ANTIGUA MUST REFORM ITS CORRUPT CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT (CIP) PROGRAM THIS YEAR BEFORE THE UNITED STATES WILL REMOVE THE CURRENT VISA RESTRICTIONS PLACED UPON ITS CITIZENS

Although the current government of ANTIGUA and BARBUDA has gone to great lengths to assure its people that the major restrictions imposed by the United States on visa entry are only temporary, in truth and in fact they are the direct result of the country's mismanaged and corrupt Citizenship by Investment (CIP) program, and those restrictions will not be lifted until and unless a major reform is instituted. The United States, )and for that matter, the European Union) has zero confidence in the current Labour government in place in Antigua to ever clean up CIP; only with a new government in place is there any reasonable expectation of a successful negotiation, resulting in a lifting of the current status, will occur. The money laundering and fraud which has been characteristic of the present program must become a thing of the past.

Furthermore, given the level of corruption in the agency operating the CIP, mismanagement, lack of control over agents abroad, and utter failure of due diligence, there will need to be administration of at least part of the tasks involved by external, independent operators, to insure that the bribes and kickbacks which have fatally infected Antigua's CIP no longer plague the program.

If Antiguans sincerely want to regain the ability to freely travel to the United States, free from the financial burdens of obtaining an expensive bond, and without the severe conditions that America has now imposed, then it is up to them to use the power of their votes to usher in a new government, not tainted by corruption as is the current one, so that they can move forward to favorably resolve their present visa situation.