Grenada citizenship for an Italian entrepreneur to travel to China without visas

Federico is a businessman from Italy with his company registered in Singapore. He distributes medical equipment to the European Union from Asian countries.

The entrepreneur often held meetings with business partners from China and Hong Kong. The problem was that he had difficulties obtaining Chinese visas. Due to the international geopolitical situation and the effective communist system, the Chinese authorities were reluctant to let EU citizens into the country and rarely issued them long-term visas.

Those visa issues led to appointments not being kept, a breakdown of business agreements, and financial losses. It also negatively reflected on the reputation of Federico’s company.

Federico set himself a goal to gain visa-free access to China. The businessman knew getting a second passport could help him, so he contacted Immigrant Invest for consultation.

Of all the countries with citizenship by investment programs, only Grenada has an agreement on visa-free travel to China and thus was suitable for Federico.

Grenada citizenship by investment: the program’s terms

Immigrant Invest is a licensed agent of the Grenada CBI Program, so we were able to assist Federico in obtaining a Grenada passport.

The Grenada program offers two investment options: making a non-refundable contribution to the state fund and purchasing government-approved real estate.

Contributing to the National Transformation Fund of Grenada requires $150,000 of investment. The property purchase requires $220,000 of investment and $50,000 of the state fee.

Federico did not want to spend more than $200,000 as he planned to pay from his savings and not take any capital out of business. Therefore, he opted to invest in the fund.

Federico held Italian citizenship and a Singaporean residence permit. Federico lived and operated his business in two countries at the same time and was extremely busy and constantly on business trips. We cooperated with Federico entirely remotely.

Vladlena Baranova,

Head of Legal & AML Compliance Department, CAMS, IMCM

As a licensed agent of the Grenada CBI Program, it was our duty to file Federico’s application and all the required documents on his behalf because applicants are not allowed to act on their own under the conditions of the program. This means we needed to collect all the necessary records from Italy and Singapore and mail them to Grenada.

One of the peculiarities was that the Grenada CBI Unit required Federico to have his identification documents apostilled by the authorities of the country they were issued.

His residence permit card must be apostilled by the Singaporean authorities, and his birth certificate, passport and ID card — by the Italian authorities. An apostille can be put in the country itself or its consulate abroad.

At the stage of collecting documents, Federico was working in Singapore. He had no time on the trip to Italy, and Singapore had no Italian consulate. So, we asked him to prepare part of the documents in Singapore and send them to us, after which our lawyer would contact the Italian authorities by proxy and finish the preparation.

How Federico’s identification documents were prepared:

1. The lawyer helped Federico find a good notary company in Singapore that would do everything at once and certify in a proper way.

2. Federico went to a notary and received notarized copies of his Italian passport, ID card and residence permit card.

3. He then had the copy of the residence permit card apostilled.

4. Federico sent those copies to our office, adding his original birth certificate.

5. Under a power of attorney, the Immigrant Invest lawyer went to Italy and had the birth certificate and copies of the passport and ID card apostilled.

6. The lawyer had those documents translated into English, and the translations were then certified.

Another peculiarity was that Federico needed to obtain a certificate of no criminal records from both Italy and Singapore. These certificates are required from all the countries where the applicant’s continuous stay was more than one year over the past ten years.

Despite Federico being in Singapore at that moment, acquiring the certificate was not easy.

Vladlena Baranova,

Head of Legal & AML Compliance Department, CAMS, IMCM

In Singapore, a police clearance certificate is issued only when there is a clear justification for why you need it and where you will submit it. Thus, to get the certificate, we arranged for an official request from the Grenada government addressed to the relevant authorities in Singapore explaining the purpose for which the certificate would be used.

In spite of the significant difference in time zones, the lawyer assigned to Federico always remained in touch and helped to resolve all the questions quickly. As a result, we managed to collect all the necessary documents in a month without exceeding the average time of this stage.

The package of Federico’s documents consisted of the following:

1. Government forms, filled in by the lawyers.

2. Birth certificate.

3. Italian ID-card.

4. Italian passport.

5. Singaporean residence permit.

6. Diplomas.

7. Certificates of no criminal record from Italy and Singapore.

8. Bank reference letter and bank statements from his personal accounts for the last 12 months.

9. Verification of Income form and income supporting documents.

10. Certificate of good health.

11. Passport-sized photos.

12. Address confirmation.

The investor has reached his main goal: now he can enter China without a visa. He is allowed to stay in China for up to 30 days upon entry.

Federico can now also open accounts in Grenada banks and register businesses in the country. He will consider this opportunity as a way for tax optimisation.

As a Grenada citizen, Federico has not acquired many obligations: he does not have to reside in Grenada or even visit the country.

Immigrant Invest is a licensed agent for government programs in the European Union and the Caribbean.