Gregor Nassief’s Open Response To Lennox Linton

Residence and citizenship by investment programs are now offered by over 80 countries and the global industry is conservatively estimated to be a US$21.4 billion market that’s growing by 23% a year. A report last week from IMI Insider stated that “57,000+ Chinese spent more than US$44 Billion on in the last decade.” When a country enters the CBI market they are not doing so for philanthropic reasons, they are doing it to generate revenue and investment. It’s a highly competitive market with minimum investments ranging from us$100,000 to Euro $2 million. And those of us with romantic ideals (myself included) of requiring our Economic Citizens to come to Dominica in order to obtain Citizenship or to demanding that they pay much higher prices for Citizenship are ignoring competitive forces and losing sight of the fact that the day we move in this direction is the day we decide to exit the industry.  One can argue as to whether one likes or dislikes the concept of “selling passports” as it is commonly termed, but so long as our Government stays in the CBI game – as each successive one has done for the past 26 years – then it is a business in which we must remain competitive.  The current Government’s restructuring of the program in 2014 has led to Dominica becoming a market leader within the Caribbean region and generating to date billions of dollars in economic activity for Dominica.

So why would people be spending us$24b a year on residence and citizenship by investment programs offered by over 80 countries? There are many factors, but the prevailing one is “an insurance policy against future uncertainty”. One of the fastest emerging source markets for second citizenship is South Africa. The currency is in a downward spiral, crime is out of control and the country’s passport is increasingly problematic for travel, so South Africans who can afford it are investing in second Citizenship. Think of Yemen, Egypt, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Think of restrictions on freedom in China or Russia or Saudi Arabia. We all want to be able to travel, with our family, for our children’s education, for business, and in a worst case scenario if our country collapses, we need mobility options.

Now on the selling side of this equation, in China alone there are 27,000 “immigration agents”. Add the other major markets of the Middle East and Africa, Russia, South East Asia and India (these “immigration agents” market and promote Citizenship or Residency options to their clients, not to be confused with licensed “authorized agents” that process Citizenship applications).

In summary, there are 80+ countries offering one type or another of Citizenship or Residency options, of which 5 are in the Caribbean, and there are tens of thousands of agents spread across the globe, and you should begin to get a sense of the legitimacy, size, complexity and competitiveness of this global industry for 2^nd Citizenship and Residency.