Henley & Partners: The Firm That Built the Citizenship-by-Investment Industry

For more than two decades, one firm has quietly shaped the way the world's wealthiest individuals think about borders, passports, and the meaning of home. Henley & Partners did not merely enter the citizenship-by-investment industry — it created it. Today, as global mobility becomes a strategic priority for family offices, private investors, and high-net-worth individuals from the Gulf to Central Asia, the firm's influence has never been more consequential.

The Firm That Built an Industry

Founded in 1997, Henley & Partners began as a modest immigration consultancy before evolving into the world's dominant force in residence and citizenship planning. The concept of citizenship-by-investment — the structured, government-sanctioned pathway allowing qualified investors to obtain a second nationality through economic contribution — was not a market the firm entered. It was a market the firm invented.

That distinction matters. When governments in Malta, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Portugal sought to design programmes that would attract mobile capital and talent, they turned to Henley & Partners not as a vendor but as an architect. The firm has now advised and helped design some of the world's most successful investment migration programmes, raising over USD 15 billion in foreign direct investment for sovereign clients across four continents.

Dr. Juerg Steffen, the firm's Chief Executive Officer, has described investment migration as entering a defining chapter — one shaped by geopolitical realignment, tax policy reform, and a fundamental reassessment by wealthy families of where they want to be rooted. He is not wrong. Demand has rarely been higher, and the complexity of navigating competing programmes has never been greater.

A Platform Built for the World's Mobile Wealthy

Henley & Partners operates from more than 70 offices across the globe — a footprint that reflects both the geographic diversity of its client base and the regulatory complexity of the markets it serves. The firm's private client practice, led globally by Dominic Volek, works with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, their families, and their advisors on residence and citizenship strategies that span EU golden visa programmes, Caribbean fast-track citizenship, and bespoke multi-jurisdictional planning.

The Gulf remains one of the firm's most active regions. Philippe Amarante, Head of Middle East, brings over 15 years of experience advising private and institutional clients across industries and cultures. His background — which includes a senior role as Global Head of Brand and Group Marketing Strategy at Credit Suisse — signals the calibre of professional the firm deploys in its most commercially significant markets. For Gulf-based family offices and HNW investors, Henley & Partners offers something genuinely rare: institutional-grade advice delivered with the discretion that private wealth demands.

In Asia, the firm's presence is equally significant. Fairuz Khan, Associate Director in Singapore, has been instrumental in educating wealth management forums across Malaysia and Thailand on how global mobility is reshaping the way wealthy families structure their lives and assets. The message resonates: in an era of increasing geopolitical uncertainty, a second passport is no longer a luxury. For many, it is risk management.

The Henley Passport Index: Intelligence as Influence

Beyond its advisory practice, Henley & Partners has built one of the most referenced pieces of intelligence in the global mobility space: the Henley Passport Index. Published annually and based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association, the index ranks 199 passports by the number of destinations their holders can access visa-free.

The 2026 edition revealed a widening divide between the world's most and least mobile populations — a finding with direct implications for the firm's clients. When a Singaporean passport opens 195 destinations and a passport from a developing nation opens fewer than 50, the value proposition of a second citizenship becomes not merely compelling but mathematically obvious. The index has become required reading for family office principals, private bankers, and government officials worldwide. That it is produced by a firm that also advises on obtaining those passports is a masterclass in aligned intelligence.

Innovation at the Frontier: Citizenship by Invitation

In January 2026, Henley & Partners announced a landmark initiative that signals where the industry is heading. In partnership with Forbes Global Talent, the firm launched the Global Citizen Council — an invitation-only collective of ultra-high-net-worth investors granted exclusive access to Grenada's Citizenship by Investment Programme. Council members, hand-picked for their talent, capital, and potential impact, receive not merely a passport but a seat at the table: an annual advisory session with Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, hosted at the Silversands Resort with private jet access from Miami.

Armand Arton, whose own firm operates in the same space, acknowledged the innovation directly. The model — citizenship by invitation rather than application — represents a structural shift. Governments are no longer simply accepting qualified investors. They are curating them. Henley & Partners, as the architect of that curation process, sits at the most valuable point in the value chain.

What This Means for Investors and Advisors

For private wealth managers, family office principals, and HNW investors evaluating their mobility options in 2026, Henley & Partners represents the gold standard — not because of marketing, but because of track record. The firm has processed thousands of successful applications, advised dozens of sovereign governments, and built the intellectual infrastructure that the entire industry references.

Its relevance extends well beyond the passport itself. Clients who engage Henley & Partners typically do so as part of a broader strategic review — one that touches on tax residency, estate planning, education access, and generational wealth transfer. The firm's ability to sit at the intersection of all these disciplines, across more than 70 global offices, is what separates it from the dozens of smaller advisory boutiques that have emerged in its wake.

As global uncertainty persists — from shifting tax regimes in Europe to geopolitical volatility across the Middle East and Asia — the demand for what Henley & Partners offers will only deepen. The firm that created this industry is, by most measures, still the one best positioned to define its future.