Jordan Citizenship by Investment: 2026 Routes, Costs and Rules

Jordan's investor citizenship is not written into the Nationality Law. It rests on the Council of Ministers' general power to naturalise foreigners. Article 12 of Law No. 6 of 1954 on Nationality lets a foreigner apply to the Council of Ministers after four years of regular residence. Article 13(2) lets the Council, with the King's approval, waive that residence period where naturalisation "is in the public interest"^[9]. The investment criteria themselves are Cabinet decisions ("criteria for granting residency and citizenship to investors"). An earlier investor-nationality policy for Arab investors dates from 1999, and published criteria followed in 2018 and October 2019^[13]. The current framework was adopted on 2 July 2025 and amended on 15 July 2026^[6][5]. The 2025 text provides for the criteria to be reviewed every six months^[6].

The Ministry of Investment receives files and verifies the investment; the 2026 amendment makes it the single reference point for investor files^[5]. Security agencies run background checks, an investors' committee makes a recommendation, and the Cabinet takes the final, discretionary decision^[21]. The July 2025 framework capped approvals at 500 investors a year^[6][7]. The July 2026 announcement did not mention any change to that cap. In practice the cap is not binding: 21 investors were naturalised in Q2 2026^[11] and 65 in H1 2026^[10].

Status as of 2 October 2026: active. The current criteria are those approved by the Cabinet on 15 July 2026, chaired by Prime Minister Jafar Hassan. They amend the framework adopted on 2 July 2025^[1][2][6]. Minister of Investment Tareq Abu Ghazaleh described the aim as "higher-quality investments that generate tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and support balanced development"^[4].

Five of the nine routes are business routes, and for most applicants they are the realistic ones. The criteria target projects "in any of the productive economic sectors", and the threshold is paid-up capital of a registered Jordanian company, not a loan or a promise^[5][6].

New projects inside and outside Amman

The provincial rate is set below the Amman rate on purpose. A new project needs JOD 700,000 inside the Capital Governorate or JOD 500,000 elsewhere, and it must create jobs for Jordanians registered with the Social Security Corporation. The investor has a four-month grace period after launch to complete hiring. The investor holds residency until the project is operating and fully staffed, then receives a temporary Jordanian passport valid for three years. Full citizenship is recommended only once the ministry has verified that the conditions (capital and job count) were met for those three years^[3][5]. A temporary passport is a travel document; under the 2014 amendment to the Passports Law, passports issued to investors do not by themselves confer nationality^[13]. Under the July 2025 rules the job counts were 20 in Amman and 10 outside^[6][7]. The July 2026 releases refer back to "the numbers in the criteria" without restating them^[5].

Buying into an existing company

An investor can instead inject at least JOD 1 million of new equity into an existing productive company, provided at least JOD 500,000 of it shows up as new fixed or non-current assets on audited accounts. The file needs a feasibility study and audited financial statements. New jobs are required, and the new shares are locked for three years. The temporary passport then citizenship sequence applies^[1][5].

Investors already operating in Jordan

Foreign owners who already run a Jordanian business can qualify without new capital. The test is a three-year audited average of their share of fixed and non-current assets: JOD 700,000 in Amman or JOD 350,000 elsewhere. They must also have kept at least 90% of the required Jordanian head-count every month for three years^[1][5]. At about US$494,000, this is the lowest threshold in the scheme. It only helps people who have already been investing in Jordan for three years, so we do not treat it as the entry price for a new investor.

Large employers, strategic sectors and Amra City

A company employing 150 Jordanians in Amman, or 100 elsewhere, insured for at least a year, qualifies its foreign owner regardless of capital. The head-count must be kept for two years after naturalisation^[2]. JOD 3 million in pharmaceutical warehousing, medical equipment and supplies, or food logistics and large-scale storage qualifies through a dedicated route, with Jordanian jobs (pharmacists in the pharmaceutical sector; 20 in Amman or 10 elsewhere under the 2025 text)^[2][5][6]. The newest route, added on 15 July 2026, covers Amra City, the government's planned new city east of Amman. JOD 1.5 million per investor in any economic activity there qualifies, provided genuine jobs are created^[1][2].

The share route was the main target of the July 2026 amendment. The minimum rose from JOD 1 million to JOD 1.5 million. The cap on any single company fell from 20% to 10% of the investment, so the money must be spread across at least ten issuers. The lock-up on capital and trading profits grew from three to five years^[12][2]. Shares must be newly purchased within four months of the ministry's approval and cannot be pledged, lent or borrowed against^[2].

This is the only route without a job requirement, which makes it the nearest thing Jordan still has to a passive option. It carries real market risk. The Amman Stock Exchange is small and relatively illiquid, and a diversified JOD 1.5 million portfolio held for five years is exposed to Jordanian equity prices and dividends with no capital guarantee. The JOD has been pegged to the US dollar since 1995 at about 0.709 per dollar, so currency risk for dollar-based investors has historically been low.

Until mid-2025 Jordan offered a deposit route. Under the October 2019 criteria, the option was a US$1 million zero-interest deposit at the Central Bank of Jordan for three years together with US$1 million of six-year treasury bonds, according to the official text as translated in the GLOBALCIT report; many agent summaries present the deposit and the bonds as separate alternatives^[13]. The 2018 version had required a US$1.5 million deposit for five years^[13].

The Cabinet framework of 2 July 2025 removed both the deposit and the treasury-bond routes, replacing them with routes tied to productive investment and jobs^[8][7]. The July 2026 amendment did not bring them back^[1][2]. A bank deposit, of any size, does not qualify for Jordanian citizenship today. Several agent and comparison sites still list "US$1 million CBJ deposit" or "US$750,000 SME" options. Golden Harbors, for example, lists a Central Bank deposit and treasury bonds while noting they are being phased out^[23], and Immigrant Invest still quotes a US$750,000 minimum^[24]. Treat any such quote as out of date. We could not confirm from an official source how deposit-route applications that were pending in July 2025 were handled.

Unlike Caribbean programmes, Jordan publishes no programme fee schedule for investor citizenship, and neither the 2025 nor the 2026 Cabinet criteria list fees^[5][6]. The one official figure we found is in the Nationality Fees Bylaw No. 107 of 2004: Article 2(9) sets the fee for granting nationality to an investor at JOD 3,000 (about US$4,230), as reported in 2022^[13]. Budget for that and for other unpublished processing fees and confirm them in writing with the Ministry of Investment or your lawyer before you commit capital. The bigger cost, though, is economic. On the project routes the capital is not a fee but equity in an operating Jordanian business that must employ Jordanians for at least three years and pass a compliance check. A loss-making project eats into the capital. A project that sheds staff below the required count can cost the family its citizenship: the criteria state that citizenship is revoked, or residency cancelled, on breach of any condition^[3]. On the share route, the five-year lock-up exposes JOD 1.5 million to Amman Stock Exchange prices. Exit costs depend on market depth.

The Cabinet criteria and the ministry's practice add these conditions to the investment itself^{[1][5][21][22]}:

• Security and financial-solvency clearance. Every file is vetted by Jordanian security agencies, and the source of funds must be documented.
• Clean criminal record (police clearance certificates), a valid passport and age 18 or over, according to practitioners^[21].
• Proof the investment was made: company registration and paid-up capital certificates, Social Security registration of employees, audited financial statements, or broker and depository statements for shares.
• Compliance for three years (five for the share lock-up; two years of head-count after the grant on the employer route). On the project routes, citizenship is withheld until verification. On every route, breach of a condition allows revocation^[3].
• No minimum stay, language test or civics test is written into the investor criteria. Running a Jordanian business in practice means regular presence, and Global Citizen Solutions says a stay of about one month is needed at the end of the process to collect the passport^[21].

No nationality is barred in the published criteria, although every file undergoes discretionary security review^[21]. Historically most successful applicants have been Syrian and Iraqi nationals^[7][8]. Note Article 14 of the Nationality Law: a naturalised Jordanian may not hold political, diplomatic or specified public offices for at least 10 years, or stand for municipal or union office for five years^[9].

Citizenship extends to the investor's family under the same decision^[1][5]:

• the spouse (the criteria refer to the investor's wife);
• daughters living as dependants in the investor's household (the July 2025 text names unmarried, divorced and widowed daughters)^[6];
• unmarried sons under 24 on the date of application;
• dependent parents;
• where the investment exceeds JOD 2 million (about US$2.82 million), sons under 30, together with their spouses and children^[1].

No per-dependant investment top-up applies, and no per-dependant government fee is published. Practitioners charge extra legal fees per family member. In H1 2026, 65 investors brought 250 family members with them, roughly four per file^[10]. Two points to check with counsel. First, the criteria are written for a male investor ("his wife"). How a female principal investor's husband is treated is not spelled out in the published summaries. Second, Jordanian nationality passes to children through the father under the Nationality Law^[9][13], so children born later to a naturalised Jordanian mother and a foreign father do not automatically become Jordanian.

The sequence below combines the Cabinet criteria with the process practitioners describe^[5][21]. Timing depends on the route.

Be realistic about the Jordanian passport. The Henley Passport Index 2026 gives Jordanians visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 49 destinations, ranking the passport 87th, down from 53 destinations in 2025 and 55 in 2024^[28]. Other indexes that count differently give somewhat higher totals^[18]. Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States and Canada all require visas^[28][18]. For travel alone, a Caribbean passport such as St Kitts and Nevis citizenship or Grenada citizenship reaches far more countries for a fraction of the price.

E-2 treaty status

Jordan is an E-1 and E-2 treaty country with the United States; both entered into force on 17 December 2001^[19]. Some marketing cites a "1997 Treaty of Amity"^[23]. We could not confirm that, and the US treaty list gives 2001. The E-2 shortcut has a major caveat: Since December 2022, US law has required anyone who obtained treaty nationality through a financial investment to have been domiciled in the treaty country for at least three continuous years before applying^[20]. A Jordanian investor-citizen who does not live in Jordan cannot use the passport for an E-2 straight away.

US immigrant-visa pause (ended August 2026)

Jordan was one of the 75 countries whose nationals were covered by the US State Department's pause on immigrant-visa issuance from 21 January 2026, pending a public-charge review. Non-immigrant visas such as B-1/B-2 and E-2 were not covered^[17]. A federal court vacated the pause in CLINIC v. Rubio, and the State Department confirms it has not been in effect since 21 August 2026^[26]. Shortly afterwards the department briefly paused immigrant-visa interview appointments to train consular officers on updated public-charge guidance^[27]. Public-charge scrutiny still applies, so check current consular guidance before relying on any US immigrant route.

Jordanian tax follows residence, not citizenship. A passport alone does not make you a Jordanian taxpayer. An individual becomes tax-resident by living in Jordan for at least 183 days in a year^[15]. Personal income tax runs from 5% on the first JOD 5,000 to 25% on income up to JOD 1 million and 30% above that. A 1% national contribution applies to income above JOD 200,000^[14].

• Foreign income. The law taxes income "incurred in or from Jordan"^[14]. PwC notes that dividends from non-resident companies become taxable when they derive from funds held in Jordan^[25]. Beyond that, how a resident's foreign-source investment income is treated needs case-specific advice; we have not confirmed the details from an official source.
• Capital gains realised in Jordan are exempt except on depreciable assets^[25]. Dividends from Jordanian resident companies are exempt in the shareholder's hands^[25]. This matters for the share route.
• No wealth, inheritance or gift tax^[16].
• Transaction taxes: 16% general sales tax and a 6% aggregate property-transfer tax^[16].
• Social security: 14.25% employer and 7.5% employee contributions on Jordanian payroll. This is a direct cost on the job-creation routes^[16].

US citizens remain taxable in the US regardless of a second passport.

Jordan has allowed its citizens to hold another nationality since the 1987 amendment. Article 17 states that a Jordanian who acquires a foreign nationality keeps Jordanian nationality unless he renounces it^[9][13]. One drafting point is worth raising with counsel: Article 13(3) of the 1954 law, in its English translation, says an ordinary naturalisation certificate is granted only if the applicant loses his previous nationality^[9]. Practitioners consistently report that investor applicants keep their original citizenship^[24][22], and the investor criteria are Cabinet decisions outside the standard Article 12 track. We have not found an official statement on the point.

Citizenship granted through investment is conditional in practice. The Cabinet can cancel naturalisation for misrepresentation or for acts endangering state security (Article 19)^[9]. The investor criteria add revocation for breaching any investment or employment condition^[3]. Keep the investment, the payroll and the audited records intact until every lock-up ends.

It suits regional entrepreneurs, often from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon or the Gulf, who want to build or already run a business in Jordan and value a stable Arab nationality for their family. It also suits manufacturers, logistics and pharmaceutical operators who would hire 10–150 Jordanians anyway, and investors already operating in Jordan who can qualify on their three-year asset average without new money. Families with adult sons aged 24–29 and more than JOD 2 million to invest gain unusually wide family coverage.

Look elsewhere if you want a passive, quick passport or better travel access. The Caribbean programmes compared in our ranking of the most affordable citizenship-by-investment options start at a fraction of Jordan’s thresholds and offer much wider visa-free access. Look elsewhere too if you cannot or will not manage a Jordanian payroll for three years, or if what you need is residence rather than nationality. For residence, Jordan's property route starts at JOD 150,000 outside Amman, as explained on our Jordan investor residence permit page.

• Turkish citizenship through a US$400,000 property purchase: the closest regional alternative. It has a passive real-estate route, a three-year hold and a stronger passport.
• Egyptian citizenship by investment: an Arabic-speaking alternative with donation and real-estate options rather than job-creation requirements.
• Cambodian citizenship by donation: a lower-cost Asian option for investors who need a second nationality rather than a business base.
• UAE citizenship by nomination: by invitation only, with no investment route. Most investors instead take the UAE golden visa through property.
• Gulf residence instead of a passport: Saudi Arabia's premium residency and Oman's investor residence programme offer long-term status without naturalisation.
• Caribbean citizenship for travel: St Kitts and Nevis and Grenada. Compare all routes in our citizenship by investment hub, our guide to choosing between a second passport and a golden visa and our analysis of the strongest passports available by investment.