Читать книгу Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook - Christian H. Kälin - Страница 54

With regard to the acquisition of alternative citizenship, it is important to always obtain proper advice from reputable legal advisors, and to check the citizenship laws and procedures of the relevant country. This is particularly important if citizenship is sought on the basis of an investment or other direct contribution to a country. Unfortunately there are many illegal activities and it is safe to assume that many offers are fraudulent. What makes matters worse is that sometimes even seemingly reputable professionals have been found to be involved in what turned out to be fraudulent offers. For example, between November 2010 and May 2011 a Canadian immigration lawyer and a private client lawyer based in Switzerland simultaneously offered citizenship in Iceland for a USD 400,000 investment in some private equity fund. Iceland’s citizenship law requires the passing of a parliamentary bill in order to grant citizenship to a foreigner outside the normal naturalization procedures. A simple check of the Citizenship Act would have revealed this, yet the “marketing” activities of these lawyers made it necessary for the Icelandic Government to publish an unequivocal statement. The government statement underlined that Iceland has never had in the past and has no intention to establish any kind of citizenship-by-investment program.⁴² Bulgaria has an investor immigration program that leads to permanent resident status if certain investments are made and conditions are met, which later on can lead to citizenship. However, Bulgaria does not have a citizenship-by-investment program as such (although provisions in its law would allow it, and are sometimes used to give citizenship to business people under unclear circumstances). Despite this, some agents mislead interested investors to make them believe that Bulgaria does in fact offer a formal citizenship-by-investment program.

Likewise, there are many companies now which provide services under legal programs (like St. Kitts and Nevis) but where either the company or persons involved have a questionable reputation or are linked to government officials, or real estate developments are being promoted which do not pass closer scrutiny.