The information below will be of use to those who have large families and want to obtain Caribbean citizenship by investment on legal grounds. We will tell you about the new offer from the economic citizenship program operators working in Antigua and Barbuda. The offer has been in effect since August 2017.
Cleverly using a non-trivial instrument of the investment citizenship programs, some countries offer foreign nationals a unique opportunity to obtain new passports almost instantaneously, earning decent money for it. The demand for such programs was expected to reach a historic high in 2017 amid an increasing number of people looking for new opportunities and improved security via an extra citizenship.
Antigua and Barbuda is one of the few countries offering wealthy people investment citizenship. Holding a passport of this country, you will not have to pay income tax and other taxes. You will also get the right to travel to different parts of the world without visas, find an alternative place to settle, and even increase your chances of meeting a celebrity dramatically.
And now investors from various countries of the world have an extra reason to pay close attention to the Antigua citizenship by investment program. At a meeting of the local Cabinet, its members approved a number of important retrospective changes to the program terms aimed at making it more affordable.
The changes took effect as of August 1, 2017. You can find them below. All applications submitted for consideration to the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) after the specified date will be considered as applications the processing of which has not yet been completed. At the same time, the Antiguan Cabinet was going to review the new developments within the following six months.
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Citizenship by Investment of Antigua and Barbuda Became More Affordable to Large Families. Processing Fees Reduced
For investors, the most relevant new developments relate to changes in the processing fees that went down. These fees are levied both in the case of non-repayable investment (National Development Fund; NDF) and when making a repayable investment (real estate or business). The new fees look like this:
· In the case of an NDF donation, the processing fee has been reduced to USD 25,000 for a family of four (4) with additional payments of USD 15,000 per each additional financial dependent of the main investor, in the case of a collective application including five (5) people or more.
· In the case of a real estate or business investment, the processing fee has been reduced to USD 50,000 for a family of four (4) with additional payments of USD 15,000 per each additional financial dependent of the main investor, in the case of a collective application including five (5) people or more.
For reference: previously (before August 2017), if you were choosing an NDF donation, the minimum amount of which was USD 200,000, you also had to pay a processing fee in the amount calculated on the basis of information that you will find in the following table.
| For a single applicant or a family of four and fewer* | For a family of 5 or more** | |
| Minimum donation size | USD 200,000 | USD 250,000 |
| Main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| Marriage partner of the main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| A child between the ages of 0 to 17, financially dependent on the main investor | USD 25,000 | USD 25,000 |
| A child between the ages of 18 to 25, financially dependent on the main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| Dependent parent aged 65 and over | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
*Up to two dependents are exempt from processing fees
**Up to three dependents are exempt from processing fees
When choosing a real estate or business investment previously (before August 2017), you had to pay the processing fee in the amount listed in the following table.
| Real Estate Investment | Business investment | |
| Minimum investment | USD 400,000 | USD 400,000 if you chose a collective investment option, or USD 1,500,000 in the case of individual investment |
| Main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| Marriage partner of the main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| A child between the ages of 0 to 17, financially dependent on the main investor | USD 25,000 | USD 25,000 |
| A child between the ages of 18 to 25, financially dependent on the main investor | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
| Dependent parent aged 65 and over | USD 50,000 | USD 50,000 |
Citizenship by Investment of Antigua and Barbuda Became More Affordable. Encouragements for Investors Whose Homeland are the Black List Countries
In addition, the Antiguan authorities have made life a lot easier for those investors who are citizens of blacklisted countries whose subjects, in turn, are banned from participating in the local Citizenship by Investment Program.
This blacklist was shaped in 2014. It originally included Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen and Iran. But in early 2017, Iraq was removed from the list.
A little later, the Antiguan authorities announced the addition of Sudanese to the black list of their economic citizenship program, after which the list again covered six jurisdictions.
Now, however, the Government of the Caribbean country has made the following amendments to partially open access to its program to citizens of the blacklisted countries if they meet the following criteria:
· Access to the program will be granted to those born in the blacklisted countries if they immigrated to Canada, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates before they reached adulthood.
· Access to the program will also be granted to those born in the blacklisted countries if they had been permanent residents of Canada, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for no less than ten years.
· In both cases, such persons should not have any economic ties with any country or countries on the black list of the Antigua economic citizenship program.
Citizenship by Investment of Antigua and Barbuda Became More Affordable. Alternatives
If we compare the Antigua program with any other similar program, the closest possible alternative could be the program of St. Kitts and Nevis that is considered the oldest of the existing ones. In fact, the terms of participation in the Antigua program, as stipulated in the legislation of this country, are almost copy-pasted from the legislation of St. Kitts.
Both countries offer and had been offering their investors previously the same or similar benefits such as the absence of income tax and visa-free travel to Canada, respectively. Even the minimum investment size is more or less the same. For example, in both cases a USD 400,000 investment in the real estate is available, with the possibility of resale in 5 years. At the same time, the amounts of non-repayable donations to the National Funds vary. In St. Kitts it is at least USD 250,000, and in Antigua it is USD 100,000.
And now, given the new amounts of the state processing fees, the Antiguan option becomes even more attractive from the financial standpoint. After all, the St. Kitts take on these fees is as follows:
| National Fund donation | Real estate investment | |
| One main applicant | USD 250,000 (processing fee included in the donation) | USD 50,047 (in addition to a USD 400,000 real estate investment) |
| Main applicant with three dependents (e.g. spouse and two children) | USD 300,000 | — |
| Additional dependents, regardless of age | USD 25,000 | — |
| Main applicant’s spouse: | — | USD 25,047 |
| Dependent child of the main applicant, under the age of 18: | — | USD 25,047 |
| Dependent child of the main applicant over the age of 18, or dependent parent aged 55 and over: | — | USD 50,047 |
But Antigua a minor disadvantage. And the disadvantage of the local program includes the obligation for compulsory stay in Antigua and Barbuda. The stay period was changed in the end of 2014 and now stands at 5 days within 5 years after obtaining citizenship. The need for a visit could be a disadvantage for busy people. Although having visited the beaches of Antigua, investors are more likely to call it a benefit.
Citizenship by Investment of Antigua and Barbuda Became More Affordable. Why Right Now?
It is clear that these new developments have probably been prepared long in advance. But one of the main prerequisites for their implementation, apparently, was a relatively recent event of a negative sense.
Here we speak about the Canadian authorities that imposed sanctions on Antigua in summer of 2017. These sanctions have significantly reduced the attractiveness of the Antigua program for granting second passports by investment to the foreign nationals.
Yet another important factor is the simplification of tax residency in three other Caribbean countries with economic citizenship programs. Corresponding new developments were announced in Dominica, St. Kitts and St. Lucia in 2017. It is obvious that such new developments can significantly increase the attractiveness of second passports by investment granted by the respective countries.
It should be noted that the Antigua authorities have long taken a tack to improving the image of their program which will also be facilitated by the above new developments. For example, we can recall the recent deanonymization of the country’s diplomatic passport holders that was carried out in order to demonstrate the foreign partners the local economic citizenship program reliability.
Citizenship by Investment of Antigua and Barbuda Became More Affordable. Should You Do It in 2020?
The news that the citizenship by investment of Antigua and Barbuda has become more affordable should not necessarily be taken as a guide for action and immediate application. It is better not to make your decision based on the entry threshold only in terms of the total amount of investments in the Caribbean passports when choosing between a donation to the National Development Fund and an investment in real estate/business.
It would be much smarter to get advice from a specialist who can help you find the best economic citizenship option with regard to your investor needs, possibilities and requests, based on their profound knowledge and experience in this area.
At that, when choosing a consultant for that matter, you should pay attention to their company’s reputation and abilities in the first place. That is, if you want to find the best option in the Caribbean.
Experienced specialists of the company will help you choose the best second citizenship by investment taking into account a huge number of points, from the price, benefits and conditions to the CIU practice, streamlined procedures and even possible criticism of an economic citizenship program by the local opposition that has a negative impact on the program’s image.
Do not hesitate to contact us and we will introduce you to the most experienced consultants in the field of citizenship by investment. Please email us to info@offshore-pro.info right now.
