looks for ways to secure dollars for his debt-saddled country.
The design
The program has two routes. The first is a non-refundable $350,000 contribution for a single applicant, with a family of four expected to pay $500,000. The second is an $800,000 investment in a government security created for the program. The announcement gives no maturity, yield or repayment terms for the bond.
The Agency for Citizenship by Investment Programs will assess each application, working with the State Intelligence Secretariat, the Financial Information Unit and the Ministry of Security. Checks cover identity, source of funds, criminal and reputational records, and immigration history. Funds must go through the formal financial system, and the National Directorate of Migration makes the final decision.
Katz’s firm belongs to Argentina Mobility for Investment and Global Opportunity Limited, a group of five investment-migration firms that has advised the government on the program. Apex advises individual clients on second citizenship, and Katz helped create Antigua and Barbuda’s program in 2013 and draft Cyprus’s investor legislation in 2011.
In June, he told Fortune that Argentina was developing South America’s first citizenship-by-investment program and that it would draw “significant American interest.”
The pitch
“Argentina, as the first G20 country, offers American HNWI the first opportunity to quickly and easily acquire a citizenship of a country that is both a safe haven and a huge business opportunity,” Katz told Fortune on Friday.
He pointed to demand. “The desire for jurisdictional diversification amongst wealthy Americans, as can be seen by our survey, is overwhelming. The question is where to go, and until now the choices were not really that great.”
Apex released a survey in June that polled 1,733 Americans with household incomes above $200,000, and 61% said they would consider leaving the U.S. within five years, Fortune reported. Cost of living and taxes ranked first, cited by 68%, ahead of political climate at 54%. Europe was the top destination at 42%, followed by Canada at 18% and the Caribbean at 16%. The survey measured intent, not actual moves.
Katz, who was born in the U.S. and largely grew up in Montreal before moving to Moscow in 1990, has a wider argument about the U.S. itself, though he now lives in Antigua. He expects the national debt to force a choice between inflation and default, and that wealthy Americans are too concentrated in dollar assets.
“I lived through hyperinflation,” he told Fortune in June. “I don’t think people understand how dangerous that is, once the lid comes off and they have to start printing money.”
For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
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