SVG | More UK Visa Restrictions Coming for CBI Countries If.........

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, July 25, 2023 -  Prime Minister  of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, is confirming indications that the UK government plans impose visa requirements on passport holders from St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis, if those countries do not abandon their controversial Citizenship by Investment or CBI programmes.

Gonsalves told a media interviewer  on Monday that there are indications that by the end of 2023, St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis passport holders will also need a visa to enter the UK if they don't end their CBI programs.

This is against the background that last week, the UK removed Dominica and Vanuatu passport holders from the list of visa-free countries after concerns that their CBI programs were being abused.

Gonsalves said The EU Commission plans to follow suit by removing those countries from the Schengen Visa waiver program as well.

He confirmed that representatives from the CBI Caribbean countries recently met with EU officials in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the matter.

Gonsalves pointed out that  Caribbean islands do not have the machinery to conduct proper due diligence.

"People are saying you can check to see who these individuals are...This was only a matter of time. You are going to run into trouble..." he said.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves in a media  interview Monday said he had told his regional counterparts that they cannot rely solely on the Citizenship by Investment Program to sustain their economies.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Grenada are among the countries within the OECS offering citizenship by investment.

Dr. Gonsalves said that his decision not to implement a CBI program in St Vincent and the Grenadines was further justified by the news that the United Kingdom and European Union are cracking down on countries that sell their passports.

"Look, those who didn't see it, and who wanted to base an economic strategy on that, like the opposition in St Vincent and the Grenadines, they now get their comeuppance. 

It's how mature judgment is brought to bear when I say this thing is not sustainable. You can't base your economic development on this. You can't finance a budget on these kinds of monies," he declared

Under the CBI, persons can obtain citizenship and a passport from a second country by investing in the economy of that country.

Only recently, St Kitts and Nevis said it has again strengthened the administration of its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, announcing that all main applicants are to partake in a mandatory interview as part of the application process to its investment migration programme.

The twin-island Federation becomes one of the first Caribbean nations to introduce the soon-to-be industry standard. Instituted by regulations published on July 19, 2023, the new policy applies to all applications, including those already received but not yet approved by the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU). The new regulations also provide that dependants may be asked to be interviewed.

This new step in St Kitts and Nevis’ CBI application process confirms that St Kitts and Nevis has now fully implemented the six principles agreed between the United States of America and governments of the five Caribbean nations with Citizenship by Investment Programmes in a roundtable meeting held on February 25, 2023. That meeting was convened to discuss and agree on common ways to deal with threats to international communities in the investment migration ecosystem.