Legal Advisory
& Application Law.

Always yours. Citizen Sure operates under a written engagement with you, not the programme operator. Our duty of care is to the applicant; we do not accept retainers or commissions from issuing-state authorities, programme operators, or developers. Where local jurisdictional rules require a programme-licensed agent for filing, that agent acts under our direction with our retainer, not theirs.

A genuine-link test is a programme-specific requirement that the applicant demonstrates a meaningful connection to the issuing jurisdiction beyond the financial contribution. Malta's Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services Regulations 2020 requires a 36-month or 12-month residency period (depending on contribution tier), an active rental or owned property, and demonstrated community ties. Failure to evidence the genuine link is the single most common cause of Maltese-citizenship refusal. Most CBI programmes do NOT require a genuine link; many golden-visa programmes do (in modified form). Counsel scopes this in the eligibility opinion before any capital is committed.

In-house. Documents originating in Hague-Apostille-Convention states (the UK, US, most EU member states, etc.) are apostilled directly. Documents from non-convention states are legalised via the embassy of the receiving country. We maintain working relationships with notaries and apostille offices in 100+ jurisdictions; the applicant rarely needs to source authentication independently.

A small number of jurisdictions either prohibit dual citizenship (e.g. India, China, Saudi Arabia) or trigger automatic loss of original citizenship on acquisition of a second (e.g. Singapore in some cases, the Netherlands historically before recent reforms). For applicants from these jurisdictions, counsel models the consequences in writing before any application is filed — including timing rules, registration requirements, and any path to retention. We will not file an application that triggers an unexpected loss of original citizenship.

In most cases yes — though success depends on the refusal grounds. Most CBI and golden-visa programmes provide a statutory appeal route (typically 30–60 days from refusal notice). Reapplication is also possible in many jurisdictions after a "cooling off" period. We review the refusal letter, identify the underlying reason (often a diligence finding the original sponsoring firm missed), and advise on the realistic path — appeal, reapplication after remediation, or pivot to a different programme.