EU Pressures Lead to Major Overhaul of Caribbean Citizenship Programs

Four member countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed to raise the price of entry into their respective Citizenship by Investment Programs (CBIPs), following years of increasing pressure and scrutiny mainly by the European Union.

On March 20, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts & Nevis – which operate four of the five CBI programs in the OECS – signed a memorandum of understanding to harmonize their CIP programs. At a recent press conference in Dominica, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that the agreement allows the four to work together to address EU concerns about the security of the CBI programs in each of these countries, and to hopefully preserve visa-free access to the Schengen zone.

The ability for Caribbean passport holders to travel to Europe without needing visas has come under threat in recent years, as the EU has become increasingly concerned about the potential use of CBI programs for trans-national criminals to travel without triggering sufficient legal scrutiny. In November of last year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, published a report that found CBIPs “can and are being exploited by criminals and the corrupt, who want to launder their money, hide their identity and assets, and carry out further crimes,” according to FATF President T. Raja Kumar.

For example, reporting from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that as of October 2023, nearly a dozen people had purchased Dominican citizenship before fleeing legal troubles in their home countries. These include a Taiwanese couple who allegedly orchestrated a multi-million dollar fraud, an immigration attorney from California who was also indicted for fraud, and several Nigerian nationals who allegedly operated Ponzi schemes.