Citizenship by investment (CBI) programs have become more popular than ever, setting an exciting new trend in the demand for passports. Although economic citizenship schemes have existed in the 1980’s, the industry has come a long way and becoming more respectable.
One of the achievements of the “immigration consultancy” business as a whole has definitely been to make the whole process more respectable, says Peter Macfarlane of Qwealthreport
Way back, “selling passports” was considered more than a little dodgy: in the eighties and nineties passport sale scandals rocked countries like Belize, Dominica, Grenada and Costa Rica to name but a few. These days, however, I believe the “Citizenship-by-Investment” industry has done a great job of turning its reputation around – by a combination of playing politics well and genuinely cleaning up their acts with regard to strict due diligence.
Stepping back to view the big picture, I am surprised how much this business has matured. Even five years ago, a high level conference like this would have been unthinkable, as few countries back then wanted to admit to running such programs, he said.
Globalisation, political turmoil and uncertainties fuel the demand for second citizenships. Citizenship by investment schemes only target wealthy and high-net worth investors, who cannot get citizenship through ancestory or have no patience to wait for naturalization.
CBI schemes have also become cheaper and affordable. These days prices start from hundred grand, a reduced price from quarter of a million years ago. Paid citizenships in Europe is no cheap, costs around a million euros, not for faint hearted people.
Due diligence has been an important component of the CBI industry and new rules are constantly improved and tightened with CBI schemes. Governments are also spending millions to properly vet candidates applying for instant citizenships.
New countries are jumping on the bandwagon every day, with Montenegro being the latest for just quarter a million euros. With the news of Greece working on launching a new citizenship by investment program similar to Cyprus in 2020, this gets everybody in the citizenship industry exciting.
Cyprus has written the biggest success stories in the history of citizenship by investment, by already raising over 8bn euros since the launch of the scheme, most of which invested in the real estate sector. The Caribbean has also benefited billions of dollars from CBI schemes, using most of those dollars in health care, education, hurricane relief and other social and economic projects. Several five star hotels undergoing construction funded by Citizenship by investment.
