THEIR VISA FREE ACCESS TO THE EU & UK DISAPPEARING, PASSPORT SALES CONSULTANTS SEEK A BACKDOOR WAY TO SNEAK THEIR CLIENTS INTO THE EU UNOBSERVED

Twenty years ago, when I flew into the Isle of Man, to give a lecture on my money laundering experience at the Gaiety Theatre, I took out my US passport, for customs & immigration formalities, only to find that there were none. That's because IOM, a self-governing Crown Dependency, is part of the Common Travel Area, (CTA) and therefore travel to the United Kingdom is treated as an internal domestic journey. Do you understand the implications, given the recent UK Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) requirement, British revocation of visa-free entry for the Commonwealth of Dominica, and the threat that all five Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states (Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts & Antigua & Barbuda) will eventually lose their prized visa-free entry status?

As you can see from the attached image, the IOM passport, while it doesn't say United Kingdom, it does indicate its British status, complete with the Royal Coat of Arms. And here's the beauty of that travel document; Isle of Man passport holders enter most of the members of the European Union (and certain other Scandinavian non-EU European nations) DO NOT need a visa. Given the recent pending legislation in the European Union, which when passed will basically eliminate the visa-free privileges of the Eastern Caribbean states, you can see how an IOM passport will serve as a workaround for all the EU access issues confronting consultancies whose clients still are clamoring to be able to enter the EU, without the screening, cost and delay of obtaining a visa.

Now you know why one of the world's largest Investment Migration consultancies recently traveled to the isle of Man, complete with glossy brochures, and details about the financial benefits IOM government would reap if it created its own CBI program, to be administered by, you guessed it, the same consultancy that made the glib sales presentation, which claimed that the IM industry is on an exponential trajectory, all governments will want this revenue, and that prior CBI issues are past mistakes and won’t be repeated. I worry that the financially strapped IOM government may buy into this slick marketing campaign, which could result in the IM industry's client ability to live in the UK, and defeat all the efforts of the EU to control who enters the Schengen Area.

I hope those of you in the Isle of Man, who sit in Douglas in the Tynwald, the version of Parliament, are paying attention, for something wicked this way comes.