The Citizenship Investment Programme of St Kitts and Nevis has been in place since 1984. This is the first programme of its kind in the Caribbean. Over the years, the government has repeatedly improved its conditions and procedures. The next stage of changes is planned for 2021.
The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Timothy Harris, announced the government’s plans in his speech on 20 October 2020. He noted that changes will take into account modernechnologies and innovations. Which ones - it is not specified yet.
In an interview with Forbes in June 2020, Programme Manager Les Khan spoke to Immigrant Invest about the areas in which innovations are to be expected.
Reinforcement of security checks, or Due Diligence. Biometric data scanning, namely fingerprints, can be added to the process. In this case, the investor will need to submit the biometrics before applying. The measure will ensure that the applicant’s documents are genuine.
Reconsideration of the terms of the programme options. The government can increase control over real estate investments. According to the department, today it is the most popular option among the programme participants. It assumes a contribution to a liquid asset, and the investment can be fully returned - to sell the share or object in 5‑7 years. The minimum transaction amount is $200,000.
Changing the requirements for the non-refundable contribution option is another variant of possible programme updates. The Government of St Kitts and Nevis wants to balance and increase investment inflows. To this end, the department is also working to simplify and speed up the payment process.
We talked about all possible changes to the programme in "Citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis for Investment: Programme Transformation Scheduled for 2021".
The income from the citizenship programme goes to social projects for residents of St Kitts and Nevis. For example, approximately 3000 people have completed a vocational retraining programme funded by foreign investment. Low-income citizens have received EC$ 23 million or approximately EC$ 8.5 million. The payments will be increased by almost a third by the end of 2020.