International leading Citizenship solutions firm, CS Global Partners and Zebvo Newswire held a special webinar on ‘Citizenship by Investment’ programmes. The programme discussed the importance of CBI Programmes of all 13 jurisdictions. CEO of CS Global Partners – Micha-Rose Emmitt and Director Paul Singh named The Commonwealth of Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis as the best CBI offering countries across the world.
According to Micha and Paul, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis are the world’s oldest and best citizenship by investment programmes in terms of processing time, security, safety and other factors. They said that currently, 5 Caribbean countries offer the CBI Programme and all 5 possess strong due diligence processes, which includes rigorous vetting of each applicant applying for citizenship. Multi-layer due diligence makes the Caribbean much-admired destinations for citizenship.
Currently, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis offer two options each for investors such as fund option which includes Economic Diversification Fund (EDF) and Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) respectively. And both have Real Estate options, however, due to the complexity and time-consuming process of the St Kitts and Nevis Real Estate option, most people chose the fund option. Whereas, Dominica has the same time frame and ease of processing in Real Estate as well. Both countries offer the fastest, safest and most secure dual citizenship route to investors.
Both programmes are applauded by many international independent firms, such as Financial Times, which ranked Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis world’s best Citizenship by Investment Programmes in its CBI Index published by PWM Magazine. Many independent reports including PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Smith and Williamson, Ernst and Young (EY) and others have acknowledged the programmes of their transparent and secure process.
Questions & Answers – Interview
Welcome of the guests
Micha: CS Global are the world’s leading Government Advisory and Marketing Firm specialising in Citizenship by Investment
Interviewer – Let’s start with a brief overview of Citizenship by Investment, Micha can you explain what is CBI and which countries offer this programme.
Micha:
- Let’s start with a brief explanation of Citizenship by Investment – what is it? CBI is where an investment is made to acquire citizenship of a certain country. There are 13 countries offering CBI throughout the world. The basin of CBI is in the Caribbean where Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis.
- Today, we are witnessing a contemporary world marked by recurring conflict and instability therefore CBI is super popular amongst high net worth individuals.
- Citizenship by Investment provides a path to benefit from a safe and stable environment to call home if need be, increase global mobility and provide financial planning.
- The benefits to individuals as discussed are life changing for both the individual and or family and for the country in which an applicant successfully gains citizenship from. Housing, schools and hospitals change lives of people in small nations.
Interviewer – Paul, Micha has mentioned the Caribbean being the cradle of CBI-can you please expand on this.
Paul:
- Certainly, the birth of CBI was in 1984 when St Kitts and Nevis launched the very first CBI programme. There are now 5 CBI programmes in the Caribbean, all differ slightly with their offerings but largely the overall concept is similar.
Interviewer – How established are these programmes?
Paul:
The programmes are very established and have stood the pace of time, look at the longevity, look at the citizenship laws in these countries which safeguard the investor, look at the investors who have for almost 4 decades now enjoyed the rights of having citizenship where their global mobility, security and opportunities for their families has changed their lives.
Interviewer – Micha, choosing one of these CBI jurisdictions from the Caribbean-which one would you suggest?
Micha:
There are 2 particular islands which shine through being Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis. Reputationally, ranked no 1 as the best CBI programmes in the world in 2021 by The Financial Times CBI Index is quite an endorsement.
- Investors often tend to opt for the programmes that are reliable and trustworthy, and the Caribbean is a special basin of citizenship by investment also for this reason. Established in 1984, the St Kitts and Nevis CBI Programme is the longest-running, and therefore considered as the cradle of citizenship by investment. Similarly, Dominica is also of note as a trusted option due to its longevity, both programmes being in successful existence for between 30-40 years says it all.
Interviewer – Okay, so we narrow down the actual CBI jurisdiction of your recommendation-what are the investment options?
Micha:
In Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis there is the option of a donation route where funds are used by the respective Governments to improve the investors new country of choice. There is also the real estate option where investment can be made.
Interviewer – Very interesting Micha, Paul a question for you, which investment option do you recommend.
Paul:
In Dominica you have a fund option being the Economic Diversification Fund (EDF) and a Real Estate investment option. Both provides equal benefits to the investors including application processing period and ease of process. Investors can choose any of these two options of Dominica.
St Kitts and Nevis also has the fund option such as Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) as well as Real Estate option. Both are essentially used for the same purposes as Micha explained. However, when it is real estate of St Kitts and Nevis, there are fundamental differences. Firstly, the process is longer than the SGF. One is dependent on the developer to complete the project in a timely and quality manner.
Interviewer– If opting for real estate from Dominica or St Kitts. Is there any particular benefits of applying in one island rather than the other?
Paul:
Absolutely, in St Kitts and Nevis, real estate is quite complicated opposed to the fund option (SGF) which is secure and quick.
Interviewer: How an investor can initiate the process of CBI Programme and how to choose a perfect agent for that?
Paul:
Investors may begin with contacting an Authorised Agent, who assists the applicant with the submission of their application, by ensuring that application forms and supporting documents are complete to the appropriate standards. The official Government websites of many Caribbean CBI jurisdictions usually include a list of the Authorised agents to facilitate the process.
