Читать книгу Global Residence & Citizenship Handbook - Christian H. Kälin - Страница 50

There are, however, only three countries at the moment that legally offer citizenship-by-investment programs that do not require a specific period of residence in the country. These are Austria, the Commonwealth of Dominica, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Citizenship-by-Investment offers the opportunity to legally acquire a new citizenship quickly and easily, without any disruptions to one’s life.³¹

Apart from these three countries, there are several others which have similar provisions in their laws to allow the granting of citizenship to substantial investors.³² However, there is no established and clear practice in these countries; the processes involved are not transparent, the conditions not clear and the decisions mostly arbitrary.³³ Also, in many countries there are suspicions that an element of corruption may be involved in the citizenship acquisitions. Therefore if the intention is to acquire citizenship based on investment extreme care has to be exercised. In fact, in most cases it is not advisable unless a real, substantial investment is contemplated in the particular target country.

Some countries also have provisions to grant non-citizens passports³⁴ or honorary citizenships³⁵ which are legal but largely useless as no full citizenship status is acquired and thus the documents are often not recognized by other countries. Furthermore, as no citizen status is acquired, there is no protection and the documents can be revoked any time just like residence permits, therefore not giving the kind of security that is desirable when acquiring an alternative citizenship and passport.