Cyprus decided to revoke 26 citizenships granted to investors after the government came under intense pressure following allegations that members of Cambodia’s political elite and a fugitive Malaysian financier received Cypriot EU passports. These cases led to increased criticism of Cyprus’ Citizenship for Investment which was already under scrutiny from Brussels. Those to be stripped […]
Greece’s economy is receiving a boost from Chinese investors taking advantage of the country’s so-called Golden Visa scheme to live in Europe. Chinese investor Jiang Rungong, who moved to Greece three years ago from Shanghai, said he and his family could not be happier in their new home on the Athens coast. “We chose Greece […]
In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, Australia’s Significant Investor Visa (SIV), a substream of the country’s broader Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) saw its fortunes reverse for the first time since July 2015, when investment requirements were re-channeled toward private equity and venture capital and away from real estate, sending application volumes plummeting. Performance picked up markedly […]
The Investment Migration Council (IMC) expresses chagrin at being excluded from consultations on a report it says was “hijacked by ill-informed, unaccountable third party organizations.” In an opinion adopted yesterday, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) “echoes the European Parliament’s call in a recent report to phase out all investor schemes, and urges the Member States […]
Vanuatu’s two Citizenship by Investment Programmes, the Vanuatu Development Support Programme (VDSP) and the Vanuatu Contribution Programme (VCP), have become significant sources of revenue for the Pacific island-state. In 2018, the Programmes contributed around US$90 million to the Government’s reserves, and in June 2019, the Government had already collected approximately US$45 million from its economic […]
Cyprus will soon begin repaying a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), helping further reduce public debt, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Tuesday. “Having repaid what remained of the loan from Russia, we are planning, and have set in motion the formal process for the early and full repayment of the IMF loan,” […]
The government will soon be applying enhanced due diligence checks on foreign nationals who from now on apply for Cypriot passports via the citizenship-by-investment scheme, while at the same time it will comb through past naturalisations to ensure they comply with up-to-date eligibility requirements. Interior Minister Constandinos Petrides said on Tuesday that, following a tender, […]
Cyprus is checking whether foreign investors who were granted a so-called “golden passport” met the programme’s eligibility criteria, a Cypriot government official said Thursday. Government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said investors could lose their Cypriot passport if the investigation uncovers new information that renders them ineligible. Cypriot passports have drawn wide interest, especially from wealthy individuals, […]
Applicants waiting to receive Irish citizenship from the Department of Justice fear they could now be waiting years before their applications are approved following a High Court ruling in July. In July, Mr Justice Max Barrett ruled in the Jones case that foreign nationals applying to become Irish citizens on the basis of their residence “must show […]
Data protection commissioner Irini Loizidou Nicolaidou said on Monday she is opposed to a blanket publication of the names of foreign nationals applying for naturalisation via the citizenship-by-investment programme, arguing that it would be a disproportionate measure when juxtaposed against the need for transparency. She was speaking in parliament, where lawmakers were discussing a bill […]
