What settling abroad actually means: visas, residence and citizenship

When a family asks what settling abroad means, they are usually asking something narrower: how long can we stay, and on what footing. Four documents get treated as one — the tourist visa, the student visa, the residence card and the passport — and they confer very different things. Getting that wrong sets the whole plan off in the wrong direction.

The plain definition

Settling abroad means a country lets you live there for the long run. It sits in the middle: longer than a trip, short of citizenship. The word covers both fixed-term residence permits and permanent cards, so whatever the programme, ask two questions first. Does this card expire? And what has to be done each year to keep it?

Four documents, four different things

• A tourist visa admits you for a few weeks, allows no work, and banks nothing for later. When it runs out, you leave.
• A student visa is tied to an institution and a course. Finish the course without switching category and the visa goes with it.
• Residence and permanent residence cards grant the right to live somewhere, and depending on the country, to work or to pay domestic tuition. The Cypriot permanent card never expires and never needs renewing; the family simply visits Cyprus once every two years. Malta's MPRP card asks for no stay at all.
• Citizenship is civic status: a passport, a vote, and loss only on the grounds the law spells out.

Holding a card is not the same as banking years

This is the misunderstanding that costs the most, so let us be blunt. Families assume that holding a card for the required number of years brings a passport into view. In most countries the law does not count it that way.

Greece is the clearest illustration. Naturalisation there requires seven years of residence that is lawful and settled — two limbs, not one. The Golden Visa covers the first limb, since it sits on the list of accepted residence titles. But that same card asks you to spend no days at all in Greece. Seven years of holding it while living in Vietnam leaves the second limb empty, and the file will not stand up.

Malta draws the line in the legislation itself: the MPRP is permanent residence, not citizenship, and a Maltese passport runs through an entirely separate route. The UAE is blunter still. The ten-year Golden Visa remains a residence permit for good, because Emirati nationality is granted only on nomination by a state body — there is no self-application channel.

Decide the destination before the country

Start with a domestic question: what does the family want over the next five years?

• If the point is a university place at domestic tuition rates, the target is a residence card or a green card, not a passport.
• If the business stays in Vietnam and you want a European foothold, pick a programme with no stay requirement — Malta or Cyprus.
• If the whole family is moving, read the presence rules before the capital thresholds. Canada asks for 1,095 days actually spent there across five years. The United States asks for 913 days across five years of holding a green card.
• If a passport is the point, read each country's naturalisation clock closely, because those clocks are moving. Portugal went from five years to ten for Vietnamese applicants on 19 May 2026.

The Vietnamese side of it

The second question always follows: does leaving cost you your Vietnamese nationality? It does not. The Nationality Law lists the grounds on which it is lost and foreign naturalisation is not among them. You lose it only by applying to renounce and having that granted. In return, inside Vietnam the authorities deal with you as a Vietnamese national and nothing else.

We rank the ten open programmes in the order we think they deserve a look on our immigration page, with the reasoning behind each grouping. If the family's target is a passport rather than a card, read the country-by-country citizenship routes before choosing.

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The information in this article is for reference at the time of writing. It is not legal advice and no outcome is promised — immigration policy, tax rules and market conditions can change. For an assessment based on your family's specific circumstances, please request a consultation with the VNIS Investment team.