As well as simply being born there or being the descendant of one of its citizens, nations allow permits through marriage, adoption or naturalization - the latter of which is based on an application-related executive decision. Until the outbreak of the Ukraine war, additional "citizenship by investment" (CBI) programs were also offered in the three EU member states of Cyprus, Malta and Bulgaria.

As Statista's Anna Fleck and Florian Zandt note, these are more commonly known as "golden passports."

By investing a certain amount of money, it becomes possible to obtain citizenship without the bureaucratic hurdles.

Bulgaria and Cyprus have now abolished this method of granting citizenship, while Malta refuses to grant such passports specifically to Russians and Belarusians.

However, "Golden visas", i.e. residence permits granted in exchange for investments in the economy, still exist in several other EU countries, as the chart below shows.