The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) has announced that decisions on a significant number of 2018 immigrant investor program applications will be made in coming weeks in a phased manner.
INIS clarified the reasons for delays of processing times caused by Department of Justice introducing highest standards of personal and financial due diligence checks on IIP applicants
The Minister of Justice reported during parliamentary question that, 421 applications have been received for 2018, out of which 54 applications had been approved. Of the approvals received,
Enterprise investment – 27 (for total investment €26m)
Endowment – 12 (€4.8m)
Investment fund – 15 (€15m)
REIT – 0
For 2019, a total of 30 applications were received, 20 of those applications for enterprise investment and 10 for endowment.
The processing times of INIS for IIP application takes 6-9 months per application and in some cases 12-24 months .
The Department of Justice and Equality has imposed Enhanced due diligence (EDD) applicants and sponsors, which includes tax compliance:
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Know Your Client (KYC)
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs)
Sanction checks.
Data sharing in accordance with the OECD common reporting standards
The Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP), also known golden visa, was introduced in April 2012 to create business and employment opportunities in the State attracting qualified foreign investors.
The scheme offers four types of investment options in exchange for stamp 4 permanent residence rights in Ireland. Stamp 4 holders can naturalize for Irish citizenship and passport after five years of uninterrupted living.
Endowment – €500,000
Enterprise Investment – €1m
Investment fund – €1m
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) – €2m
Ireland took the third spot in Golden visa rankings for 2019 for its attractiveness in world class education, health care with highest standards of living and human development in the world.
Ireland was also recently ranked for having best citizenship in the world with powerful european passport.
Saudi Arabia has relaxed its immigration rules opening up the country to attract foreign investment through investors, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers have approved the creation of a residence scheme for qualified international expatriates who invest in property, create jobs and for research/innovation.
Under the proposed plan there will be two types of schemes offering residence permits
Permanent residence permit
Residence permit scheme annual renewals.
The Special Privilege Iqama will be issued to persons who have ties to Kingdom irrespective of nationality. The one time permanent permit will cost SR 800,000 ($213,333) and temporary residence valid for one year will cost SR 100,000 ($26,666)
A Special Privilege Iqama Center will be setup as the sole competent body to regulate and manage everything and decisions are made within 90 days
The residence permit will enable expats in Saudi Arabia with additional privileges such as visas for their families and own real estate in the Kingdom.
This new scheme will encourage and enable people across the globe to choose Saudi Arabia as a long-term destination to invest, work and build their lives, playing a role in future economic development of the Kingdom.
The country has lifted of foreign ownership restrictions in many sectors, giving investors the chance to access previously untapped opportunities in the large, growing country.
Saudi Arabia is undergoing a series of social and economic reforms that aim at realizing the Kingdom’s economic potential under Vision 2030.
Several visa categories have been proposed by Saudi Arabia. These include
First tourism visa to make the Kingdom a tourist destination
Specialized visas for events such as Formula E motor races, the Winter at Tantora Festival in Al Ula and the Saudi International Golf Tournament.
Specialized Entrepreneur License, launched last year allows international entrepreneurs to launch a fully foreign-owned start-up company in Saudi Arabia.
These recent reforms have led to a 70% spike in the number of new foreign business licenses issued by SAGIA in Q1 2019, when compared to the same period last year.
Other GCC countries Qatar, Bahrain and UAE have similar schemes for investors.
Dominica concluded the signing of a Visa Waiver Agreement with Ukraine at a brief ceremony at the Dominica High Commission in London on 15th of May 2019. Last month, the two countries established diplomatic relations.
The agreement was signed between Acting High Commissioner, Janet Charles joined by her counterpart, Her Excellency Natalia Galibarenko, Ambassador of Ukraine signed an agreement on the exemption of visa requirements. This agreement will allow citizens visa free access to each other’s country.
The new relationship between Dominica and Ukraine provides an opportunity for both countries to forge partnerships and cooperation in areas of mutual interests, such as investment and tourism promotion.
On behalf of the Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, the Honourable Francine Baron, and the Government of Dominica, Acting High Commissioner Charles expressed her government’s ongoing commitment to build strong and enduring bonds of friendship with Ukraine and Europe.
The Official announcement on the visa waiver was made by Dominica high commission in London.
The Prime Minister of St Kitts Hon Dr Timothy Harris, made a statement on the present Position of the CBI Programme
He announced that St Kitts CBI program is at optimistic outlook in terms of performance. The performance last year was the best.
The CBI program is at is best, in terms of performance and last year was the best performance in this regard.
The Real estate applications received is record high levels.
St Kitts is exploring new innovative ideas transformation strengthening the CBI scheme.
Government will continue enhancing the due diligence checks,
St Kitts will continue to cooperate with governments in US, Europe and Canada and have excellent relationship with this particular program.
“The program is doing very well”, said PM Harris
In 2019, The SKN government tightened the program with new escrow rules for real estate, and introduced biometric fingerprinting of CBI applicants. The Government made it clear that under the citizenship is only granted after a full and rigorous vetting and due diligence process of the applicant.
The record number of real estate applications was attributed to St Kitts reducing the required investment from $400,000 to $200,000 .
St Kitts has one of the powerful passports in the Caribbean and the government is working on signing more visa waivers and to strengthen the passport. In 2019, the government already signed two visa waivers with Albania and San Marino.
St Kitts and Nevis took 54th spot among 190 countries in the Best Citizenships Index 2019, a study that ranks best citizenship in the world.
St Kitts and Nevis took 30th place of 126 countries in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2019. The twin island federation ranked 2nd of the Caribbean islands for ‘Fundamental Rights’, ‘Civil Justice’, and ‘Order & Security’. This demonstrates its commitment to securing a dependable economic environment for citizens and investors alike.
St Kitts will be hosting Caribbean investment summit 2019 bringing together CBI industry professionals and experts from Jun 19-21.
St Kitts CBI scheme remains one of the oldest, most popular, platinum standard citizenship by investment schemes in the world. Those who wish to acquire citizenship can pay USD 150,000 towards Sustainable Fund and acquire citizenship for family.
St Kitts is the only country among CIP’s that has the accelerated fast track path for citizenship, which requires additional $25,000 fee and decisions are made within 60 days.
Moldova launched one of the exciting citizenship by investment schemes accepting first applications in Nov 2018.
In six months since the of the launch of the scheme, Moldova CBI scheme off to a slow start with one citizenship is granted and 23 applications received by Moldovan authorities. This was announced by by Iulia Petuhov, Deputy Director of the Public Services Agency and responsible for implementing the Citizenship Investment Program, at a press conference.
The presidential decree of 1143 dated 27th april granted first citizenship to IT businessman under moldovan citizenship by investment program (MCBI). This was published on official gazette Nr 119-131, which entered into force on April 5, 2019. The decree was signed by President Igor Dodon, published in the Official Gazette.
You will see names CBI citizens is not disclosed protecting confidentiality, it is only referred as file number, says foreign citizen and main applicant. Moldova usually publishes full name, date of birth and origin of country in gazette for naturalized citizens through presidential decree.
Last year, the government adopted regulations to protect confidentiality of CBI investors. The decree of the President granting of citizenship by investment will contain only identification data of the applicants’ files, without indicating the name and surname of the applicants. This is an exception only for the category of investors.
Presidential decree of Republic of Moldova
Moldova is set to grant 5,000 citizenships to main investors and their families for investors under MCBI. The limit applies to main applications through the investment scheme. The CBI funds collected will be invested in infrastructure, education and other strategic projects of the Republic of Moldova
The Program for Acquisition of Moldovan citizenship through investment is implemented by the Public Institution “Public Services Agency” of the Republic of Moldova, according to the provisions of the Government Decision no. 786 of 4 October 2017 on the acquisition of citizenship through investment.
All Applicants are subjected to 4 tier due diligence checks before granting citizenship
Citizenship can be acquired in exchange for investments under the following three options
Donation – EUR 100,000
Real estate – EUR 250,000
Government securities/bonds: EUR 250,000
One reason why slow start of Moldovan citizenship with only 23 applications received in six months is pricing and moldovan passport is not as powerful as caribbean passports
The prices of Moldova is slightly higher than caribbean cbi schemes, plus the prices for Moldova in euros, instead of US dollars. This makes it slightly expensive in the range of $12,000 plus EUR 35,000 processing fee per application..
Moldova passport despite having visa free access to 121 countries, have no visa free access to United Kingdom and Ireland, US/Canada and Australia.
Dual citizenship is probably most important and widely debated topic among expatriates and diaspora population across the globe.
A new study was carried out by university researchers comparing the dual citizenship trends since 1960’s.
The study reveals three-quarter of countries accept dual citizenship for expatriates acquiring another citizenship up from less than one-third in 1960. This trend is most pronounced in the Americas, Oceania, and Europe and, though still noticeable, less strong in Africa and Asia.
The expatriate dual citizenship acceptance has increased in the last half century from one-third to three-quarter of states globally. Near complete acceptance in the Americas, Europe on the global trend, Africa and Asia below the trend.
In a substantial number of states across the world, citizens automatically lose their citizenship upon the voluntary acquisition of another citizenship.
The history of how dual citizenship was long disfavoured requiring absolute allegiance, covered in literature. The gradual development of the right to expatriation in the 19th century was a first significant step towards tackling the undesirable phenomenon of potentially conflicting allegiances. In 1960 both the USA and Canada did not accept expatriate dual citizenship and more than half of the countries in Central and South America applied a rule of automatic loss upon the voluntary acquisition of another citizenship.
Today’s rules in the majority of countries reflect a different, more tolerant approach towards expatriate dual citizenship than 50 years ago.
Figure below shows a strong trend towards acceptance of expatriate dual citizenship in the past half century. While less than 40 per cent of all countries that existed in 1960 accepted dual citizenship, this percentage increases steadily to over 70 percent of countries in 2017. This trend took place in all regions around the world, though more forcefully in some than in others.
The trends further shows America, Oceania and Europe have have more tolerance for dual citizenship above world average. Africa above Asia in terms of dual citizenship tolerance
According to the model applied by researchers showed,
23% of countries never allowed dual citizenship, 44% always allowed dual citizenship, and in 32% of the countries a change in policy occurred since 1960.
The recent adoption of dual citizenship by a neighbouring country increases the probability to accept expatriate dual citizenship
If first voting rights are extended abroad, subsequently are followed by dual citizenship reform.
Higher remittances increase likelihood for a country to move to tolerant dual citizenship regime. Economically powerful diaspora that pushes for dual citizenship liberalisation
Expatriate dual citizenship toleration increases over time and clusters spatially.
The paper concludes expatriate dual citizenship toleration increases over time and clusters spatially with dual citizenship liberalization reflects an agenda of modern diaspora governance where expatriates are increasingly viewed as part of a community that continues to contribute to political and economic development of sending states.
Saint Lucia has made changes to CBI legislation under Citizenship by Investment Amendment (Act 12) of 2019. The changes has been approved and published in the Saint Lucia official gazette of the government.
By passing these amendments, St Lucia has simplified citizenship by investment rules for dependants, making it competitive with other CIP’s in the caribbean.
Among the most important changes made were, from now on, spouses and children born after citizenship by investment is granted also eligible for St Lucia citizenship and application has to be made notifying within 5 years of becoming CBI citizen .
Here are the changes made to St Lucia citizenship by investment scheme in 2019:
1. Agent license: The Board may, on the recommendation of the Unit, grant with or without conditions or refuse to grant an authorised agent licence. An authorised agent licence permits an authorised agent to make an application on behalf of an applicant under section 30;
2. Dependants: In the case of a qualifying investment in cash, the Board may grant an application for citizenship by investment to a qualifying dependant after citizenship by investment is granted to a person if the Board is satisfied that — (a) he or she was a qualifying dependant when the application was made by the citizen; (b) he or she is a child born after the application was made by the citizen; (c) he or she is the spouse of the citizen and was married after the application was made by the citizen; and (d) the application for citizenship by investment of the qualifying dependant is made no more than five years after the application was made by the citizen.
3. Extension of payments: The payment of the qualifying investment within ninety days of the grant of the application unless the applicant makes a request to the Board for an extension
4. Revoking of Citizenship : If the citizenship by investment of a citizen is revoked under subsection (1), the citizenship by investment of a qualifying dependant under section 36(1A) is revoked
The CIP Amendments were passed in the House of Assembly this 26th day of March, 2019.
Australia is no longer a favorite destination, as chinese shun Australia for Golden visas in Europe and America. The Chinese investment into Australia plunged by nearly $5 billion in 2018 due to increased taxes and banking issues.
According to Investorist CEO, Golden visa countries in Greece and US remain at the top of list for chinese investors.
Although US and Canada, remains favorite destination for many chinese, long 16 year wait times with EB-5, and limited quota of 1,330 quebec visas in Canada, drive chinese towards european golden visa schemes.
Chinese remain top investors in golden visa schemes actively running in Greece, Portugal, Spain. Unlike US and Canada European golden visa schemes have no quota limits for chinese. Some chinese prefer to invest in asian countries not far away from mainland (eg. Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia etc)
A survey by Investorist, found that only half of the 160 Chinese real estate agents are selling properties in Australia due to decline.
Source: Investorist, The Urban Developer
Chinese investors are also following its government’s plans for infrastructure expansion with the Belt Road initiative by Chinese government
According to KPMG report, Chinese investment in Australia dropped to AUD 8.2 billion in 2018 – down by 36.3 percent from 2017. Private companies dominated the investment landscape, accounting for 87 percent of deal value and over 92 percent of deal volume, with an overall trend towards smaller sized deals. Healthcare was the most popular sector for Chinese investors, with commercial real estate falling to second position. Chinese investors still see Australia as a relatively attractive country to invest in, with an improving political climate, but they also confirmed that they are finding it harder to get capital out of China, and there are challenges raising capital in Australia.
The Investor and SIV visa statistics also confirm, decline of Chinese interest in 2018 with Business innovation, Investor and SIV streams
Source: Department of Home Affairs
European Parliament
The European parliament also expressed its concerns with golden visa schemes and called member states for tightening up with strict measures against money laundering, tax evasion etc. The EU is expected to form a special member committee by Q4 2019 to oversee and monitoring of citizenship and golden visa schemes.
According to EU report, 22 out 28 EU member states offer visas for investment and 25 billion euros have been invested through C/RBI schemes
HNWI Chinese
According to Hurun survey for 2018
90% of Chinese HNWIs considering emigration plan to retire in China
USA Country of Choice for 80% of Chinese HNWIs considering immigration
Ireland and Greece emerging immigration destinations
Investment in overseas real estate expected to increase 50% over next three years.
‘Quality of education’ remains the most important reason for immigration among HNWIs
The United States remains the most popular destination for HNWIs investment emigrants for the fourth year running, while the UK has risen from third place to second. Emerging immigration destinations Ireland and Greece performed well, with Ireland moving up four places to third, and Greece occupying sixth place in its debut appearance on the ranking. Canada falls two places to fourth, while Australia is down one place to fifth.
Country
Score (Change)
1 –
USA
8.7 (-0.3)
2↑
UK
8.5 (+0.1)
3↑
Ireland
7.9 (+1.6)
4↓
Canada
7.8 (-0.9)
5↓
Australia
7.5 (-0.3)
6 *
Greece
7.0
7↓
Portugal
6.7 (+0.3)
8 –
Spain
6.5 (+0.3)
9↓
Malta
6.4 (-0.1)
10 *
Cyprus
6.3
Source: Immigration and the Chinese HNWI 2018, by Visas Consulting Group and Hurun Report
Foreign exchange controls
China last year tightened the rules and chinese are allowed to buy $50,000 worth of foreign currency per person. The limit of RMB 100,000 ($15000) per person and per account applies according to SAFE agency
Dual citizenship
China including SAR (Hong Kong, Macau) prohibits allow dual citizenship for its nationals. This is one of the primary reasons why RBI/Golden visa schemes are more popular with chinese than citizenship by investment (CBI). Grenada has long standing special relations with China with mutual visa waiver agreement.
Currently CBI schemes run in over 10 countries. These countries have also tightened rules including revoking of citizenship and extradition of chinese nationals abusing CBI/CIP schemes
Greece is one of the most attractive, beautiful countries to live, study, work and retire. The country also has one of the biggest and most popular golden visa schemes in Europe.
FDI inflows, strategic investments, revival of property market through golden visas have pulled Greece out of recession, towards positive growth. With economy back on track, Greece will pay €3.7 billion in loans to IMF in the next two years. Greece is also receiving €16bn in direct tourism revenues in 2018
Here are some solid performance indicators of Greece making the country very attractive for investment.
1. Economy
Greece’s economy is forecast to grow by 2.4% this year, according to the latest IMF World Economic Outlook, while the Bank of Greece, in its most recent projections, sees a 1.9% growth rate in 2019. The forecasts confirm that Greece is headed into its third year of economic recovery following 1.9% growth in 2018.
2. Loans
Greece will repay about €3.7 billion in loans to the IMF coming due in the next two years ahead of schedule, marking another milestone in the country’s emergence from its recent crisis. The news helped boost prices on Greek government bonds, sending the yields on the benchmark 10 year sovereign to a 13 year low
3. Tourism
Greek tourism revenue rose by 53.2% in January, signalling a strong year ahead for Greece’s tourism industry. According to the latest Bank of Greece data, January travel receipts totalled €232 million, up from €152 million in January 2018. The rise is attributed to a 40.4% increase in visitor spending and a 9.4% rise in visitors. In 2018, Greece took in €16 billion in direct tourism revenue.
The island of Crete is poised for an economic take off with billions of euros worth of investments planned, including in new infrastructure, tourism developments and privatizations. Crete welcomed more than 5 million visitors last year, representing about one sixth of Greece’s total tourist arrivals.
4. FDI inflows
The net Foreign Direct Investment inflows during 2018 reached € 3,606 million vs. € 3.204 million during 2017, an increase of 12.5%. The year 2018 is the third consecutive year of increased foreign investment flows in Greece after an annual increase of 28.3% from 2016 to 2017 and of 118.5% from 2015 to 2016.
Source: Bank of Greece
5. Housing
Greek housing prices are seen gradually increasing over the next 12 to 18 months, international credit ratings agency Moody’s said in a recent report. In 2018, housing prices rose an average 1.5%, the first increase in ten years, thanks to the improving macroeconomic environment and high foreign investment in Greece’s residential property sector. Still Greece has the lowest property prices compared to other EU countries, attractiing foreign investors.
6. Golden visas
Greece has issued a total of 4,154 Golden Visas to foreign investors from the program’s inception in 2013 through the end of March this year, according to the latest Greek government data. Last year, Greece issued 1,399 Golden Visas to foreign investors, up from 961 in 2017.
7. Strategic investments
Greece’s inter-ministerial committee on strategic investments is evaluating for approval up to ten new projects worth a combined €2.2 billion, underscoring the growing investor interest in the country. Combined, the ten projects are expected to create 2,200 jobs with the approvals expected to be completed by the end of May. Most of the projects are in tourism assets or renewable energy production.
Projects of €100m or more are automatically deemed strategic investments.
Manufacturing projects of minimum investment €15m
Business Park development projects of minimum investment €5m
JESSICA program approved projects of minimum investment €5m
Projects of minimum investment €40m at least new 40 jobs
Investment projects creating 150 new jobs
Investment projects creating 600 long-term jobs
European energy infrastructure Projects of Common Interest
Golden visa scheme also have provisions offering residency against strategic investment in Greece.
8. Belt Road Initiative
The port of Piraeus will be part of BRI connecting Europe to silk road. The foreign ministers of China and Greece signed a Memorandum of Understanding related to further cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative on Aug 29, 2018. Once the belt is open for trade, millions of dollars worth of trade goods, oil, cargo flow through this greek port.
9. Venture capital
Greece has a favorable position in the upper status of European VC rankings and is among the countries performing better than the European average, thanks to a good balance between the tax and legal environments for private equity and venture capital investors, managers and investee companies.
10. Government bonds
Greece successfully issued a new €2.5 billion, 10-year government bond, its first since the country entered its protracted financial crisis in 2010. The bond issue, which was more than four times subscribed, was priced at a yield of just 3.9%, reflecting strong investor confidence in Greece’s recovery and follows just weeks after the country returned to international bond markets with a seven-year issue.
Greece is also expanding golden visa scheme to include Government bonds and other fund options along with real estate.
The State department has provided 2019 updates on potential waiting times for interviews and I-526 petitions is filed today, in may 2019.
Charles Oppenheim Chief, Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division presented the following updates during the EB-5 advocacy conference.
Although the EB-5 is limited to 10,000 visas annually, the annual Per Country Limit for 2019 approximately 705. The waiting times for chinese increased from 16.6 years (from 15 years).
That is if a chinese apply for EB-5 today, they would get EB-5 visa after 16.5 years by 2036, Indians 8.5 years by 2028 and Vietnamese by 2027.
China – 16.5 years
Vietnam – 7.6 years
India – 8.4 years
South Korea – 2.4 years
Taiwan – 2 years
Brazil – 1.6 years
Brazil has the lowest wait time of one and half years.
These are the wait times for interview scheduling to submit documents (average number of days)
