Citizenship BY Investment: Why What and How – A Comprehensive Study

August 31, 2022 11:28:01 PM

Meaning of Citizenship

Person born in a country to parents who belong to that country are citizens of that country. It is the relationship between an individual and a Nation, whereby the individual will hold certain rights in the Nation which include voting rights, right to work anywhere and for anyone and right to own property. And the individual will need to conduct to his duty of respecting the country’s sovereignty and abide by the law of the land where he or she is a citizen. Traditionally one could get citizenship of a country by birth, through naturalization or through Marriage.

Naturalization is the process where a person resides in a particular country for certain number of years, post which they are awarded citizenship. In the 1980s, a new citizenship came into being. This is Citizenship by Investment Program.

Citizenship by Investment Program

Citizenship by Investment programs are offered by certain nations who intend to invite direct foreign investments in the country. Such countries exchange the country’s citizenship for the investment brought in by the foreign national. These programs usually attract high net-worth individuals. It is also termed as Economic Citizenship. Such a citizenship usually will provide a lot of benefits to the investor which includes a second passport. International Investments, since its inception has attracted a lot of attention from world across.

Need for Citizenship by Investment Program

In perspective of the Country offering Citizenship

i. Foreign Direct Investments – Main purpose of this program is to obtain direct investments from foreign investors to fund their projects in the country which include both public and private sector developments. Vanuatu Citizenship by Investments seeks donations straight forward to provide for the development projects of the country.

ii. Increase in the number of Businessmen – Apart from getting investments into the country, the other reason why countries invite investors is to set-up business in the country and generate jobs for local citizens and residents.

iii. Population – Countries with adverse population issues too provide citizenship to high-net worth individuals with an intention to attract other settlers into the country. This is true for countries like Moldova.

Benefits for the Investor

i. The high net-worth investor gets citizenship of new country for the investment made in the country.

ii. With the second citizenship, the investor gets a new passport of that country with which the investor gets to travel across the globe. Most of the countries offer such travel to more than 100 countries. There are instances where the investor with second passport was at ease to relocate to the country when there was political unrest in his own country of origin.

iii. With the second passport, the investor gets access to markets across the globe and due to the extensive travel, one gets to explore the world in a new way possible. Caribbean islands Citizenship by Investment program is one such unique program, through which the investors get to explore the beautiful landscape of the islands.

iv. The countries offering citizenship also offer good tax regimes for the new citizens. Usually, income that the investor earns outside the country in question is not taxed here. Each country has its own taxing resonance and each of them have developed their own set of tax provisions in their respective countries.

v. Dual Citizenship provision – Investors if they do not intend to forgo their previous citizenship, they can continue maintaining it as most of the countries seeking foreign direct investments allow the investor to maintain Dual Citizenship.

vi. The immediate family of the main investor can join him/her in this pursuit of new citizenship. Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment has recently come up with a new program where it allows citizenship for a whole family of 6. The new shores always bring in newer investment decisions for better provision for the family and children

vii. Investments in few countries provide better education prospects for the children of the investor. Malta Citizenship by Investment program is one such where the investor and family gets access to the whole of Europe. They can live, work and study in any part of Europe.

There is a list of countries which offer citizenship by Investment programs and the number of countries joining this group is ever increasing.

For the investor to qualify for this program

i. He needs to be able to prove his source of income for the amount he is intending to invest in the country

ii. He needs to provide documents from the Police department to prove that he has a clean background

iii. He needs to provide medical certificate which says that he has sound mental and physical health

iv. He needs to be ready to invest in the program

These eligibility criteria mentioned are pretty general in nature. They are kind of common for all the countries. However, there will be few particular eligibility criteria which the investor will need to satisfy pertaining to the country where he intends to invest in. Port Montenegro CBI program requires the investor to invest or apply for the program before the end of 2025.

There are basically 3 ways to invest in a country.

i. Real Estate

ii. Business

iii. National Funds.

All those countries where tourism strives invite foreign investors to invest in their Pre-approved Real Estate. This includes luxury hotels, resorts, houses and residential or office campus.

Business investment can be of two types where the investor can invest to be a simple sleeping investor who does not bother about the day to day running of the business, but has his interest in the end report of the investment and his returns. The other kind of investment requires the investor to participate in the running of the business.

With many more countries coming forward to accept newer citizens there is no dearth for investment opportunities. All that one needs to do is to work with the right international investment immigration experts who knows the inside out of these programs and can guide you to invest in the places which bring in the right returns as expected.

To Know more about the Application Process and your Eligibility

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