The Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) is highly regarded in the industry because of the high standards of due diligence and the professional manner in which the programme is operated.
Those were some of the points shared when the Chairman of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU), Ambassador Jeff Hadeed, and Chief Executive Officer of the Unit, Charmaine Donovan addressed the recent gathering of the nation’s diplomats at the Royalton Hotel last week.
Both senior officials said whenever members of the international community undertake inspections of the CIP programmes operated in the Eastern Caribbean, they often point to the programme operated by Antigua and Barbuda as the way these programmes ought to run.
“Last year, we had a team from the UK conducting an inspection of our Unit here in St. John’s, and every question that was asked, we had an any of what we have done to mitigate such issues. In the end, the head of the team, had to commend us on how efficient and how professionally we ran our operations, noting that the other territories ought to implement some of the steps that we have done here in Antigua and Barbuda,” CEO Donovan stated.
Meanwhile, Donovan noted that 2024 has been a good year for the programme with over two thousand applications. She explained that while it was expected that there would be a fall-off because the increase was anticipated because the increase in the investment threshold that took effect last August, the demand for the programme however remains strong.
“The investment threshold would have changed in August, 2024, so prior to that and in anticipation of that, persons actually fast-forwarded their applications that they would have probably made at the end of last year or even this year in order to capitalize on the lower investment threshold. So we anticipated thereafter there would have been a slow down while the industry regroups etc. but we have been fortunate, as we continue to see a steady interest in the programme even after such a big jump in the threshold from US100,000.00 to US$230,000.00,” she explained.
According to Donovan, Antigua and Barbuda is the only CIP programme that requires a 5-day residency, which is one of the things that separates it from the others.
On recent US concerns about the CIP programmes, Donovan noted that while the previous administration and the five CBI programme countries had come to an understanding, she is a little unsure of what will happen now that the Trump Administration appears to have its own policies towards these programmes.
“It’s a wait and see matter at this point,” she stated.
