Making investments into government-authorized funds or real estate in exchange for becoming legal citizen of any nation is touching new heights among wealthy people around the world. Making it fluent for investors to filter which are options available and the thorough process, the Professional Wealth Magazine of Financial Times releases the CBI Index which ranks the citizenship by investment programmes in thirteen different jurisdictions.
The Index was released on Monday, August 22, 2022, under the title “A Guide to Global Citizenship: The 2022 CBI Index.” It has once again ranked the Caribbean country Commonwealth of Dominica as the world’s best, and the sister island of St Kitts and Nevis. These two nations has been ranked as the world’s oldest and longest-running CBI Programmes.
As per CBI Index, “For the second year running, St Kitts and Nevis joins Dominica in 2022 in equal first place overall as the highest ranked programmes in the CBI Index.”
Alongside, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis, beautiful island of Saint Lucia is also setting up new heights among the toppers in the list. The CBI Programme of the Saint Lucia has recently replaced Grenada while setting up its position on the top. In 13 nations, which are featured in the 2022 CBI Index, five nations from the Caribbean were included, with all of them securing the top five positions. These programmes maintained a perfect score of ten for the “Ease of Processing Pillar” for the sixth year in a row.
Moreover, all the Caribbean nations which are featured in the CBI Index have a donation option, which allows investor to directly contribute a specific non-refundable amount of money to a government fund in exchange for citizenship for themselves and their families.
The overall rankings are usually based on nine pillars. The researcher says that social and government developments worldwide are also observed to prepare the Index, which was launched in 2017. The index report helps to look in a proper way into the details of each programme so that an investor can make a perfect choice on the basis of their requirements.
Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia have scored seven in the pillar Freedom of Movement. The report asserted that St Kitts and Nevis has visa-free/visa-on-arrival access to the highest number of nations, which is (156). Not upto that only, alongside Saint Lucia, it has access to 15 of the 20 key business hubs assessed in the 2022 CBI Index, which is followed by Dominica with access to 14.
Whereas, Saint Lucia bagged fourth position in the Standard of Living pillar, while Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis bags fifth. Among all the jurisdictions, Dominica has the highest life expectancy of 78.2.
Meanwhile, on the pillar of minimum investment outlay, the Index ranked Dominica and Saint Lucia at the top position with a perfect score of ten due to their minimum investment outlay of just USD 100,000.
St Kitts and Nevis bags the top position of the “Citizenship Timeline” pillar with a perfect score of ten, while Dominica and Saint Lucia secured the second position due to the processing time of three months.
At the same time, the five Caribbean jurisdictions of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia bags perfect score of ten for the Ease of Processing pillar for the sixth consecutive year. It is based on the straightforward application processing which is offered by majority of CBI jurisdictions in the Caribbean.
The CBI Index 2022 ranks St Kitts and Nevis along with Dominica with perfect score for the “Due Diligence” pillar because of their multi-layered, thorough background checks on the applicants and their dependants over the age group of sixteen. The comprehensive process of due diligence helps in ensuring that national and global security remains maintained.
Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis also demand the police certificates from both an applicant’s nation of residence as well as their country of citizenship. These two nations expressly ban or ordered enhanced due diligence on applicants from some nationalities and also require detailed supporting information to understand the applicants’ sources of funds.
The ranking of all nations, including Dominica, St kitts and Nevis as well as Saint Lucia remains the same in the “Family” pillar as the previous year’s Index. The report mentioned that the family eligibility criteria remains the same across all the programmes.
Because to its longevity, popularity, and stability, Dominica received a perfect score of ten this year alongside St Kitts and Nevis in the pillar “Certainty of Product.”
The CBI Index mentioned that Dominica’s consistency in maintaining the top position for six consecutive years is on the basis of several things like affordable minimum investment outlay, comprehensive due diligence checks, a streamlined application process and sustainable development projects funded via CBI Funds.
Moreover, CBI Programme of St Kitts and Nevis remains fastest alongside Dominica, because of its processing time among all CBI jurisdictions. However, it falls behind Dominica in due diligence.
Even after being the newest in the field of CBI Programmes, Saint Lucia has set up benchmark in marking huge success over the years. It got third position overall in the CBI Index 2022 because of the major improvements in due diligence, more preferably with the introduction of a biometric passport and minimum investment outlay that is in life with Dominica at USD 100,000 (for a single applicant).
The island nations of Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia has been using these CBI funds to meet their economic requirements. These CBI Programmes are very important for these nations to keep their sustainable development projects running. Even after being victim to numerous natural calamities, the beautiful island nations of Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis & Saint Lucia is growing at progressive pace.
