{"id":9658,"date":"2017-10-31T21:13:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T21:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/?p=9658"},"modified":"2019-02-12T13:59:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T18:59:02","slug":"st-kitts-nevis-prime-minister-urges-canada-drop-visa-requirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/st-kitts-nevis-prime-minister-urges-canada-drop-visa-requirement\/","title":{"rendered":"St Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister Urges Canada To Drop Visa Requirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
St Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister Timothy Harris urged Canada to drop its visa requirement on a recent trip to meet officials in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Harris met with some of the top MPs in the federal government, including Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, during his visit on October 30.<\/p>\n
Visa-free access to Canada was once a key benefit of the St Kitts citizenship-by-investment program<\/a>. But concerns over how the program was vetting its candidates saw Ottawa withdraw the access back in November 2014.<\/p>\n With several other Caribbean islands also promoting citizenship programs, the St Kitts scheme lost some of its competitive edge with the removal of visa-free access.<\/p>\n Since 2014, Harris\u2019s government has spearheaded a comprehensive overhaul of the program, including tasking an outside agency to complete the vetting of candidates.<\/p>\n However, Canada is yet to be satisfied enough to remove the visa requirement.<\/p>\n Canada also recently took the step of imposing a visa requirement on Antigua & Barbuda, again apparently in reaction to the candidates being given passports under its citizenship-by-investment scheme.<\/p>\n Antigua is now considering slashing its investment requirement to keep the program competitive without the advantage of visa-free access to Canada.<\/p>\n St Kitts recently announced plans to add a residency program to its list of investment immigration options.<\/p>\n The country has previously only offered\u00a0a 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s applicants actually living in the country.<\/p>\n St Kitts currently relies on its high-end property investment opportunities to keep the world\u2019s ultra high net worth individuals interested in its program.<\/p>\n But if more of those individuals chose to live in the country, the benefits in terms of tax dollars could be substantial.<\/p>\n PM 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.<\/p>\n Read More<\/strong><\/p>\n St Kitts Targets Families With Citizenship-by-Investment Program Changes<\/a>
\nBenefits of St Kitts and Nevis CIP<\/h3>\n
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\nSt Kitts & Nevis CIP: Investment Thresholds<\/h3>\n
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\n Single applicant<\/td>\n US$250,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Single applicant plus three family members<\/td>\n US$300,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Each additional dependent<\/td>\n US25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\nSt Kitts Must Make Citizenship Program More Attractive<\/a>
\nSt Kitts & Nevis Urges Canada to Drop Visa Requirement<\/a><\/p>\n
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