Western Europe, for all its flaws, remains among the world’s foremost regions in terms of quality of life. Characterized by comparatively high degrees of material well-being, security, and political predictability – and a uniquely old-world charm – life on the continent appeals to a global audience.
But the region has its drawbacks, chief among which are the almost uniformly heavy tax burdens it imposes on both individuals and companies.
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St Lucia’s Citizenship by Investment Program kicked off the new year with a host of changes to their program that make it even more enticing than ever.
The St Lucian government has decided to make its Citizenship by Investment Program more attractive to global investors looking to obtain a second citizenship through a shrewd investment while simultaneously ensuring its viability, scalability, and competitiveness in a market with more citizenship by investment programs than ever recorded.
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Our guests this week on the Mobility Standard were David Lesperance, Managing Partner of Lesperance & Associates, one of the world’s leading experts on international tax and immigration, and Melvin Warshaw, a US-based cross-border tax and private client lawyer with more than 40 years of experience in the field.
Lesperance and Warshaw are also the authors of our American Exceptionalism column, where they explore investment migration questions that uniquely impact Americans.
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
The Residences at Secret Bay, Dominica’s crown jewel development and only six-star, all-villa resort, announces it has paid out US$1 million in returns to investors and now has more than 100 Citizenship by Investment (CBI) owners from around the globe.
The globally-recognized CBI project, which is part of award-winning resort Secret Bay, just released year-over-year results between the fourth quarter of 2019 through the second quarter of 2022. During this period, The Residences at Secret Bay has outperformed expectations related to CBI investor growth, return on investment payout, total sales, ADR, occupancy rate, and resort employee growth.
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In a memorandum circulated yesterday, Saint Lucia’s Citizenship by Investment Unit informed stakeholders that it had resumed the processing of applications from Iranian citizens.
“The Unit,” explained the circular, “has been able to secure relationships with due diligence service providers who are able to perform the usual thorough standard of due diligence on Iranians.”
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
On September 12th, IMI reported on Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ surprise announcement that he planned to double the required minimum investment necessary to qualify for the country’s golden visa under the program’s real estate option.
Mentioning the envisioned changes only briefly as part of a broader speech on policy plans, the PM offered little in the way of detail. This week, however, industry stakeholders with direct access are able to provide further nuance as to the details:
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
For the last year and a half, American participation in Portugal’s golden visa program and the share of applicants who choose fund investment have both risen sharply. That’s unlikely to be a coincidence.
In the first quarter of 2022, Portugal’s program raised some EUR 125 million (almost exactly the same amount as during the same quarter last year) from 261 main applicants, who invested an average of EUR 478,000 each, the lowest per-investor average investment figure on record. The average family size (2.06) has also reached a nadir in 2022.
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
Cyprus intends to cancel the passports of four sanctioned Russians that naturalized as Cypriots under the country’s now-defunct citizenship by investment program, the Cyprus Mail reports.
Though the government did not disclose the names of the individuals in question, government sources have confirmed that their names appeared on a list of the EU’s more than 800 sanctioned Russians and Belarusians. Another government source has confirmed to Cyprus Mail that, following a detailed review of Cypriot-Russian/Belarusian citizens, at least 21 individuals have been identified as either appearing on sanctions lists or being dependents of individuals who did. Cyprus is now moving to cancel the passports of all 21.
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
Several national Turkish papers are today reporting that the country’s Cabinet has decided, during a recent meeting of ministers, to raise the minimum investment requirement for its citizenship by investment program‘s real estate option from US$250,000 to US$400,000.
Turkish paper Star reports that the government aims to amend the 20th article of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law’s paragraph 2, clause B to raise the minimum investment amount for the real estate option. The new rules will enter into force as soon as the changes are published in the Official Gazette, which is expected in the coming days.
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim
2022 no doubt holds a long list of surprise developments in store for the investment migration market. Here are seven changes we already know are coming:
The minimum investments in several categories – from capital deposits to funds to science and research ventures – will rise significantly. The areas in which direct investment in residential property is eligible for the golden visa will be reduced; notably, the country’s hottest real estate markets will be excluded from contention. Read all about the coming changes to Portugal’s golden visa here.
Continue reading at www.imidaily.comEditor: Christian Henrik Nesheim