Countries With Visa-free Status To The British Isle Concerns The UK

COUNTRIES WITH VISA-FREE STATUS TO THE BRITISH ISLE CONCERNS THE UK

COUNTRIES WITH VISA-FREE STATUS TO THE BRITISHISLE CONCERNS THE UK

Citizenship by Investment Programs provide families with the privilege of acquiring an alternative citizenship, which in turn gives them the right to resettle in another country, tax optimisation opportunities, increase global free travel to various destinations to which families would not have been able to travelbecause of their nationality and the setting up of and extension of business in another country. Many countries in the world and a good estimate of over 120 of them have some form of legislation making it possible for non-nationals to receive their country’s citizenship and passport. Of these, about 40 residence and/or citizenship by investment programs are running successfully,

The Eastern Caribbean Countries of Antigua , Dominica , Grenada , St. Kitts and St. Lucia have been running a Citizenship by Investment Program for a number of years with Dominica and St. Kitts program being over three decades in existence.

As a result of the interesting, captivating and enticing benefits of the Citizenship Programs, more than ever before, wealthy individuals are pursuing citizenship options in those Caribbean Nations as the most effective way to access previously unimagined opportunities.

Some of the well-known benefits of Caribbean Citizenshipto those wealth businessmen and investors are:

Visa-free travel to over 150 countries, including the Schengen Area and the UK.
Citizenship for the whole family; Right to live and work in the Countries after obtaining citizenship.
Tax-friendly benefits often with no inheritance or capital gain taxes. No income tax on income generated outside of the Country.
Dual citizenship allowed. No Residency requirement before obtaining citizenship.
Excellent Educational institutions for children, modelled onto the British educational system

Questions looms as to why these countries offer the Citizenship by Investment Program ?

The answer is simple, many countries offer citizenship by investment programs in order to attract much-needed foreign direct investment into the country’s national fund. Countries can then use these funds to invest in their own projects, such as real estate development, business development, infrastructural development especially roads, bridges, health and government administrative complexes; not forgetting the all-important job creation which flows directly from the developmental projects. Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Programs starts from USD 100,000 whilst European Residency Programs starts from EUR 250,000.

Due to the many businessmen and investors that are opting for the Caribbean Countries Citizenship programs, the CBI programs have been getting increased attention and examination from the EU and the US particularly over security concerns. The UK is now making it concerns known in this sphere as well.

UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat at a recent Washington DC conference weighed in by saying that some of the CBI programs allows questionable and potentially-criminal individuals to access the UK borders who would not ordinarily reach near those borders. He demanded for investigations into this loophole.

This UK’s position comes a year after the UK suspended its own investment visa program. It appears to be a full practice of the old adage that you clean your backyard first before turning to others.

Speaking at the DC Conference on its own UK investment program,Tugendhat said; “We found that it was so open to abuse that we had to stop it. So we’ve closed down tier one visas. And we’re going through the process of making sure that none of those loopholes are left within our existing visa routine ‘.

Tugendhat continues; “Whenever I fly, you’ll see in in-flight magazines, various different legal entities offering various different citizenship-by-investment offers. The island of Dominica was one of the ones that appeared in the in-flight magazine and all I can say is that the visa regime is being looked at..”

Tugendhat, apparently not being so amused of the other countries CBI Programs after having dealt with their UK investment Visa CBI echoed: “Sadly, that means that we’ve got to look at some other jurisdictions because there are some places that have visa waivers with the UK who are effectively offering this loopholes. We simply cannot have visa waivers with backdoor economies, it just doesn’t work,” he added. These are very strong statements which propelled the Caribbean Countries into revisiting their programs with the intention of making their processes to be less like likely a swarm over by implementing deeper and more intensive investigatory, due diligence and back ground checks to ensure that individuals that maybe a threat to national security and would not ordinarily be able to enter the UK through the front door are not able to explore the Caribbean Programs to enter the UK. Having become privy to the UK position, the Caribbean Countries takes it on their own to quickly have a relook at their own programs as their programs falls squarely into the category whereby their citizens enjoy visa-free travel to the UK. Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and St. Lucia are all reviewing their program to meet UK’s satisfaction. At the end there is expected to be massive changes. Some countries like Dominica offers the fastest route to citizenship for as little as $100K in less than three months is now leading the initiatives to make its program more suitable to and explorable by individuals of a certain décor that is befitting to be a holder of a Country’s Sovereign document with the ultimate aim of reaching UK’s comfort and contentedness.