St Kitts Targets Families With Citizenship-by-Investment Program Changes
The St Kitts and Nevis government has approved several changes to the country’s citizenship-by-investment program, aimed to draw more applications from families.
The changes include a number of alterations to ages of dependents and a lowering of investment thresholds for larger families.
Under the changes, the age limited for parents and grandparents of the main applicant has been reduced from 65 to 55.
Elsewhere, the age limit for financially dependent offspring has been raised from 25 to 30.
The government also clarified that children under 16 born after the main applicant received citizenship will no longer be processed by the country’s Citizenship-by-Investment Unit. Instead, these children can be added with a direct application to the Ministry of National Security.
Further alterations were made to the investment thresholds under the Sugar Industry Diversity Foundation stream.
Previously different thresholds existed for a single applicant, an applicant plus three family members, an applicant plus five family members and an applicant plus seven family members.
Under new rules, the five and seven family member categories will be eliminated, and any further dependents above three will required an investment of US$25,000.
New Thresholds
| Single applicant | US$250,000 |
| Single applicant plus three family members | US$300,000 |
| Each additional dependent | US25,000 |
Old Thresholds
| Single Applicant | US$ 250,000 |
| Applicant and up to 3 family members | US$ 300,000 |
| Applicant up to 5 family members | US$ 350,000 |
| Applicant with up to 7 family members | US$ 450,000 |
| Per person fee for unmarried dependent children between 18-25 years | US$ 50,000 |
The approval was announced by Les Khan, CEO of the Citizenship by Investment Unit.
“We know that many of our applicants want to bring parents in order to offer them a better quality of life in their advancing years and in a country that is both beautiful and with a favourable climate,” he said.
“We recognise that citizenship is more than a passport. It’s a lifestyle choice for the whole family and we want to ensure that applicants with larger families are catered for.”
Prime Minister Tim Harris added that further changes could be expected throughout 2017.
Experts have told St Kitts it may need to look at how it structures its VAT policy in order to get more of the program’s applicants actually living in the country.
At the moment, St Kitts relies on its high end property investment opportunities to keep the world’s ultra high net worth individuals interested in its program.
But if more of those individuals chose to live in the country, the benefits in terms of tax dollar could be substantial.
Benefits of St Kitts and Nevis CIP
- Visa free travel to Schengen Area
- Visa free travel to Switzerland, UK and Ireland
- No minimum residence requirements
- Simple Procedure with minimal government formalities
- Option to include family members in the application form
- No income or wealth tax
- Option to reside in any of 15 Caribbean countries
- Lifetime citizenship
Each of the Caribbean countries that have CIPs has their own unique selling points.
Antigua & Barbuda can boast visa-free travel to Canada, for example, while Grenada offers the same privilege to those wishing to visit China.
St Kitts citizens lost their right to Canadian visa-free travel over fears reliable background checks were not being conducted for CIP candidates.
Harris has since overhauled the program, and is hoping to convince Canada to reinstate the visa-free travel right.
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