Читать книгу Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook - Christian H. Kälin - Страница 53

There are currently only seven countries which offer citizenship programs that provide a direct route to citizenship based on investment and which have passed Henley & Partners’ country due diligence.³⁷ These are Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Cyprus, Dominica, Grenada, Malta and St. Kitts and Nevis. Of these, Antigua and Barbuda enacted the relevant legislation in early 2013 and is now operating a program that is very similar to that of St. Kitts and Nevis. In 2014, Malta introduced a state-of-the-art program, which is the only such program that has the approval of the EU Commission. It held a public tender process for a public services concession to establish a citizenship-by-investment program, which is called the Malta International Investor Program. It is the most attractive citizenship-by-investment program in the world today, featuring the highest standards of due diligence, an efficient application process, and a reasonable contribution requirement. Cyprus has an opaque, and unclear, as well as very expensive, program that is still evolving; while Dominica, having a long-standing but poorly regulated program, and Grenada, which also recently enacted legislation to re-establish its badly run program that had closed in 2001, both have a bad reputation and are therefore of limited interest. Thus, Malta, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda are the three most relevant citizenship-by-investment options today. Citizenship-by-investment offers the opportunity to legally acquire a new citizenship quickly and easily, without any disruptions to one’s life.³⁸

Apart from these seven countries, there are several others which have similar provisions in their laws to allow the granting of citizenship to substantial investors.³⁹ However, there is no established and clear practice in these countries; or the structures and processes involved are not transparent; or the conditions not clear and the decisions mostly arbitrary.⁴⁰ 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 passports⁴¹ or honorary citizenships⁴² 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 at any time just like residence permits, therefore not giving the kind of security that is desirable when acquiring an alternative citizenship.