Category: News

President Donald Trump said Friday he would make it easier for top-skilled workers to stay in the United States and become citizens, offering uncharacteristic praise for immigrants´ contributions.

Trump pledged to reform coveted H1-B visas, for which three-quarters of applicants are from India, most of them in the technology sector.

“H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” Trump tweeted.

“We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.”

The real estate mogul ran for president as a hardliner on immigration and has previously vowed to crack down on H1-Bs by encouraging reporting of visa fraud and insisting that businesses first hire Americans.

His promise on H1-Bs came just as Trump is pressing to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out unauthorized immigrants and asylum seekers, most of whom are low-skilled, in a showdown with Congress that has triggered a shutdown of the federal government.

While it was unclear what prompted Trump´s tweet, The Washington Post on Friday ran a front-page article on how tech workers are increasingly moving from the United States to Canada due to the hassle in obtaining H1-B visas.

Silicon Valley and India have both pushed hard for a more generous visa system for skilled foreign employees, saying they are indispensable in powering the tech industry, but critics charge that native-born Americans should have priority for the generally well-paying jobs.

The United States each year grants 85,000 H1-B visas, including 20,000 that are reserved for workers with master´s degrees or higher.

H1-B visas are granted to professional workers sponsored by employers for a period of three years, which can be extended once.

The visa can still be simpler to obtain than seeking to become a permanent resident and eventually citizen of the United States.

Studying official data, the Cato Institute last year estimated the wait for an Indian seeking an EB-2 visa, which provides permanent residency based on advanced academic achievement, had risen to 151 years — at which point, barring a medical miracle, the applicant would be dead.

Source: thenews.com

Further changes to the UAE’s residency law are expected in the coming year, as the UAE cabinet begins the implementation of the 10-year residency visa law for expats, investors and businesspeople, according to the chairman of UAE law firm Baker McKenzie, Dr Habib Al Mulla.

In an opinion piece looking ahead to 2019, submitted to Arabian Business, Dr Habib Al Mulla said residency laws will likely be altered further in order to attract more foreign investors.

“We can only expect more initiatives to improve the UAE’s status on all fronts, particularly when it comes to commercial law. And while the UAE has done much in this regard, I believe there is still room for improvement. So I predict a further relaxation of residency laws through minor alterations in order to make them more appealing, once the new regulations find their way into implementation,” he said.

Al Mulla said he expects similar changes to the 100% foreign ownership laws, as they fail to offer regionally competitive incentives.

“The same would apply to foreign ownership laws. In my view, the current changes, although highly welcomed, remain insufficient in attracting serious and large foreign investments, particularly with the incentives that other countries in the region are offering,” he said.

“Investors will demand, rightly so, further activities to be subject to the foreign ownership exemptions,” he added.

The full ownership of companies based in the UAE is currently limited to free zones, which allow struggle to compete as their bestselling proposition is weakened, according to Al Mulla.

“Naturally, with more exemptions, free zones will feel the pressure and will struggle to compete unless they manage to change their modus operandi, although competition is healthy and can only benefit the economy,” he said.

This year, investors, entrepreneurs and specialists working in fields of medicine, science or research in the UAE will be eligible for a five or 10-year residency visa depending on the size of their investment in the country.

Source:  arabianbusiness.com

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allots 10,000 EB-5 visas every year for eligible foreign investors. Once regarded as “the most popular residency program in the world,” in 2014 and 2015 the USCIS  stopped accepting EB-5 applications after they reached the quota set by Congress. Research shows that approximately 85 percent of those granted EB-5 green cards have been Chinese nationals. However, as of late, there appears to be a stark change in the desirability of the program for Chinese investors. In the third fiscal quarter of 2018, only 617 new EB-5 petitions were filed with USCIS, the lowest quarterly figure for applications in 5 years. The program, which has operated in pilot-mode since 1990 (in need of regular re-authorization) offers green cards to foreign investors who make a minimum investment of $500,000 in targeted employment areas and in the process create at least ten new U.S. jobs. As it stands, for investments outside of targeted employment areas the minimum qualifying investment for EB-5 applicants is $1 million dollars.

Desirable locations for large-scale investments from foreign nationals include the thriving metropolis projects of New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Southern California. Up until 2014, Chinese investors applied at record numbers for the program which served as a way to secure American residency for an entire family. It could offer their children a U.S. education, avoid the dire effects of pollution in China’s mega cities and shore up family assets overseas. It was effective in creating American jobs.  A 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Commerce underlined this fact when it recorded that 11,000 immigrant investors between the years of 2013 and 2015 provided $5.8 billion in capital for 562 projects which produced a combined total of 174,000 American jobs. Part of the requirements is that for foreign investors to be eligible for the EB-5 visa, the U.S. government requires that their investments remain “at risk” in an active project until a visa is granted. In recent years, however, wait times for EB-5 green cards have skyrocketed for Chinese investors. They are now forced to wait more than 10 to 15 years while their capital and immigration status is in limbo. In many cases this backlog has jeopardized the outcomes of permanent residency Chinese investors sought for their children before they turned to age 21 (the USCIS age cap). Previously, the green card wait time for Chinese applicants after submitting appropriate I-526 paperwork was only 2 years.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has condemned the “bullying” tactics adopted by the European Union with regards to the controversial Citizenship by Investment programme (CBI), used by several Caribbean countriesto spur their economic development.

Gonsalves has in the past distanced his island from the CBI, through which foreign investors are given citizenship of a particular Caribbean country in return for making a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the island.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts-Nevis and St Lucia are among Caribbean countries with CBIs and Gonsalves, speaking in Parliament said the European Union’s approach to the region’s initiative is tantamount to “bullying”.

He said: “Mr Speaker, you have heard me say that although I do not support, on the grounds of principle and practicality, the matter of citizenship by investment — selling of passports and citizenship, and I am not making a partisan political point here — I have made the point publicly that the manner in which the European Union is going about addressing countries with that question is also one of bullying.”

He was making his contribution to the debate on the International Business Companies (Amendment and Consolidated) (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in which he accused the European Union of bullying small states into enforcing its tax policy.

“…We can have our argument internally but I am raising the larger question on which we must all be united in this honourable house and in this nation and in the Caribbean,” said the prime minister.

Gonsalves expressed his “controlled anger” at the EU’s action and called for a Caribbean Community (Caricom) response, saying that while member states had acted individually, it was not too late for a regional response.

“I am very calm and controlled but that does not mean that I am not deeply annoyed and offended. In fact, the members of staff here will tell you I had a telephone conversation with the European Union ambassador. It was robust conversation. Well, robustly largely from my end because every issue she raised, it was of no merit practically or in international law or on a question of principle,” he said.

Opposition lawmaker St Clair Leacock said that while St Kitts and Nevis was standing up to the EU on the tax question, the language coming out of Basseterre was less robust.

“Because they have stood up for near 40 years with the Citizenship by Investment Programme,” said Leacock, a member of the main opposition New Democratic Party, which has said it will re-introduce a CBI programme if elected to office.

He said the 40-year duration of Basseterre’s CBI programme is about as long as the banana industry here, adding this goes to demonstrate “that the Citizenship by Investment Programme is sustainable because 40 years is as long as any agricultural monocrop in this country has survived, bananas being our best experience.

“And look at the difference and the quality of life that the people of St. Kitts are experiencing today: extra salaries, bonus salaries. We speak about seven flights here per week in St Vincent; they are speaking about 10 per day in St Kitts, half the size of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

He said that St Kitts and Nevis enjoys these benefit “because they have stood up and fought back on a principle that there was significant financial and economic benefit to be gained from a legally constructed industry: the Citizenship by Investment Programme that we have scoffed at.

“And we can’t have it both ways. We can’t say that here in St Vincent we are taking issue with the OECD and the European Union with the same legislative industry, finance industry and then turn around on the other side and say the one in St. Kitts or throughout the region, the citizenship by investment is not good.

“We can’t probate and reprobate. So we have to get our own act together. In fact, I think it is the closest the Honourable Prime Minister has ever come to agree and accept that even on that programme there is bullying,” he added.

During her contribution, another Opposition legislator, Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, said that the offshore finance sector was not very different from CBI.

“It is a way that small islands have to use to carve out revenue and at the time the offshore business was the way to go and I remember when much money was made from it and it is the same thing they are going to do with the CBI — citizenship by investment. We have to protect our industry and we have to find a way to deal with it.”

Bacchus-Baptiste said that when she says she sees no difference, she meant to say “that on the one hand, I support the international business but I don’t support the CBI, I think it is hypocritical” – an apparently reference to the approach of the prime minister.

“For example, a lot of these persons who had offshore businesses here, like Baron, got Vincentian passports. Say, for instance, even Ames. His was not offshore but I am saying it is hypocritical on one hand to criticise it and then give out passports to non-Vincentians investing and doing business here.”

Adrian Baron, naturalised-Vincentian, in September became the first person to be convicted for failing to comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of the United States. Baron is a former chief business officer and former chief executive officer of Loyal Bank Ltd, an off-shore bank with offices in Budapest, Hungary and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

But Prime Minister Gonsalves said there were “different regimes for granting citizenship”, noting that one of them is to be resident in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for at least seven years and have a connection of some kind.

“It would be business, it could be just living,” said Gonsalves, noting ‘and that is the manner in which, as I recalled it, that Mr Baron obtained his citizenship.

“Not by selling a passport or selling it upfront,” said Gonsalves, who has ministerial responsibilities for the granting of non-automatic citizenship.

“In the case of Mr Ames, under the citizenship act, if you…have invested substantially in the country, you understand the English language and all the rest and so on and so forth and you are here for five years minimum, you can get citizenship that way.

“That’s an entirely different matter than citizenship by investment. I just want to point out the legal difference, apart from other differences,” Gonsalves said.

Source:  jamaicaobserver.com

The mayors of three large Italian cities are refusing to obey a controversial anti-immigration law penned by far-right deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, condemning it as unconstitutional.

Salvini, also interior minister, on Thursday demanded the resignations of the rebellious leaders of Florence, Palermo and Naples, with the last escalating the row by also offering to take in migrants stranded at sea that Italy has turned away.

“This (law) incites criminality, rather than fighting or preventing it,” Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando said.

“It violates human rights. There are thousands, tens of thousands of people who legally reside here in Italy, who pay their taxes, who pay into pensions, and in a couple of weeks or months they will become… illegal,” he claimed.

The tough new anti-migrant law, adopted by parliament on November 28, makes it easier to expel new arrivals and limits residence permits in a country that has become the main gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

It also abolishes humanitarian residence permits granted until now to vulnerable people, families or single women with children.

Salvini, head of the far-right League party, was quick to suggest Orlando “take care of the many problems in his city instead”.

But his rebuke proved counterproductive with other mayors joining in the protest.

– ‘We will not bow’ –

Florence mayor Dario Nardella said his city would “not bow to” a law which “expels asylum-seekers and, without repatriating them, throws them out onto the street”.

Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris vowed that the parts of the law that he said were unconstitutional, “such as those on the right to asylum, will under no circumstances be enforced”.

He then upped the ante by offering to take in 32 migrants who are blocked in limbo at sea after being rescued by an NGO but denied a safe port in Europe.

“I hope the boat approaches the port of Naples, because — contrary to what the government says — we will launch a rescue plan and let them dock. I will oversee the rescue operation myself,” he told a local radio.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, meanwhile, called on member countries to admit dozens of migrants stranded on two rescue ships.

The 32 migrants aboard the Sea Watch 3 and 17 others aboard the Sea Eye, both operated by European charities, are stuck off the coast of Malta as EU nations wrangle over their fate.

– ‘Heart of stone’ –

De Magistris accused Salvini of having “a stone instead of a heart”, while other mayors urged the government to rethink the new law.

Salvini snapped back on Facebook that those who helped illegal migrants “hate Italians and will answer to the Law and History”.

As the row grew, mayors of other cities including Venice, Genoa and Verona signed a letter of support for the interior minister.

“As far as the undersigned mayors are concerned, the security decree contains just and understandable regulations,” it said.

“The management of immigration over the past few years has increased the citizens’ sense of insecurity,” it added.

Migrants have been frequently stranded aboard ships that rescued them since Italy’s populist anti-immigration government began turning them away last summer.

More than one million people, most of them fleeing Syria’s civil war, entered the bloc in 2015 in Europe’s biggest migration crisis since World War II.

Some 113,482 migrants crossed the Mediterranean to reach European shores last year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which said 2,262 people lost their lives or went missing making the perilous journey.

Source:  france24.com

Dominica is rolling out its public housing scheme this year, funded entirely by the country’s successful Citizenship by Investment programme. This is part of the government’s plan to resettle families displaced by Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017.

In a bid to keep its promise to become “the world’s first climate resilient nation”, a new Build Back Better (BBB) code was devised. The Housing Revolution programme was created by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in his dual capacity as the Minister for Housing and Lands. It currently includes nine BBB-compliant projects underway. In December, the first 38 families received their keys in the Bellevue Chopin area, with full occupancy slated for March 2019. Most of the new accommodation will be ready for handover throughout 2019.

Dominica’s government aims to provide modern housing for all citizens affected by adverse weather challenges and make the island future-proof. “27.000 homes have to be done over a period of time. In one year, I understand we have done about 12.000 homes in terms of repairs and so on – that is remarkable! This process will continue,” said Reginald Austrie, Deputy Prime Minister of Dominica during a contract signing ceremony in September.

This is the most extensive scheme funded by Dominica’s citizenship by investment (CBI) programme, following a particularly good performance over the past few years. Reputable investors choose to make a contribution to a government fund or hotelier real estate in Dominica. If accepted, they – and if applicable, their families – are rewarded with Dominica’s valuable citizenship, which they retain for all future generations. The international community, such as FT, CNN and National Geographic, lauded the small island-nation’s efforts in green initiatives, transparency and integrity pertaining to its CBI programme. According to the latest CBI Index report from Professional Wealth Management, Dominica is considered the world’s best citizenship to invest in.

Source: wicnews.com

Portugal’s parliament on Friday extended a residency program for wealthy foreigners to include investors who spend at least 500,000 euros on environmental projects.

A majority of lawmakers approved the extension and rejected a motion by two far-left parties to end the scheme altogether. Such “golden visa” programs have faced criticism in Brussels for exposing the EU countries that operate them to corruption risks.

The ruling Socialists have given no indication that they intend to end the program, which has generated a steady inflow of funds, mainly into real estate, by non-EU investors notably from the Americas, China, Russia and Turkey.

Proposing scrapping it, Left Bloc lawmaker Jose Manuel Pureza called it “just a tool for real estate speculation, corruption and money laundering.”

Lawmakers instead approved the addition of “green visas.”

“Taking into consideration the importance of reinforcing a multicultural and open society …it’s important to create an additional scheme to attract foreign investment of an ecological nature,” said Andre Silva, a lawmaker from the PAN animal-rights and environmental party.

Under the extension, foreigners will qualify for Portuguese residency if they invest at least 500,000 euros ($575,000) in organic agriculture, ecotourism, renewable energy and other environmental projects that contribute to cut carbon emissions.

The existing scheme – which allows visa-free travel through Europe’s Schengen area – offers residency for investments including property, setting up tech companies and creating jobs.

Other EU countries including Spain, Malta, Greece and Cyprus run similar programs.

The European Commission is scheduled to publish a report offering guidance to member states on managing such programs, including background checks for applicants, on Jan. 23.

Source: reuters.com

None of the fact-finding missions which came over to Malta from both the European Commission, the European Parliament, and other institutions that have commented on Malta’s passport selling programme– the Individual Investor Programme (IIP) – never met any members of the scheme’s regulatory office, the regulator for the IIP scheme Carmel De Gabriele wrote in his office’s annual report.

Expressing his “utter dismay”, De Gabriele wrote in his foreword that none of the fact-finding missions which came to Malta “even bothered to request a meeting” with him or with any members of his office.  Furthermore, he said, these same missions didn’t even “seem to have at least carefully studied any of this Office’s past Annual Reports before expressing in one way or another their deep concerns over this Programme.”

The European Commission, through its Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, had demanded that Malta stipulate that people applying for the purchase of citizenship would have resided on the islands for at least a year; “The European Commission must ensure that Malta only gives citizenship to people with a real link to the country and who reside in it for at least a year”, she said last June.

The Organisation for Economic and Social Development (OECD) meanwhile last October named and shamed 22 countries, including Malta, that have either residency or citizenship programmes, for having lax rules that potentially pose high-risk to the integrity of Common Reporting Standard.  This criticism was however brushed off by the Finance Ministry who said that Malta’s listing in the report was as a result of a “misunderstanding”. 

The European Parliament last November published a draft report calling for the “phasing out” of citizenship by investment schemes across the EU.  The vote to possibly implement this 208-article report is expected to take place in February 2019. 

Degabriele’s report also contained various other suggestions, such as that the identity of people receiving citizenship through the IIP scheme should be kept secret save for members of parliament who’d be able to view the list as long as they bind themselves to an oath of secrecy.  The recommendation came following pressure from citizenship-selling agents themselves.  Currently those receiving citizenship through the scheme have their names listed in the Government Gazette along with the names of other naturalised citizens or citizens by marriage.  These names are sorted alphabetically by first name.

“Government should consider researching alternative means that would ensure a better degree of confidentiality whilst ensuring some peace of mind to the programme’s detractors that the potential IIP citizens are being adequately scrutinised,” the regulator said in the report.

De Gabriele also took aim at banks, saying that such institutions must not “continuously put at undue risk the running of this Programme” and that they should be making sure that this process runs in the “smoothest way possible”.

He said that if the “number of over-rigid and very often insensitive and insensible measures that they are required to implement because of their international obligations” that are hindering this aim are not rescinded, then a “totally different legal route” to the collection of all contributions that are legally due to be passed on to the Maltese coffers within a particular time-frame should be found.

He said that the diligence process carried out on successful applicants by local banks is an “unwarranted and uncalled-for ordeal”, especially following the “months-long internationally acclaimed due diligence processes and procedures that are adhered to by the Malta Individual Investor Programme Agency before an applicant is finally accepted to become a citizen of Malta under this Programme”.

Source: independent.com.mt

The Solomon Islands parliament has passed the country’s first dual-citizenship legislation.

The government said it would have wide-ranging benefits for the country.

Earlier this year during a multi-country tour, the prime minister Rick Hou said he had met many Solomon Islanders living overseas who would benefit from the legislation.

The Constitution (Amendment) (Dual Citizenship) Bill 2018 effectively removes prohibition on dual citizenship.

It also sets out the guidelines for eligibility and restrictions on dual citizenship holders, including not being able to stand for parliament.

The bill is aimed at reintegrating people of Solomon Islands birth or ancestry who have lost their citizenship because of marriage, forced labour or naturalisation in another country, the government said.

It will also allow naturalised Solomon Islands citizens to regain or retain the nationality of their birth.

The new law will benefit people especially in the areas of employment and education, the government said.

Source: radionz.co.nz

Last month, scandal hit St Kitts and Nevis as several International Marketing Agents, sub-agents, and developers were found to have been promoting economic citizenship of the Federation for prices far below those required by law. Abuse was found amongst those encouraging applicants to invest in the real estate branch of the Citizenship by Investment Programme, with some agents and developers allegedly going as far as forging Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) approval letters to appropriate the difference between the SGF contribution amount and the purported real estate investment amount.

The real estate thresholds – at US$400,000 for a single application or US$200,000 for a joint application – are inscribed in the regulations that govern St Kitts and Nevis’ Programme, and are set to ensure that the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis benefit from adequate investment in the Federation’s real estate sector.

In reaction to the news, Dwyer Astaphan, a local attorney and former Cabinet minister, decried the matter as an “an affront to public conscience” and a “blatant and brazen breach of the law.” “Most of the money goes to the developer and the agent and we as a country are left with nothing,” he further noted.

Given the magnitude of this breach of trust, and of the law, on the part of agents and developers, one might expect a robust response on the part of the Government and Citizenship by Investment Unit. Yet, to the surprise of many, there has been reticence to chastise the culprits, as exemplified by the largely toothless a notice issued on 10 December by the Unit’s CEO, Mr Les Khan.

The notice, purportedly intended to discourage unsanctioned promotional activity, directs agents to “ensure that there are no advertisements on paper, or social media, that suggest Government-sanctioned discounts and pricing” and not to use imagery of the Federation (or of its passport) other than to promote Government-approved investment options. It then warns that contravention of these directives “could” lead to an immediate suspension of application submissions and to the agent being blacklisted on the Unit’s website. It further states that agents who modify Government-issued letters and provide documentation for one citizenship option instead of another “may” face sanctions. The language of the letter, therefore, is ineffective and largely permissive – the offender “could” or “may” face penalties – but it is possible that he will not.

Charles Wilkin QC, another attorney local to St Kitts and Nevis, proposed a more forceful response: “After due investigation, the government should withdraw the [citizenship by investment] designation and all fiscal incentives granted to any developer who is found to have abused the programme.”

Mark Brown, a former Nevis school teacher, ascribes the recent scandal, and the Government’s failure to take adequate action, to a lack of strong leadership. “Mr Khan became the Head of our Unit after his previous employer, IPSA International, was hired to review and improve the Programme. He had no previous experience managing a Government institution – and certainly not one as important to a country as the Unit is to our own,” he said. “It is unsurprising that he should be unable to face these challenges. Look at the notice he has issued: he tells agents to tackle ‘advertisements’ but not the actual sale of citizenship. Are we to understand that agents are allowed to undersell our citizenship as long as they do it quietly?”

Brown is not, he says, a critic of citizenship by investment in general, or of the real estate arm of citizenship by investment programmes. “All that an economic citizenship programme requires is good governance. In Dominica, over the past three years, the Government has used revenue from the Programme to rebuild homes and infrastructure, and it is now doing so in line with a vision for future sustainability and climate resilience. Skerrit’s Dominica is one that has seen improvement in real estate and in housing for the vulnerable – in ways that St Kitts and Nevis has not.”

This week, Dominica made headlines as families displaced by Tropical Storm Erika were given 38 new homes fully financed by its Citizenship by Investment Programme. The housing project is expected to generate a total of 340 homes in Bellevue Chopin, with most houses being completed by March 2019.

Source: wicnews.com