The New York Times has reported that Mr Thiel is seeking citizenship in Malta.
The newspaper reported that Mr Thiel has been pursuing the goal of becoming a citizen of Malta for about a year now.
He is already a citizen of the United States and New Zealand.
Through a spokesperson, Mr. Thiel, who co-founded digital payment company PayPal and was Facebook’s first professional investor, declined to comment on The New York Times. His net worth stands at $4.2 billion ($NZ7.5 billion), according to Forbes.
Maltese naturalization laws are easy for those who can pay more than €500,000 ($NZ874,000) for a passport, but they prohibit prospective citizens from renting out their official residence while their passport application is pending. Time said.
Mr. Thiel would develop business relationships in Malta and was a major shareholder in at least one company registered there, of which his husband, Matt Danzeisen, was a director.
Located in the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and North Africa, Malta has been a destination for merchants and crusaders for centuries. External powers controlled it until 1964. Since it gained independence from Britain, it has struggled to build a sustainable economy. The island, which has little industry and few natural resources, joined the EU in 2004.
Malta has found lucrative economic leverage in passport sales. Since 2013, the country’s investor citizenship programs have granted about 2,000 applicants and their families passports, bringing in millions of euros in revenue.
Malta’s fast track to citizenship through investment, or what are better known as “golden passports”. can take 12 to 16 months, according to Henley & Partners, a consultancy that developed the Maltese program and helps clients obtain passports around the world.
EU officials have criticized Malta’s gold passport program. Last month, the European Commission referred Malta to the union’s Court of Justice over the program, noting that citizenship in return for payments is “incompatible with the principle of sincere cooperation” within the bloc. Maltese officials have indicated they will fight any legal challenge.
In 2011, Mr Thiel obtained a New Zealand passport after donating $1 million to an earthquake fund in the country.
There is “no other country more in line with my vision of the future than New Zealand,” he wrote in his passport application, which the local government released in 2017, sparking outrage that lawmakers were selling citizenship. Thiel had spent less than two weeks in the country before his New Zealand passport was approved,
Mr Thiel is going through a similar process in Malta, where he has started to establish business roots. He is an investor in a Malta-based venture fund, Elevat3 Capital.
His plan to build a 330-foot hidden luxury lodge overlooking Lake Wanaka was rejected by the Queenstown Lakes District Council after a hearing in May. He had hoped to build a private housing estate against the mountains.
An independent advisory panel from the Queenstown Lakes District Council decided that the “large, very tall building” would be too visible from a public walkway, that the 1,165 sq ft lodge was inappropriately dominant in the outstanding natural landscape and found that the design details were not clear .
Mr. Thiel’s company, Second Star, filed an appeal this month in the Environmental Court against the panel’s decision.