The Caribbean island nation, St Lucia launched its citizenship by investment program five years ago, and it became fast a "well-run and internationally respected global citizenship programme."
According to Ryan Devaux, the chairman of the Citizenship by Investment Board, the investors paid EC$61,914,622.40 to the government during the 2018-19 period. In the last two years, the Lucian government accepted 210 applications and granted 288 citizenships. Since the launch of the program, Chinese nationals are the most interested, followed by Russian and Syrian applicants.
Other successful candidates arrived from Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, South Korea, USA, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia, Taiwan, France, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Lybia, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Bangladesh, Philippines, United Kingdom, Spain, Algeria, Jamaica, Italy, Zimbwave, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Rwanda, Sudan, Greece, Israel, Laos, Nepal, Thailand and Tunisia.
In Saint Lucia, the process of obtaining citizenship through investment is transparent for the public, according to the St Lucia Star. All reports and the names of the 625 new Caribbean citizens are available at the Parliament Library (Castries).
Discus Holdings Ltd is a successful agent of the St Lucia Citizenship by Investment program since 2015. The youngest Caribbean passport scheme offers several travel and tax advantages for foreign investors. The Lucian passport allows its holders to enter 121 countries visa-free including the European Schengen zone, the UK and Ireland. It's good to know that the citizens of Saint Lucia can quickly obtain the long term visas for the USA. There are no residency requirements, or taxes on wealth, private earnings or inheritance. Moreover, only five months is enough to receive passports.
How much is the investment for the citizenship in Saint Lucia?
There are two options; investors may contribute (minimum 100,000 USD) or purchase real estate (minimum 300,000 USD) in exchange for the citizenship of Saint Lucia.
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