Christian Kälin

Christian H. Kälin or Kaelin (born 1971) is a Swiss businessperson, author, government advisor and lawyer who is the chairman of Henley & Partners, a citizenship and residency firm.

Early life and education Kälin was born in 1971 in Zürich. He grew up in Uitikon on Zurich’s Uetliberg. In his teenage years, he began collecting immigration and citizenship laws from different countries, writing to embassies to request copies of their legislation and keeping the documents in a big binder.

Kälin studied in Paris, Auckland, and Zurich. He earned master's and PhD degrees in law from the University of Zurich. He specializes in immigration and citizenship law. He also coined the term ius doni, referring to people who gain citizenship through investment.

Career Kälin trained as a banker before joining Henley & Partners as a consultant in 1994. There, he pioneered the concept of "citizenship by investment", whereby people can acquire citizenship in return for investing in a country of which they are not a national. Kälin makes a distinction between citizenship that can be "earned" through investment that is economically beneficial to a country, and "commodified" citizenship which can be simply bought, claiming that only the former method can be seen as legitimate. He also considers that "citizenship is inherently unjust".

Kälin co-founded Arnova Capital in 2003, a Switzerland-based investment management firm with Pendo Löfgren in 2003. In 2006, he created the Henley Passport Index, which ranks countries according to the travel freedom their citizens get from their passport. Kälin published the first edition of the Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook in 2006. In collaboration with Dimitry Kochenov, Kälin authors The Quality of Nationality Index (QNI), an annual report published since 2015. Kalin has also founded a Swiss health-advisory firm called SIP Medical Family Office in 1997. The firm provides international private medical insurance and health advisory services. and founder and chairman of the Switzerland-based non-profit organization, Andan Foundation which was founded in 2017. The organization, with board members including Mohammed Nasheed, Mikael Ribbenvik Cassar, Taavi Rõivas and Michael Møller, works in the field of supporting refugees.

Citizenship and passport sales In 2006, the firm partnered with St. Kitts and Nevis, trailblazing sales of citizenship and passports. The firm restructured St. Kitts and Nevis's citizenship-by-investment program, incorporating donations to support the country's transition to tourism and services following the closure of the sugar industry in 2005. Following the restructuring of the St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship program, Henley & Partners began to aggressively promote the new scheme. Henley organized large-scale conferences where it promoted its services and connected buyers of passports to sellers. In 2012, Reuters wrote that Henley & Partners is “at the center of the citizenship by investment movement”.

St. Kitts and Nevis In 2006, the firm restructured St. Kitts and Nevis's citizenship-by-investment program, and obtained exclusive rights to market St. Kitts & Nevis worldwide. The company gave the country's government a $20,000 fee for every successful applicant for its passport program. The St. Kitts and Nevis government outsourced its escrow services and application processing to Henley, as well as paid the company to promote the country's program internationally. Henley was paid a 10% commission ($25,000) for every donation to the SIDF. At the same time, Henley entered into at least three agreements with the SCL Group or its affiliated companies to help each other in the Caribbean region. However, the public tender was not competitive. Arton Capital, a competing firm, filed a judicial protest, appealing the decision to award the contract to its competitor, claiming that Henley & Partners provided consultation to the government on a similar program before. Arton Capital settled out of court in 2015.

The citizenship-by-investment program and the relationship between Henley and the Malta government was criticized at the time.

SLAPP lawsuit against journalist In 2017, Henley conspired with top Maltese politicians to launch lawsuits against investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was reporting on Henley's programs in Malta. Leaked email exchanges between top Henley officials (including CEO Christian Kalin), Malta prime minister Joseph Muscat, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and Individual Investment Program CEO Jonathan Cardona discussing launching a SLAPP (Strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuit against Galizia that was intended to financially cripple her for her reporting.

Personal life According to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Kälin possesses at least five passports personally. As of 2025, Kälin lives mainly in Dubai and London.

Select publications

Global Residence and Citizenship Programs 2017–2018: The Definitive Comparison of the Leading Investment Migration Programs (Christian H. Kälin) for Henley & Partners Ius Doni: The Acquisition of Citizenship by Investment Ius Doni in International Law and EU Law Quality of Nationality Index