Immigration, Taxation & Trump: 2025 in Review

In this article, we look back at 2025, with some of the biggest stories of the year, as well as what to look out for in 2026. 

From immigration at home to tariffs abroad, Trump dominated the headlines this year, while in the UK, the closing of the non-dom regime prompted an exodus of wealthy residents. 

Major changes, too, in the citizenship and residency by investment arena, but also some unexpected welcome surprises.

The Trump Effect

More than any other factor, 2025 has been defined by the return of Donald Trump. 

His disruptive presence has been felt everywhere from global trade and geopolitics to domestic dramas like DOGE and fiscal policies like the Big Beautiful Bill. 

Tariffs will be considered the signature policy of Trump 2.0, frothing up the markets and driving record-high gold prices. 

Arguably though, the biggest Trump-related shakeup this year has been immigration. 

Aside from the usual travel bans and deportation threats, the approach we’re seeing with Trump 2.0 is more strategic.

It includes ramping up denaturalisation initiatives and challenging the Supreme Court on its current interpretation of birthright citizenship, one which has stood since the end of the US Civil War. 

If successful, it would make obtaining US citizenship far more difficult than it is right now, which is good news for President Trump since it pleases his base. 

Less pleased are the big US tech firms like Apple and Google, who are currently telling employees on visas not to leave the US over the holidays, as they may be unable to return. 

Big tech was rocked by the president’s changes to the H1-B visa program, which added a $100,000 fee for foreign workers. 

The White House says it is to coerce companies into hiring Americans; critics say it will make the US less competitive by dissuading top talent, particularly in the tech industry, from working with US companies.

The Trump administration is less interested in skills and qualifications than it is in wealth, as demonstrated by the Trump Gold Card programme. 

According to the official White House press release, the Gold Card “prioritizes entry for high-value contributors to American society, including successful entrepreneurs, investors, and businessmen.”

It is, in other words, a residence by investment programme. A literal golden visa, in this case, consisting of a gold coloured card with Trump’s face on the front. 

At $1 million USD (plus a $15,000 processing fee), the Trump Gold Card is not cheap. There are certainly many cheaper residence by investment programmes out there – in countries with considerably more favourable tax regimes. 

Trump knows this, of course, which is why he’s also looking to launch a Trump Platinum Card. This time, he’s asking for a $5 million investment, direct to the US Treasury, plus the same $15,000 fee. 

The benefit here, however, is that you don’t get taxed on your global worldwide income, while still getting to be a permanent resident of the US. 

Such a programme represents a radical departure from current US tax laws and, as such, requires Congressional approval. If passed, however, the Trump Platinum Visa would be a game-changer, at least in US taxation terms. 

The White House says the programme is now open to applications, but there is a difference between the website being live and the programme itself. So, until more concrete details emerge, we’re waiting to see how this develops in 2026. 

Trump Trends For 2026

More chaos, more confusion, partially ad-libbed, a lot more by design, plus more Supreme Court challenges and changes to immigration law.  

In Trumpland, nothing is sacred, all is open to reinterpretation and, more importantly, to renegotiation. You can’t take anything for granted anymore.

This increased uncertainty, however, is also likely to result in even more Americans leaving the US while talented foreigners, particularly in science and tech, look elsewhere to Canada, Australia and Europe. 

Citizenship By Descent Goes Mainstream

One immediate result of Trump 2.0 has been a rise in interest in citizenship by descent (CBD). Much of it has to do with Trump’s various celebrity feuds and the subsequent media coverage thereof. 

According to Google, searches for “citizenship by descent” spiked sharply at the beginning of November 2024 (when Trump was elected).

It dropped in December and rose again after Trump was inaugurated in January 2025. Searches remained high until mid-April before dropping to pre-election levels.

Of those searches, the majority came from eastern states, and the two most popular destinations for 2025 were Italy and Ireland. 

Two of Trump’s biggest beefs this year included Jimmy Kimmel and Rosie O’Donnell. As we discussed previously in our article on celebrities with second citizenships, both comedians claimed citizenship by descent. 

Jimmy Kimmel has Italian citizenship by descent, while Rosie O’Donnell has Irish, details which, increasingly, got mentioned regularly whenever the media discussed their spats with Trump.

Whenever that happened there was also a corresponding rise in citizenship by decent-related searches.

Ironically, despite her new Irish passport, O’Donnell was relatively unknown in Ireland until 2025, following Trump’s Saint Patrick’s Day meeting with the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin. 

As Trump jibed about O’Donnell, Martin looked visibly confused not knowing who she was. Shortly after, Irish-based searches for “Rosie O’Donnell” spiked dramatically for a few days before falling back to practically zero.

What To Look Out For In 2026

More celebrity beefs sustaining interest in citizenship by descent.

Countries reviewing their citizenship by descent laws, especially in Europe. 

In the US, meanwhile, The Moreno Bill sets the stage for further challenges to the notion of dual citizenship and, at its heart, the Supreme Court ruling of Afroyim v. Rusk. (This is the ruling which states the US government does not have the right to revoke a person’s citizenship against their will.)

The Reorientation of Citizenship By Investment 

Perhaps the biggest change in the citizenship by investment space was the closure of Malta’s popular programme. 

Malta was the last European holdout but ultimately had to bow to pressure from the EU. The good news, however, is that the country’s popular residence by investment program, the MPRP (Malta Permanent Residence Programme), is still very much in demand. 

In fact, we expect demand to rise further in 2026, possibly overtaking Portugal as Europe’s most popular golden visa programme. 

Meanwhile, as Europe shuts down its last CBI programme, Africa opened up in a major way.

At the beginning of 2025, the only citizenship by investment programme was in Egypt. With prices starting at $250,000, Egyptian citizenship by investment is a comparatively pricey and therefore niche offering, more suited for those looking to establish a base in the MENA region. 

As 2025 progressed, we got two new African citizenship by investment programmes, in Sierra Leone and São Tomé e Príncipe. 

In October, meanwhile, Botswana announced their new programme, which is set to launch in 2026.

At just $75,000, Botswana’s programme will be the cheapest citizenship by investment programme to date. Will we see more low-cost citizenship programmes announced in 2026? Or will countries find different ways of competing?

What To Watch In 2026

More countries in Africa and elsewhere filling the citizenship by investment vacuum while finding new ways to compete, helping drive innovation. 

Wealthier countries, meanwhile, will pivot to citizenship by merit, also known as citizenship by exception.

Citizenship by investment is a great way for small and/or emerging nations to top up the state coffers. Wealthier countries, on the other hand, have plenty of money, but instead need to constantly replenish their talent and skills. 

Granting citizenship by merit to athletes, for example, helps bring home gold medals, granting citizenship to scientists meanwhile, helps attract even more scientific talent to the country, driving innovation. 

Malta is already leading the way here, while other programmes currently exist in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Until recently, such programmes tended to fly under the radar, but much like citizenship by descent this year, you can expect to see far more mainstream media coverage of citizenship by merit in 2026. 

Visa Turbulence

While Trump may steal the limelight, the US was far from the only country causing visa-related shakeups in 2025. Over the border in Canada, the government also began tightening access. 

Canada recently extended a pause on the pre-existing Self-Employed Persons Programme and also shut down the popular Start-up Visa (SUV) programme. 

A new pilot entrepreneur-focused programme is apparently launching in 2026 to replace the SUV programme, though the government has yet to share any concrete details. 

Australia, meanwhile, increased prices for visa applications, particularly for students, as well as the income thresholds for skilled migrants. 

From our perspective, however, the two biggest shakeups have centred around the Iberian Peninsula.  

First came the closure of Spain’s golden visa programme in April. Portugal’s offering, meanwhile, chugged along, beset with backlogs and other issues.  

Portugal’s programme was once the best in Europe, but it has since been tampered with too many times. The final coup de grace came when the government announced it was doubling the naturalisation period from five to ten years, but has, as yet, failed to provide clarification of what that means for golden visa applicants still stuck in backlog limbo. 

At the time of writing, it is doubtful whether any further clarification will be forthcoming until after the holiday season. 

2026 Visa Developments 

Expect a big pivot from Portugal in 2026 in favour of other European countries. 

We already mentioned Malta’s MPRP programme, which offers many advantages compared to Portugal, though there are plenty of other alternative programmes to choose from. 

Applications to Italy’s golden visa programme doubled in the past two years. Greece and Cyprus are also popular, while Latvia offers the best value with prices starting at €50,000.

New programmes are also pending, including a new Romanian programme offering a five-year residency permit for a €400,000 investment. 

Unlike Portugal, it includes a real estate option and a path to permanent residence and citizenship, if you wish to go down that route. 

We’re not convinced about the price, but until the programme goes live, it’s difficult to judge, so, once again, watch this space. 

Another guaranteed headline-grabber for 2026 is Argentina, which has also just announced a new golden visa programme. As a location, Argentina’s great, though it’s certainly somewhere you want to be a resident without being tax resident. 

So once again, we’re keen to examine the details once the programme is live.

More Digital Nomad Visas 

While 2025 was a tricky year visa-wise, one type of visa which flourished in 2025 was the digital nomad visa. 

Governments are finally coming around to the idea of digital nomads, having finally seen the value of importing skilled, affluent younger workers who can contribute to the economy, especially since they need not compete with the local population for jobs. 

2024 ended with multiple golden visa announcements, all of which went fully live in 2025. 

These included Italy, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Joining them were new 2025 programmes launched in Slovenia, Bulgaria, and the Philippines.

What To Expect In 2026:

More digital nomad visa programmes launched in a broader variety of regions, increased competition in popular destinations like Europe and Southeast Asia.  

Governments extending the length of visas while also tightening rules by tweaking eligibility criteria and raising income thresholds. 

Taxation Trends 2025

Once again, Trump commanded considerable media attention with his Big Beautiful Bill.

That said, the biggest tax-related story of the year was the UK’s cancellation of its non-dom tax regime. 

The result? As can be expected, an exodus of wealthy individuals, with an increasing number of HNWIs leaving the UK for the UAE.

What To Watch Out For In 2026:

The Big Beautiful Bill effectively extends the original Trump tax cuts, which would have otherwise expired this year. More aspects of this new bill will come into effect in 2026, and the US media will mostly be focused on this story. 

We are more concerned about international trends, particularly recent initiatives from the OECD, like the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF).

You can think of CARF as “CRS for crypto”, an Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) initiative specific to crypto assets, and these new reporting rules will start to bite next year. 

2025: Key Takeaways

• Trump dominated the headlines throughout 2025, particularly with his signature policies related to tariffs and immigration.
• The president also announced a US-based residency by investment programme, known as the Trump Gold Card. 
• Searches for citizenship by descent rose following Trump’s election and inauguration, further sustained by media coverage of celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel obtaining second citizenship.
• European citizenship by investment ended in 2025, with Malta the final holdout, though the country’s residency by investment programme continues. 
• Africa, meanwhile, stepped in to fill the void with two new programmes launching in Sierra Leone and São Tomé e Príncipe, while Botswana announced a CBI programme set to go live in 2026. 
• Spain finally closed its golden visa programme while Portugal’s remains open, beset by backlogs in processing times. The country is also in the process of doubling the naturalisation period from five to ten years. 
• New residency by investment programmes were announced for Romania and Argentina, though we expect more countries to join them in 2026. 
• The popularity of digital nomad visas continued to rise in 2025. Expect even more countries to jump on the bandwagon in 2026, particularly in Europe and Asia. 
• The cancellation of the UK’s long-running non-dom tax regime has resulted in capital flight from the UK to more tax-friendly countries, with the UAE being one of the largest beneficiaries. 

2025: In Conclusion

2025 was a far more balanced year than initially expected. 

For every perceived threat, new opportunities arose, and as older programmes closed, fascinating new alternatives were launched to take their place. 

Market volatility and political uncertainty drove investors to gold, as expected. Though it also brought discussions about global mobility, especially citizenship by descent, into the mainstream. 

The digital nomad movement also gained traction in 2025, furthering the notion that, if you don’t like where you are, you can pack up and go someplace better. 

So perhaps this year, instead of attempting to change yourself, make a New Year’s resolution to change your situation instead. 

If you’re eager for a new beginning in 2026 but don’t know where to start, contact Millionaire Migrant today.