Caribbean Citizenship has become quite popular recently, thanks to the benefits of offering a beautiful territory full of business and travel opportunities. That’s why more and more investors started investing in the CBI program of Caribbean states. Investors benefit by applying for citizenship during the investment procedure, in a win-win situation for these small countries that could enhance their economies.
On February 25, 2023, in a critical meeting in one of these Caribbean Islands countries, St.Kitts and Nevis, concerning Citizenship by Investment program, there were representatives from both the United States and five Eastern Caribbean states.
During this meeting, both parties went on an open discussion on the benefits and challenges brought by this program. The US government acknowledged that the CBI program was critical for supporting these Caribbean states to counteract financial difficulties that might have resulted from inflation and natural disasters. The CBI program was a significant contributor to national development. So, there was a concession that cessation of such investment programs would curtail prosperity and cause potential danger, decreasing the quality of life for all their residents. Accordingly, both parties agreed to continue protecting their financial systems from any illegal activities. In this regard, the Five Caribbean states agreed to implement the six CBI principles presented by the United States.
- Collective agreement on the treatment of denials: Refuse to process applications from persons whose applications had been denied in another CBI jurisdiction by proactively sharing information on denials.
- Interviews: Conduct interviews with applicants, whether virtual or in-person.
- Additional checks: Each jurisdiction will run checks on each application with the Financial Intelligence Unit of its respective country.
- Audits: Audit the Program annually or every two years by internationally accepted standards.
- Retrieval of passports: Request law enforcement assistance to retrieve revoked/recalled citizen passports.
- Treatment of Russians and Belarusians: Suspend processing applications from Russians and Belarusians. Four jurisdictions have already suspended applications. Among them, Grenada, which processes applications from Russians and Belarusians with enhanced due diligence, decided to halt processing new applications from Russia and Belarus as of March 31, 2023.
Both parties scheduled another meeting in the following months to evaluate the implementation of these principles proposed by the US. Within this compromise, the CBI states urged the US Government to organize a meeting with European Union and United Kingdom governments to discuss these agreed six principles.
