ANTIGUA & BARBUDA: one step closer to Citizenship by Investment - NTL Immigration Ready
Monday, November 19, 2012 at 4:42PM NTL Immigration is carefully following the information coming out of the Antigua and Barbuda parliament this week...
The Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Act, 2012 is currently being debated by the parliament of Antigua and Barbuda. NTL has obtained the working draft of the Act, which hopefully will be accepted into law after the governemnet debates, which began November 15th, 2012, and are still "going through the legislative process" as of November 19th, 2012.
Although the Act is still a work in process and has yet to been made into law, Robert Martin of NTL Immigration states "We are very optimistic that this new economic citizenship program will come to fruitation shortly. NTL is making the necesarry arrangements to have agents on the islands and offer the our clients the complete service they are expecting as soon as the program launches."
Currently, there are four means one can obtain an Antiguan & Barbudan passport; by birth, descent, marriage, naturalisation – and after the second and third readings are had at Parliament, the fifth would be by economic citizenship.
The latter would grant Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship to foreign investors that either acquire US $400,000 in property, contribute US $250,000 to the National Development Fund, donate US $250,000 to an approved charitable organisation or invest in a business starting at US $1.5 million.*
The new program looks to be very simular to the economic citizneship program offered in the neighboring islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, offering both Real Estate investment and Charitable Donation options. The main change in that all Proffesional Agent fees would be paid directly to the government, in order to maintain price equality.
Additionally for Antigua, unlike St Kitts and Nevis, there is a physical presence requirement, albeit not a particularly onerous one: new citizens must spend at least 70 days in total physically in the country, during the five years following the grant of citizenship – otherwise the passport won’t be renewed!
The citizenship program has great support among the Antigua and Barbuda Government with final details being worked out currently before final approval. “A citizen is a citizen is a citizen, no matter how you acquire the citizenship," states Ambassador Colin Murdoch the OECS Commissioner.
The following fees are payable to the Unit on application for Citizenship by Investment*:
|
Fees |
US$ |
|
Processing fee – Principal applicant |
$50,000.00 |
|
Processing fee – Spouse |
$50,000.00 |
|
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 0 - 11 |
$25,000.00 |
|
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 12 - 17 |
$25,000.00 |
|
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 18 – 25 |
$50,000.00 |
|
Processing fee – Dependent parent aged over 65 |
$50,000.00 |
|
Due Diligence fee – Principal applicant |
$7,500.00 |
|
Due Diligence fee – Spouse |
$7,500.00 |
|
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 0 - 11 |
$0 |
|
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 12 - 17 |
$2,000.00 |
|
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 18 – 25 |
$4,000.00 |
|
Due Diligence fee - Dependent parent aged over 65 |
$4,000.00 |
* All Finacial details are subject to change.
For more information on the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship program please contact you NTL Agent!
Reader Comments (1)
what are the rules around the 1.5 million business investment