{"id":53557,"date":"2017-09-03T01:22:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T01:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/?p=9531"},"modified":"2019-02-12T14:00:13","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T19:00:13","slug":"st-kitts-nevis-announces-residency-program-plan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-kitts-nevis-announces-residency-program-plan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"St Kitts &amp; Nevis Announces Residency Program Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>iSt Kitts &amp; Nevis has announced plans to add a residency program to its list of investment immigration options.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7165\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/imf-highlightsl-st-kitts-nevis-investment-program\/investment-program\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1000,461\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"investment-program\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;The International Monetary Fund has congratulated St Kitts &#038; Nevis for the dramatic improvements the country has made to its citizenship-by-investment program, once suspected of being a haven for financial criminals&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-300x138.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7165\" title=\"St Kitts &amp; Nevis Announces Residency Program Plan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-300x138.jpg\" alt=\"St Kitts &amp; Nevis Announces Residency Program Plan\" width=\"434\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-768x354.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-272x125.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program-995x461.jpg 995w, https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/investment-program.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px\" \/>The Caribbean country has previously only offered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/saint-kitts-nevis-investor-residence-program\/\">a citizenship-by-investment program<\/a>, but now Les Khan, CEO of the St Kitts Citizenship by Investment Unit, feels there is sufficient demand to expand into residency.<br \/>\nKhan says enough people would want to live and work in St Kitts to make a residency program viable.<br \/>\n\u201cSt Kitts and Nevis is in a unique position to offer a residency programme without having to change any tax laws,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Benefits of St Kitts and Nevis CIP<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Visa free travel to Schengen Area<\/li>\n<li>Visa free travel to Switzerland, UK and Ireland<\/li>\n<li>No minimum residence requirements<\/li>\n<li>Simple Procedure with minimal government formalities<\/li>\n<li>Option to include family members in the application form<\/li>\n<li>No income or wealth tax<\/li>\n<li>Option to reside in any of 15 Caribbean countries<\/li>\n<li>Lifetime citizenship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Without revealing hard details of how the new stream will be structured, Khan did say it would be the only legitimate program with a physical presence requirement.<br \/>\nAgents for the program in both China and Eastern Europe welcomed the idea of a residency option, Khan added.<br \/>\nExperts have told St Kitts it may need to look at how it structures its VAT policy in order to get more of the program\u2019s applicants actually living in the country.<br \/>\nAt the moment, St Kitts relies on its high end property investment opportunities to keep the world\u2019s ultra high net worth individuals interested in its program.<br \/>\nBut if more of those individuals chose to live in the country, the benefits in terms of tax dollars could be substantial.<br \/>\nPrime Minister Tim Harris has spearheaded an overhaul of the St Kitts program since he came to power. Previously, the program was mired in alleged corruption and had a reputation for not properly vetting candidates. This resulted in Canada imposing a visa restriction on St Kitts passport holders.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Read More<\/b><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-kitts-targets-families-citizenship-investment-program-changes\/\">St Kitts Targets Families With Citizenship-by-Investment Program Changes<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-kitts-make-citizenship-program-attractive\/\">St Kitts Must Make Citizenship Program More Attractive<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-kitts-nevis-urges-canada\/\">St Kitts &amp; Nevis Urges Canada to Drop Visa Requirement<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Harris said: \u201cWith the St Kitts and Nevis programme now globally recognised for its integrity and platinum standard, it made sense that the natural next step would be to offer a residency programme that would meet a specific customer need. It will also stimulate tourism, as well as offer our developers another avenue for marketing their projects. It\u2019s a virtuous circle of mutual benefit.<br \/>\n\u201cThe programme will still maintain its now high standards of due diligence and it is intended to offer our economic citizens the ability to obtain a residency card as long as they are willing to spend a period of time on the island.\u00a0 In addition, individuals not wanting citizenship at this time, can apply for residency status and in the future convert to citizenship should they wish to do so.\u201d<br \/>\nSt Kitts made several changes to the country\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/saint-kitts-nevis-investor-residence-program\/\">citizenship-by-investment program<\/a> earlier in 2017, aimed at drawing more applications from families.<br \/>\nThe changes include a number of alterations to ages of dependents and a lowering of investment thresholds for larger families.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>New Thresholds<\/h3>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">Single applicant<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">US$250,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">Single applicant plus three family members<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">US$300,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">Each additional dependent<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">US25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Under the changes, the age limited for parents and grandparents of the main applicant has been reduced from 65 to 55.<br \/>\nElsewhere, the age limit for financially dependent offspring has been raised from 25 to 30.<br \/>\nThe government also clarified that children under 16 born after the main applicant received citizenship will no longer be processed by the country\u2019s Citizenship-by-Investment Unit. Instead, these children can be added with a direct application to the Ministry of National Security.<br \/>\nFurther alterations were made to the investment thresholds under the Sugar Industry Diversity Foundation stream.<br \/>\nPreviously 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.<br \/>\nUnder 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>iSt Kitts &amp; Nevis has announced plans to add a residency program to its list of investment immigration options. The Caribbean country has previously only offered a citizenship-by-investment program, but now Les Khan, CEO of the St Kitts Citizenship by Investment Unit, feels there is sufficient demand to expand into residency. Khan says enough people&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[454],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8hnWW-dVP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}