{"id":56052,"date":"2020-03-02T20:32:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T01:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/?p=56052"},"modified":"2020-03-04T09:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T14:41:03","slug":"st-lucia-cip-investments-surge-despite-struggle-to-shake-off-inexpensive-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-lucia-cip-investments-surge-despite-struggle-to-shake-off-inexpensive-tag\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Lucia: CIP Investments Surge Despite Struggle to Shake Off \u2018Inexpensive\u2019 Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The St. Lucia Citizenship by Investment Program<\/a> enjoyed a good year in 2019 after becoming the latest to enter the highly-competitive market in the Caribbean region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program saw a 12 percent increase in approvals along with a 120 percent jump in total investments in 2018-19 compared to the previous year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

St Lucia CIP In Numbers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n<\/td>		 Applications <\/strong><\/td> Approvals <\/strong><\/td> Citizenship (including dependents) <\/strong><\/td> Investments (EC$) <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
\n2017-18\n<\/td>\n345\n<\/td>\n188\n<\/td>\n282\n<\/td>\n28 million\n<\/td><\/tr>
\n2018-19\n<\/td>\n–\n<\/td>\n210\n<\/td>\n288\n<\/td>\n62 million\n<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Chinese candidates, who accounted for 16 percent of all applications filed in 2017-18, saw their dominance rise to 21 percent of all applications in 2018-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the program\u2019s introduction in 2016, 106 Chinese investors have qualified for a St. Lucia passport, followed by Iranians and Syrians (42 each), Lebanese (40), Iraqis (39), Russians (34), and finally Americans with 30 investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Lucia CIP Investment Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At US$100,000 contribution to the National Economic Fund for citizenship for a sole applicant, St. Lucia is one of the least expensive citizenship by investment programs in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investor applying with spouse and two qualifying dependents must contribute a slightly higher $190,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other investment options include US$300,000 in an approved real estate project, US$3.5 million in an approved enterprise project, or US$500,000 non-interest bearing government bonds to be held for a period of five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailing Other Caribbean CIPs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The lack of other significant investment benefits compared to other Caribbean countries means St. Lucia relies solely on the price advantage to attract CIP investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very low investment requirements mean fewer economic benefits unless the country succeeds in attracting a large number of investors, which St. Lucia has not succeeded in doing to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, the low investment requirement exposes St. Lucia to criticism among other Caribbean nations for devaluing the concept of citizenship by investment and raising credibility concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlighting St. Lucia\u2019s Robust Financial Sector <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s Citizenship Investment Unit intends to highlight the country\u2019s well-developed financial sector and attract investors from a wider target audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A low-tax regime with fewer financial regulations and restrictions is a significant plus point for wealthy investors seeking additional benefits other than a more powerful second passport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts to introduce measures to make the CIP more attractive were stymied by objections raised by EU and the OECD over St. Lucia\u2019s proposal to introduce a tax residency program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since tax residency does not automatically change with citizenship, the proposed move to offer fast-track tax residency, as well as citizenship and a second passport, would have guaranteed greater investor interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, the country continues to rely on its low-cost CIP tag even as it works on adding more projects to the sole CIP-approved real estate project available for wealthy investment immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A stronger real-estate market could prove beneficial as potential high returns on real-estate investments could become a key factor distinguishing St. Lucia from other Caribbean immigration destinations. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The St. Lucia Citizenship by Investment Program enjoyed a good year in 2019 after becoming the latest to enter the highly-competitive market in the Caribbean region. The program saw a 12 percent increase in approvals along with a 120 percent jump in total investments in 2018-19 compared to the previous year.  St Lucia CIP In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56053,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[454,5355],"tags":[5353,5352,5354],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/St.-Lucia_239378298.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8hnWW-eA4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56052"}],"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=56052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}