WHAT WILL THE EFFECT OF UPCOMING EUROPEAN ACTIONS TO CONTROL VISITORS HAVE ON THE CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT INDUSTRY?

Europe is fast moving towards asserting more control of who enters the Continent from abroad, apparently following in the footsteps of the United States. The United Kingdom has already instituted the UK Electronic Travel Authorisation, ETA system, which requires online application and approval in advance of UK travel.

Regarding the Member States of the European Union, EES, the Entry/Exit System, will track foreign arrivals and link them to departures, to get a handle on who precisely has left the EU, and who is still within its borders. It is anticipated that the much-delayed European Travel Information and Authorization System, ETIAS, will finally be implemented in late 2026. That will directly block the approval of unqualified visitors.

The net effect will be to precheck and thereby vett all potential foreign travelers to Europe. We are, however currently not aware of the level of inquiry which will be instituted, how data entered will be confirmed, and whether the programs will be able to catch undisclosed incriminating personal information in real-time.

Will deceptive information pass muster? Will the failure to disclose critical information that is disqualifying be exposed? There are so many questions presently unanswered, but we are also asking what effect these programs will have on travelers holding Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports from other than their country of birth, especially if it happens to be high risk, a designated State Sponsor of Terrorism, or if they are identified as white collar criminals, sanctions evaders, fraudsters, terrorist financiers, or suspected of other types of criminal activity, who happened to have acquired a CBI passport, notwithstanding their dodgy background, from a notable corrupt jurisdiction.

And the question is also whether affluent individuals who have secured CBI passports strictly for visa-free entry into Europe, which are frankly a large percentage of the second passport purchasers, will now be far more selective and careful as to which country's passport they choose to buy. will the industry undergo reform as the direct consequence of ETA and ETIAS? We cannot say this early on, but the net result could be that many of these programs will be forced to clean themselves up, or lose future business. Is CBI reform to be an unintended consequence of ETIAS, we wonder?