Blog

Source: visaguide.world

Published: 25 January 2024

Dubai has abolished the minimum down payment of Dirhams one million (Rs 2,26,31,327) required for those interested in acquiring residency through the Golden Visa Program, thus making it easier for investors and families to come and settle in this country.

Lifting the Dhs1 million real estate investment requirement will make it easier for a larger number of people to qualify for a golden visa, VisaGuide.World reports.

Up to this point, in order to qualify for Residency by the Investment Scheme of Dubai, applicants were required to acquire a property worth Dh 2 million or more.

However, homebuyers were required to make a minimum down payment of a total of Dh1 million, or 50 percent of the property’s value, to the bank or developer for properties bought on mortgage or installment plans in order to benefit from this kind of visa.

However, Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs has not yet been updated in order to include the recent changes, while the eligibility criteria for acquiring a golden visa remain unchanged. It means that the property value requirement set at a minimum of Dh2 million is still valid.

Regarding the new changes, BSA Ahmad bin Hezeem & Associates was informed on January 22, Mr Abou Harb told the National UAE.

“No circular has been sent out yet, although when we visited the DLD at The Cube, where they handle the golden visa applications, that’s where we were made aware of this change.Jess

At the same time, the CEO of Bnbme Holiday Homes, Vinayak Mahtani, considered the changes as “exciting news from the UAE!”. According to Mahtani, removing the minimum property investment requirement for the Golden Visa brings new possibilities for investors.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced the Golden Visa Program in 2019. Soon after, the program became among the largest of this kind in the Middle East and North Africa region.

In order to attract a larger number of internationals, authorities in Dubai introduced several changes to this scheme last year as well.

In November 2023, authorities in UAE extended the scheme to include Pakistani nurses to recognize their contribution to the healthcare sector.

In April last year, the Dubai Media Office (DMO) announced plans to grant golden visas to mosque imams, preachers, muezzins, muftis, and other researchers who have completed 20 years of service in the country.

Source: nowgrenada.com

Published: 25 January 2024

Richard Duncan, Chairman of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Committee, and Thomas Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Unit, are among representatives from OECS member states with CBI programmes who are participating in a one-week technical meeting with the European Union (EU) in Dominica.

Representatives of the EU Directorate General of Migration and Home Affairs in Brussels are visiting Dominica for the meeting, which began on Monday, 22 January 2024. The Migration and Home Affairs Commission Department is responsible for EU policy on citizenship, migration and home affairs.

“They are conducting technical meetings with teams from 5 Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia) in the framework of the monitoring of the visa waiver agreements between the EU and those countries,” said a spokesperson in the EU office to Barbados. “The team is particularly looking into the impact on the internal security of the European Union and its Member States, stemming from the visa-free access to the EU granted to the beneficiaries of the CBI programmes. The visit to the region is organised as part of the ongoing monitoring of the visa waiver agreements.”

In October 2023, the European Commission called for an overhaul of regulations surrounding CBI programmes in the Caribbean because the holders of the passports are allowed visa-free access to the EU. Key among the commission’s goals are changes that would make it easier for the EU to suspend visa-free travel from countries that sell citizenship to foreigners.

The EU Commission also adopted a proposal for regulations to amend the current visa suspension mechanism. The amendments aim to prevent abuse of the visa waiver programme along with tackling risks posed by persons who purchased their citizenship via a CBI programme.

The EU visa waiver programme allows nationals from 60 countries to visit 27 Schengen Zone countries for up to 90 days for tourism and business. The proposals, which are made in the 6th report under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, include expanding the grounds for suspension, to include non-EU countries that are not fully aligned with the EU’s visa policy and visa-free non-EU countries operating investor citizenship schemes and increasing the duration of the procedure to allow more time for remedial actions.

It also includes strengthening the commission’s monitoring and reporting obligations to any visa-free countries where challenges are identified.

In the report, the EU expressed concerns about the high number of passports sold by Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia.

Since the start of its programme in 2013, Grenada sold over 10,000 passports to people who have gained citizenship through the CBI programme.

Source: schengenvisainfo.com

Published: 25 January 2024

Saint Kitts and Nevis has opened its Public Benefit Option (PBO) investment category to its Citizenship by Investment program (CBI), officially adding it to the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) website, dismissing reports of EU Investigation that the scheme is involved in irregular affairs.

The decision came nearly a year after this option was removed from the Citizenship by Investment Program, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The head of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU), Michael Martin, confirmed that the government fully supports the PBO.

Saint Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment (CBI) was launched in 1984, offering investors and their families the opportunity to acquire citizenship provided they contribute financially and meet the required conditions.

Benefiting from the CBI scheme means that successful applicants can become citizens of St Kitts and Nevis without the need for any prior residence.

However, last year, it was reported that the scheme was under investigation by the EU and US in a total of five Caribbean islands.

In spite of bringing significant contributions to the country’s economy, the scheme is often subject to reports over its involvement in irregular affairs, such as money laundering and corruption.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Terrance Drew, emphasizing the importance of this scheme, said that the program continues to be “an illustrative pathway” for wealthy internationals.

The Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) is a government agency responsible for managing the country’s CBI scheme.

The main objective of the scheme is to process and oversee CBI applications while ensuring that the scheme operates in line with the laws and regulations of the country. At the same time, the CIU thoroughly evaluates each application in order to ensure that applicants meet the needed conditions and also fulfill the required investment obligations.

The CIU is overseen by the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr.Terrance Michael Drew, who also serves as Minister of Finance, National Security, Citizenship and Immigration, Health and Human Resource Management, and Social Security.

Those interested in developing a project that brings significant benefits to the people of St Kitts and Nevis are eligible to apply to the CIU in order to be designed as an approved public beneficiary.

Then, they are eligible to apply for their projects to be designed as Approved Public Benefit Projects qualified for sale under this option.

Through the Public Benefit Option, each main applicant needs to contribute a minimum of US$250,000 in a unit of an Approved Public Benefit Project, paid to the designated benefactor.

Last year, the St Kitts and Nevis CIU announced new changes to the CBI that became effective from July 27, 2023. Among them, the minimum investment donation and real estate doubled to US$ 250,000 and $400,000, respectively.

In addition, the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) was replaced with the Sustainable Island State Contribution Fund (SISC).

Among the changes were also mandatory interviews, meaning that each applicant is required to attend an interview conducted by an independent professional firm commissioned by the CIU or by officials of the Unit.

Source: schengenvisainfo.com

Published: 22 January 2024

The arrangements related to the end of the Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP), widely known as the Irish Golden Visa, following its closure on February 14, 2023, have now been finalised, as confirmed by Ireland’s Department of Justice.

Under the recently proposed arrangements, the following categories of applications will be given priority for processing in the coming months, “either because of the length of time the applications are on hand, or a decision can be issued quickly.”

• Projects that got approval and requested more funding while adding new elements to the project outside of their approved Business Plan
• Project Applications received before the closure of the program
• Projects submitted without a linked investor, including cases where an effort was made to transfer an existing investor application to support a new project.
• Projects sent outside the timeframe allowed after the closure of the Golden Visa Programme (including those projects where there was no previous substantive engagement with the IIP Unit),
• Projects that seem outside the scope of the Golden Visa programme

The Irish Department of Justice says that next, it will examine the categories of applications of approved projects that have requested additional funding based on increased construction costs and approved projects that have stalled, as well as decisions made on these requests, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Through a statement, the Department highlighted that the remaining categories of applications will be examined thereafter IIP approved investment funds and post-closure project applications, which require planning permission, as well as valid project projects which are in the scope of the IIP, and planning is not an issue.

Emphasising that the closure of the scheme didn’t affect already approved applicants and projects under the IIP, the Irish government department noted that these projects will continue to be monitored for delivery and compliance with Golden Visa conditions, stressing that approved applicants will still be required to meet specific conditions for renewal of their immigration permission.

The Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) of Ireland, launched in 2012, was scrapped in February last year after, according to the Minister for Justice Simon Harris, it was under review for “quite a period of time.” The program was involved in several irregular affairs, such as money laundering and corruption.

The IIP scheme, equal to the Golden Visa program, required wealthy foreigners to invest at least €1m (£880,000) for at least three years.

Alternatively, they could give €500,000 (or £440,000) as a donation or €400,000 (or £350,000) as a joint donation to a project bringing public benefits to the arts, culture, education, sports, and health, among others, in Ireland.

The data provided in June last year by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee revealed that from 2012, approved investments under this scheme amounted to €1.293 billion, with a total of 1,788 applications approved. This averages out to nearly €723,154 per investment.

The primary beneficiaries of this scheme are nationals from China, the United States and Vietnam.

Source: gulftoday.ae

Published: 22 January 2024

Germany had the most conservative citizenship laws in the whole of Europe, with migrants even after a long stay not  having much of a chance to become citizens. And it did not allow for holding double citizenship or passports. The centre-left coalition Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, Free Democrats and the Green Party have at last moved in the positive direction, and made the waiting time shorter than it was till now.

The new legislation was opposed by the conservative Christian Democrats, Christian Social Union and the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the lower House, the Bundestag. From the 639 votes, 382 were in favour of the changes and 234 were opposed to it. There were 23 abstentions.

They have reduced it from eight to five years, and in extraordinary cases of exceptionally skilled people, it is further reduced to three years. Until now, Germany only allowed only other European migrants to Germany to hold dual citizenship. It has now been extended to all the countries. This would benefit the Turkish migrants who had moved to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s as guest-workers.

The need for the changes was felt because of economic compulsions. It became clear that Germany was not able to attract skilled migrants from other countries. The population challenges of falling birth rates and the growing segment of the aged has made it necessary for the policymakers to act on the citizenship laws. But the prerequisite is that the migrants have to swear allegiance to Germany’s “free, democratic basic order in Germany”. Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explained the rationale of the new laws. She said, “We have to keep pace in the race for skilled labour. That means we need to make an offer to qualified people from the world over, just as the United States and Canada do. German citizenship is obviously part of that.” To the demand made by AfD that to make German citizenship valued, there has to be a tough stand, the government has said that detention of illegal immigrants and failed asylum-seekers would be extended to facilitate deportation.

The more interesting aspect of the reformed citizenship legislation is that dual citizenship is a recognition that people need not deny or submerge their ethnic, national roots to be part of Germany. Chancellor Scholz said, “We are telling all those who often have lived and worked for decades in Germany, who keep to our laws: You belong in Germany.”

Germany has been one of the conservative countries in refusing to recognise the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic nature of late 20th centuries societies driven by globalisation. Germany had remained a Germans only country. It was difficult for Germany to accept that by offering citizenship to people from different parts of the world, and respecting their cultural and religious identity, Germany can still retain its national ethos in a constitutional framework. It has been a difficult decision to make but economic compulsions have driven to loosen its rules of national identity.

The migrants, of course, have to blend with German society and learn the German language. And the unwritten rules of integrating into a German society remain. But the migrants can do so without denying their ethnic roots. The transition would not be a smooth one even after the legislation becomes law after the upper House of German parliament passes it and the President gives the formal assent. Both sides – the immigrants as well as the Germans – will have to make an effort to reach out to each other. This can only be based on mutual respect.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Published: 22 January 2024

A bill on multiple citizenship will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Jan. 22 video address to the nation on the country’s Unity Day.

“The document will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants from all over the world to have our citizenship. Except, of course, the citizens of the aggressor country,” he said.

He added that it will include “all those who were forced to leave their homeland during various waves of emigration and ended up in Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and Latin America. All those who help us even though they are hundreds and thousands of miles away from their homeland.”

“Foreign volunteers who came to the defense of Ukraine, all those who fight for the freedom of Ukraine as their homeland. And Ukraine will be like that for them. For everyone who feels that to be in Ukraine is to be at home. Not as a tourist, but as a citizen. Great, unified Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian Constitution currently allows only singular citizenship.

Zelenskyy announced on Dec. 1, 2021 that he would introduce legislation that allows for Ukrainian nationals to hold citizenship of foreign countries.

On Sept. 22, Zelenskyy pledged to the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States that he would follow through with the concept of dual citizenship.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that multiple citizenship should become a key part of Ukraine’s policy geared towards the growth and preservation of the global Ukrainian diaspora, news agency Ukrinform reported on Oct. 23.

Source: news.com.au

Published: 22 January 2024

A visa scheme designed to lure wealthy foreigners into Australia has been scrapped by the government.

A major visa program targeted to attract wealthy investors to Australia has been quietly scrapped.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told NCA NewsWire on Monday why she made the decision to pull the trigger on the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP), a scheme introduced in 2012 in a bid to attract high-net individuals into the country.

The program’s significant investor stream also known as the “golden ticket” visa allows foreign nationals to stay in Australia for up to five years if they invest at least $5m in approved investments

It has been long critiqued as a way of fast-tracking Chinese millionaires into Australia, with the cohort making up over 85 per cent of successful applications.

The visa subclass was given the number 888 – which signifies ­triple good luck in Chinese ­numerology.

Ms O’Neil said the recent changes were a part of an overhaul of Australia’s “broken” migration system.

“It has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy needs from a migration system,” Ms O’Neil said.

“The investor visa is one of many aspects of the system which are reforming to create a system which delivers for our country.”

The BIIP program was first launched in 2012 by then-Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen and was initially split into two categories, the Business Innovation Stream and investor streams.

The investor and significant Investor streams were made available to people who invested $2.5 million or $5 million in Australian investments.

More than 100,000 overseas migrants have used one of the BIIP streams to gain residency in Australia since 2012, according to the Home Affairs department.

Recent migration trend data shows that people from China accounted for over fifty per cent of all BIIP visa places in 2022-23, followed by Iran and Hong Kong.

The Australian first revealed on Monday that applications for the entire BIIP program had closed in lieu of an official announcement from the federal government.

Ms O’Neil’s comments came after Opposition Immigration spokesman Dan Tehan demanded that she and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles issue a detailed explanation as to why the program was abolished.

“It just seems that everything they’re doing in immigration at the moment is a mess,” Mr Tehan said.

“So we’d like to hear from the Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles or Clare O’Neil today. Have they scrapped it? If so, what are the reasons and what are the serious integrity issues?”

A Grattan Institute report released in 2022 said visa holders coming through the program brought fewer benefits than skilled migrants because they are “older, speak little English, and earn lower incomes.”

“Abolishing the BIIP would boost the lifetime fiscal dividend from each year’s migrant cohort by at least $3.7 billion,” the report said.

A government review on the program published in March last year estimated the lifetime economic contribution of BIIP holders at $600,000, less than half the $1.6m of Australians.

Labor revealed its plans to rehaul Australia’s migration system in December last year which seeks to tighten visa processes for migrant workers and international students.

Under the strategy, a new “skills in demand” visa will be rolled out in late 2024 to draw in highly skilled migrants into industries facing critical worker shortages.

The visa will permit holders to change employers and still retain residency in the country.

Australia’s net migration levels are believed to have peaked last year at 510,000, and are expected to lower to 375,000 in 2024, and 250,000 in 2025.

Source: dominicanewsonline.com

Published: 21 January 2024

Dominica has suspended the processing of all new applications for Dominican passports for nationals of Yemen. The suspension took effect on January 19, 2024, as a memo from Marie Therese-Johnson, Director of Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment Unit, dated January 15 shows.

“This measure is geared at safeguarding the global community and the integrity of Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment Program,”  the memo, which was addressed to all authorized agents of Dominica’s passports, reads.

It continued, “All Authorized Agents are requested to disseminate the information outlined above to all relevant parties including clients, licensed promoters, and sub-agents to ensure all promotional materials [are] updated accordingly.”

Agents were urged to contact the Citizenship by Investment Unit for any inquires about the matter.

Yemen, which is located in the Middle East, has been in the grip of a civil war that began in 2014 when Houthi rebels, who are largely Shiite Muslims and who have a history of rising against the Sunni Muslim government, took control of the country’s capital Sanaa. Backed by Iran they began demanding lower fuel prices and a new government.

A series of negotiations followed but they all failed and the Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace in January 2015, leading President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to resign. Following these events, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of air strikes and economic isolation against them to restore full power to the Yemeni government. Thousand of civilians have been killed.

Since 2023, fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition has largely subsided but the rebels control a large swathe of the country, including the capital.

Yemen was thrust into the news again when the Houthis began attacking ships passing through the Red Sea saying that it was their response to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In response, the Joe Biden administration in the United States last Wednesday re-designated the Houthis a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist group” (SDGT). The Houthis were first named a terrorist organization by the Donal Trump administration but it was lifted by Biden shortly after taking office arguing it would hinder humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people.

In the re-designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated that their attacks against maritime vessels, and also US ships, “fit the textbook definition of terrorism.”

“They have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardised global trade, and threatened freedom of navigation,” he said.

It is a serious crime to provide support or do business with a group that has been blacklisted as a SDGT.

Source: fragomen.com

Published: 10 January 2024

Fragomen and UK Managing Partner Nadine Goldfoot are shortlisted in two categories of the 2024 Women & Diversity in Law Awards.

The firm (and its UK Green Team) is shortlisted in the “Environmental Sustainability Initiative of the Year” category, which recognizes an initiative that has successfully promoted diversity, equity and inclusion related to environmental sustainability. 

Nadine Goldfoot is shortlisted in the “Law Firm Leader of the Year – Large Practice” category, which recognizes an exceptional leader who sets and delivers on strategic goals while also ensuring the business operates ethically and with integrity, guided by purpose and values.

These awards showcase fantastic women leaders, initiatives and teams that are moving the needle across all strands of diversity and inclusion, which include disability, LGBT+, mental health and wellbeing, race equality and social mobility.