Nearly two months after heads of government of Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts signed a historic MOA standardising elements of their individual Citizenship by Investment Programmes (CIPs), in a bid to strengthen the regional industry, the sole outlier to the agreement, St. Lucia, has officially signed the MOA as well.
In April, four of the five Caribbean islands with CIPs agreed to cooperate on issues regarding pricing, regulation, dispute resolution, security screening, capacity building, regulation of agents, transparency standards, and termination, by way of singing a MOA. As per their agreement, joint regulations and standards would take effect after June 30. However, citing a need for additional time to review the feasibility of proceeding with the recommendations, St. Lucia did not immediately sign the agreement.
In a June 3rd statement, Prime Minister Pierre noted that St. Lucia signed the agreement, and in so doing also made recommendations for improving it. One such recommendation, he referenced, was for the countries to create legislation governing the issue of name changes – a recommendation he indicates was agreed upon by the heads of government of the other four countries.
It is Pierre’s hope that the following measures could also strengthen the CIP Programme and will suggest them following consultations with regional governments and partners.
- An annual quota
- A net-worth for applicants
- A requirement for Escrow accounts to be held in Saint Lucia or in the individual islands.
- A requirement that only licensed promoters will be allowed to submit applicants to local authorized agents and these promoters will have to submit a due diligence report on each applicant.
With St. Lucia signing the MOA, investors banking on securing alternative citizenship from the Caribbean at investment levels below $200,000 will have up until June 30 to do so.
To learn how you could invest in Grenada citizenship before the June 30 deadline, please contact My Grenada Solutions today.
