WILL EU LEGISLATION EFFECTIVELY SHUT THE DOOR ON THE CORRUPT EASTERN CARIBBEAN CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT (CBI) PROGRAMS, AND CONSUMERS THEN SHIFT TO GOLDEN VISAS?

The new powers conferred by the pending legislation, which was passed by a huge margin, allow the EU Member states to terminate visa-free entry from the five EC CBI states for a substantial period, and which can be renewed at their discretion, based upon a number of factors, which we see as valid reasons to block EU access. The recent region-wide effort to implement reforms is too little and far too late, and already being walked back.

Leaders in the immigration migration industry have already seen the writing on the wall, and are adjusting their marketing plans accordingly, meaning Golden Visas, but Caribbean leaders, who have been employing CBI application fees to cover large parts of their governmental budgets in a dysfunctional local economy, appear to still be in denial about the future. Their constituents are still in shock from the new, Draconian visa policies of the Trump Administration, imposing collective punishment upon native-born West Indians for the CBI sins and transgressions of their Labour Party-dominated leaders.

So, will EC CBI and CIP simply fade away, when EU visa-free access becomes just a memory, with no takers for those six figure, now considered useless, identity documents and citizenship? We cannot say, but we will be watching, especially if the new take-no-prisoners American government decides to make an example of the most egregious CBI state leaders. I assume they are having trouble sleeping, due to a bleak future; well, things could get worse. Perhaps they might want to reread the American Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, sooner rather than later.