28/04/22

CITIZENSHIP AND RESIDENCY: Caribbean Countries, Europe & the US Should Work Together on Golden Passport Programs, says IMF Official.

As published on schengenvisainfo.com, Thursday 28 April, 2022.

Caribbean countries should tighten their cooperation with European countries as well as the United States in order to improve the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI) in territories that run such schemes.

Such comments came by a senior official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

“Meanwhile, Caribbean countries should continue strengthening due-diligence and transparency processes to ensure the integrity of their CBI programs and work in close collaboration with Europe and the United States authorities to address their concerns,” the IMF Director for Western Hemisphere Department, Ilan Goldfajn, pointed out in this regard.

Despite the fact that the Citizenship by Investment Programs attract a large number of internationals and bring many benefits to the economies of countries that offer such schemes, they are often criticized for being an open door to many illicit affairs, such as money laundering and corruption.

Still, the IMF Director for Western Hemisphere Department stressed that the CBI programs had been an important source of revenue in some Caribbean territories, providing critical funding for public investment such as building resilience to natural disasters.

The CBI programs permit internationals to acquire citizenship in a specific country that offers such a program, provided they make a specific amount of money investment.

Up to this point, several Caribbean countries offer such programs, such as Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia as well as St. Kitts-Nevis.

The European Union Parliament has urged for an EU “levy of a meaningful percentage on the investments made – until golden passports are phased out, and indefinitely for golden visas.”

“It also asks the Commission to put pressure on third countries that benefit from visa-free travel to the EU to follow suit,” based on the announcement published on the EU official website.

In addition, based on a resolution passed by the parliament with a total of 595 votes to 12 as well as 74 abstentions, the sale of golden passports should be entirely stopped.

However, despite being criticized by the EU, the recent report published by Henley and Partners, revealed that European countries’ CBI programs continue to dominate the top spots in the Golden Citizenship Program Index for the seventh consecutive year.

The report revealed that Malta’s citizenship program was ranked in the first position in the Global Citizenship Program index for the seventh consecutive year.

The same source showed that Portugal’s Golden Residence Program was once again ranked in the first position in the Global Residence Program.