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Program profile · Edition 1 research

Oman - Investor Residency (Golden Residency)

The Gulf's newest relaunch cut its own entry threshold, capped family scope at "no restrictions on age or number", and quietly created a second zero-minimum owner permit - but two of the seven measurable criteria cannot yet be answered from any official source. Verified against the ministry's own page and the launch-day record; every claim below carries its source, access date and status.

The threshold: one tier now, not two

On 31 August 2025 Oman relaunched its investor residency offer, replacing the 2021 Investor Residency Programme outright. The relaunch collapsed the old two-tier structure into a single 10-year renewable Golden Residency at a minimum of OMR 200,000 (USD 520,156 at the peg), reachable through any one of seven qualifying routes: a company stake, completed real estate units within an Integrated Tourism Complex (ITC), bonds, listed equities, a five-year fixed deposit, employing 50 or more Omanis, or nomination by an invested company. The real estate route specifically requires ownership of completed ("ready-made") units within an ITC - off-plan units do not qualify for this route; they instead support the separate Property-Owner Residence Permit described below. Confirmed - the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion's own news page, corroborated directly by Oman Observer's and Muscat Daily's launch-day coverage, the Invest Oman official platform and the portal's operational partner (all accessed 17 July 2026).

The program this replaced is worth naming precisely, because it is still being quoted as current: the 2021 Investor Residency Programme offered a 5-year permit at OMR 250,000 and a 10-year permit at OMR 500,000. The 2025 relaunch cut the effective entry threshold and eliminated the published 5-year tier entirely. Several reputable secondary sources still describe the launch using the old 250,000/500,000 table - UNCTAD's Investment Policy Monitor (citing the Oman News Agency), Deloitte, and Trowers & Hamlins (under a "Golden and Silver Visas" framing). These are outweighed by the ministry's own page, two Omani dailies reporting the launch directly, the official investment platform and the portal's operational partner, all of which independently state a single OMR 200,000 tier across seven routes. The most economical reading is that the secondaries carried the 2021 program's tier table forward into their launch coverage without updating it. A residual possibility that the old tiers continue to be administered in parallel by the Royal Oman Police cannot be fully excluded from public sources, but the relaunched program itself is single-tier. Documented dissent - recorded, not smoothed over (accessed 17 July 2026).

A second, distinct instrument: the Property-Owner Residence Permit

Since 22 June 2026, Oman has run a separate track alongside the Golden Residency. ROP Decision No. 87/2026, amending the Executive Regulations of the Foreigners' Residence Law, was published in Official Gazette issue No. 1653 on 21 June 2026 and creates sponsor-free property-linked visas and residence permits for foreign property owners with no minimum property value. Permit duration runs "not less than six months and not more than one year, renewable for a similar period"; it extends to the buyer's spouse and first-degree relatives; it covers both registered units and units still undergoing registration (off-plan qualifies here, unlike the Golden Residency's real estate route); and it lapses if ownership of the unit is transferred. Confirmed - Oman Observer (25 June 2026) and Muscat Daily (21 June 2026) reporting the decision directly, corroborated by Zawya and IMI Daily (all accessed 17 July 2026).

This is a materially thinner product than the Golden Residency and should not be read as a replacement, an alternative route into it, or a merged tier. One trade publication summarised the distinction well: the Owner permit "sits apart from Oman's Investor Residency program, with thinner benefits to match its lack of a minimum threshold." Since 22 June 2026, the Golden Residency is no longer the only property-linked residency route into Oman - the two instruments run in parallel, on different terms, different renewal cycles, and different eligibility rules for the property itself.

What it costs

The verified government-fee floor is small. A residence card fee of OMR 5 per year (OMR 50 across a full 10-year term, OMR 20 to replace a lost card) has applied since Royal Oman Police standardised card validity in Ministerial Decision 157/2025. Reported - KPMG Flash Alert on MD 157/2025 (accessed 17 July 2026). An application fee is reported at OMR 551 for the Golden tier and OMR 326 for a "Silver" tier, but this rests solely on one law firm's two-tier description of the program, which conflicts with the primary record on program structure - the "Silver" figure likely describes a different, pre-existing fee schedule rather than a current program tier. Confidence downgraded (17 July 2026); re-verification against the portal's own fee schedule is needed.

The dominant cost is unresolved: a property transfer and registration fee commonly cited at around 3% of the purchase price (roughly OMR 6,000 at the OMR 200,000 threshold) could not be verified against any primary Omani government fee page and is excluded from the verified total. A medical examination fee (agency sources quote OMR 30) is similarly unconfirmed against any primary or law-firm source. Dependent fees for qualifying children under 12 are reported to exist, with the amount unpublished. Unresolved on the transfer fee and medical fee; Reported on the dependent fee. Oman currently levies no personal income tax; a 5% tax on high earners was legislated in 2025 to take effect in 2028, noted here for context only and not verified in this pass.

Time to permit

Processing is reported at 3 to 6 weeks from submission through police clearance and visa issuance, and the application runs fully online through the official portal. Reported - the program's operational partner, Migrate World (accessed 15 July 2026); weight caveat: this source has demonstrated reliability problems on other cells of this profile (see Presence and the application-fee item above), so the timeline figure is treated as indicative rather than confirmed. The portal itself confirms full online application and tracking. Confirmed (accessed 17 July 2026). No independent actual-versus-advertised evidence exists yet - the relaunched program is under a year old.

Family

First-degree family members are included "without restrictions on age or number" - the ministry's own phrase, repeated independently by Oman Observer and Gulf News in their launch coverage. Confirmed (accessed 17 July 2026). Deloitte's narrower formulation - "spouses, children, and dependent parents" - is not contradictory but is superseded by the ministry's broader line. A dependant age ladder published by the program's operational partner (unmarried sons to age 25, unmarried daughters with no age limit, divorced daughters with custody, dependent parents, dependent siblings under 25) directly contradicts the announced "no age or number restrictions" rule and reads as recycled generic program copy rather than Oman-specific fact; it is recorded as a conflict and demoted, with the ministry line prevailing for this index. Flagged inconsistency. The June 2026 Property-Owner Residence Permit reinforces the looser posture, separately exempting dependants of investors and property owners "from certain age requirements."

Presence: unresolved, sources conflict head-on

This is the single most load-bearing open question in this profile. The program's operational partner, Migrate World, states directly that "Golden Visa holders must reside in the country for at least 180 days per year to maintain their status" (re-verified live 17 July 2026). Against that: no presence requirement appears on the official portal, in the ministry's own news item, in Oman Observer's launch coverage, or in the Trowers & Hamlins, Deloitte or KPMG summaries - all checked and all silent on any minimum stay. Several consultancy sources assert "no minimum stay requirement," but these are agency-grade assertions, not primary evidence, and are not treated as resolving the question either way. No Omani legal text settling the point has been located. Unresolved - sources conflict.

Weight note: Migrate World's page also carries an internally inconsistent two-tier fee description and a dependant-age list already flagged as contradicted by the ministry, which lowers confidence in its 180-day claim specifically - but the absence of any primary text on either side keeps the question genuinely open rather than resolving it toward "no requirement." For context: Oman's standard residence rule voids an ordinary residence card after six or more months spent abroad; whether Golden Residency holders are exempted from that rule, as is the case in the UAE, is exactly the unresolved point.

Term and permanence

The permit runs 10 years, renewable provided the qualifying investment or property continues to be held. Confirmed - the ministry's own page states "ten-year renewable residency"; corroborated by UNCTAD (quoting the Oman News Agency: "renewable, provided the qualifying conditions continue to be met") and by the program's operational partner (accessed 17 July 2026). The 5-year permit leg from the 2021 program is not part of the relaunched offer - it was superseded, not retained as a shorter option. The parallel Property-Owner Residence Permit renews on a separate 6-to-12-month cycle; the two should not be conflated. Residence cards themselves were standardised to 10-year validity under Ministerial Decision 157/2025 (announced 9 November 2025), with renewal due within 30 days of expiry, an OMR 5 per-year fee and an OMR 20 replacement fee. Confirmed - KPMG Flash Alert 2025-260 (accessed 17 July 2026); this decision applies to residence cards generally, with no investor-specific carve-out and no content on the absence rule. No path to permanent residency or citizenship is published for either instrument.

On the property side, foreign freehold ownership remains limited to Integrated Tourism Complexes under Royal Decree 12/2006, with usufruct available outside ITCs in locations approved under Ministerial Decision 357/2020 - this is the in-force baseline, and the Golden Residency's real estate route is itself ITC-specific. A newer instrument, Royal Decree 56/2026 (the new Real Estate Registry Law, in force 18 May 2026), introduces electronic records with full legal force and a Preliminary Registry recognising off-plan sales, but clause-level analysis of the decree text does not identify any repeal of the ITC-only foreign-freehold rule. A press claim that "geographic restrictions are being removed" is explicitly conditioned on "forthcoming executive regulations" that have not yet been issued. Nationwide foreign property ownership should be treated as not yet in force. Unresolved pending executive regulations (accessed 17 July 2026).

Rule stability: five moves, all expansionary

Five material events between 2020 and 2026, every one expansionary or administrative - no threshold hikes, no closures: the 2020 usufruct expansion outside ITCs; the 2021 program's creation; the 2025 relaunch; Royal Decree 56/2026 (the new Real Estate Registry Law, May 2026); and ROP Decision 87/2026 (the zero-minimum Owner permit, June 2026). One correction on the record: the 2025 relaunch did change thresholds - it cut the entry point from OMR 250,000 to OMR 200,000 and collapsed two tiers into one. Direction of every change to date has been softening or purely administrative, and the June 2026 zero-threshold instrument materially changes Oman's position among the Gulf programs in this Index. Confirmed - primary sources cited throughout this profile, accessed 17 July 2026.

Nationality access

No nationality restrictions appear in the program's own materials - neither the portal nor the ministry's reporting bars purchase or residency by nationality. One contextual note, not entered as a program restriction: Israeli passport holders are refused entry to Oman (a transit-only exception applies), which de facto forecloses the program for that nationality even though no official Omani text states a bar. Reported - compiled entry-refusal listings, not an official Omani source (accessed 15 July 2026). Separately worth watching: the involvement of a private operational partner, Migrate World, inside an official government program is unusual for the region and is a plausible source of eligibility-practice drift over time; no evidence of such drift has surfaced yet.