Category: Immigration News

Coates Global are proud to announce three key changes in our Lisbon office: the appointment of Portuguese legal specialist Prof Dr Marina Andrade, the introduction of a guarantee of all client questions being answered within two working days and the implementation of more-transparent pricing.

As part of our continuous improvement and expansion efforts, we sought to add a highly qualified expert in Portuguese immigration law to our team. Prof Dr Marina Andrade will oversee the implementation of our new guarantee and our revised fee structure, as well as maintain our high customer service standards.

Our new, clearer fee structure is fully compliant with the EU directive on transparency in the pricing of legal services. Coupled with our new guarantee of answering all client questions within two working days, this will enhance our offering to both individual and corporate clients.

Dr. Marina Andrade brings a wealth of experience in immigration law: after graduating from the Law College of the Portuguese Catholic University, she worked as an independent attorney helping individual clients with their residence permits and tourist visas. She has also advised the Portuguese government and public authorities on the country’s Golden Visa programme and has worked as a law professor at several educational institutions in Portugal and at the Brazilian Institution of Law.

In addition to being a member of several international associations, such as Associação Luso-Brasileira de Direito Comparado, she has published many articles in Portuguese newspapers and magazines, including the article “The Portuguese Golden Visa Program” on World.Tax (https://www.world.tax/articles/portuguese-golden-visa-program.php).
Moreover, she has appeared on Portuguese TV programmes as an immigration law expert.

She is thus well equipped to handle many immigration matters, including:
• Golden Visa applications for main investors and family reunifications;
• Residence visas and permit requests – all types;
• Tourist/Schengen visas;
• Renewal requests;
• Appeals of immigration decisions;
• Citizenship applications;
• Residence registry certificates – for EU citizens who intend to reside in Portugal for more than three month.

Her wider expertise includes real estate issues, specifically:
• Preparation and management of due diligence for properties to be acquired by Golden Visa investors;
• Analysis and preparation of memorandums for such properties;
• Preparation of reservation agreements, sale promissory agreements and final deeds;
• Preparation of rental agreements (and registration of the agreements with the tax authorities);
• Registration of properties with the Property Registry Office, the tax authorities and utility companies; and
• Issuing of notifications to pay the taxes associated with property acquisitions in Portugal.

Prof. Dr. Marina Andrade commented: “With a focus on ethics, quality, compliance and technical excellence, I am confident that I can continue Coates Global’s delivery of outstanding customer service to a wide range of clients on matters relating to Portuguese immigration.”

We welcome Prof. Dr. Marina Andrade as an important member of our new immigration team in Lisbon.

COATES GLOBAL

There are numerous advantages to relocating to Monaco, which include both individual and business benefits. The Principality offers incomparable and extremely stable benefits to its residents and citizens due to its outstanding financial capabilities.
Even though the Principality of Monaco is the world’s second smallest country, it is considered one of the most advanced. With its world-class healthcare, education and entertainment, it ranks first in the world for quality of lifestyle and first for GDP per capita.

Advantages of Moving to Monaco:

Monaco, although not part of the European Union, still gives freedom of movement to its people within the Schengen area (countries, such as Germany, France, Spain and Greece). The country is known as a tax-free haven, only paying tax to France as it provides the national security of the country with the French Armed Forces.

Its vital location means that it can provide easy and quick movement to other huge business hubs including London, Paris, Geneva and Zurich. To add, the city-state has a safe and stable backbone to set-up and operate potential businesses in.

The political stability also means the foreigners living in Monaco are safe and share the high quality of life alongside its citizens – with the world’s longest average life expectancy of 89.5 years. The nation has been tax-free since 1870, showing no signs of bringing back a taxation system in the near future.

The country also has one of the most renowned beaches in the Mediterranean Sea; full of palm trees and beautiful temperatures, hitting an average of 27 degrees in the summer. The country hosts the Formula 1 Grand Prix that entertains millions across the globe. It is famous for its successful football team, AS Monaco, which participates in the top league for France.

Residency and Requirements

There are two steps and a few requirements to achieve residency and future citizenship in Monaco. Firstly, a minimum of €1.5million is needed to start the process. €1million must be retained in a Monacan recognised bank, and at least €500,000 must go towards purchasing a property

To acquire full citizenship in Monaco, applicants MUST fulfil all requirements:

– Completed 10 years of residency
– Have no military service in another country, including conscription
– Are required to renounce any current citizenship(s) due to their strict policy against dual citizenship

Further information will be announced in the future.

The growth of the citizenship by investment market has been ferocious in the last few years. Existing programmes have seen dramatic rises whilst new programmes are added to the market.

With interest and demand rising, the question stands as to how many individual passports have been issued to applicants worldwide via the route of citizenship by investment? After much data exploration, Coates Global have come across remarkable results of an estimated total number of economic citizens in the world. Please note that we have not included any residency by investment permits as well as programmes that Coates Global do not offer services for.

Europe

CYPRUS

Total of 3,850 economic citizens

In February 2018, officials at the Finance Ministry informed the press that Cyprus had issued 3,300 passports under the Cyprus citizenship by investment programme. This is the most up to date data that is available, however, what we can deduce is how Cyprus has received an average of 62 economic citizens a month in the last 4 years. Due to this, we can only assume that this would be the number of applicants Cyprus continues to receive from the period between March 2018 up until today.

MALTA

Total of 2,101 economic citizens

Malta’s Individual Investor Programme (MIIP) have published detailed statistics in their annual reports by the programme’s regulator called Office of the Regulator (ORiip). In comparison to the other programmes, Malta has offered the world a most transparent review when reporting data on a year-on-year basis.

The Caribbean

DOMINICA

Total of 6-10,000 economic citizens

The difficulty when trying to establish a concrete estimate with the total amount of economic citizens in Dominica is that the country does not offer any sort of official statistical reporting on its citizenship programme. On the other hand, other sources point towards, what we can only gather as an estimated total number.

Emmanuel Nanthan, ambassador and head of Dominica’s citizenship by investment unit, stated in April this year that he was receiving between 1,500 and 2,000 applications per annum. Other factors have added to this, such as, the IMF, during their Article IV missions to the island, recorded CBI-receipts as % of GDP as well as the Prime Minister disclosing investments raised in Dominica via the programme through the annual budget address. As this information is rather theoretical and estimated on uncertain data, this leaves us with an approximate average of more than 6,000 and less than 10,000 economic citizens who have been issued their Dominican passport.

ST KITTS & NEVIS

Total of 16,544 economic citizens

Prime Minister Harris of St Kitts & Nevis stated in July 2018 that his country had a grand total of 16,544 economic citizens. St Kitts and Nevis, like Dominica, publishes no data on its programme, although the government has repeatedly promised to do so.

Total number of economic citizens in the world

At least 32,495

That is a very conservative estimate (using Dominica’s highest percentage, otherwise it would be calculated as £28,495). As some of this data has no true lead, we can only assume and hope that the mark exceed £35,000 rather merely making it an average. This goes without saying that there are numerous of other citizenship by investment programmes that are not listed as Coates Global only wish to provide carefully selected elite and prestigious of programmes.

On Wednesday 3rd October 2018, Coates Global was proudly awarded with one of DIT’s acclaimed business awards for contributing to the British-Portuguese international trade relationship. New to the market, Coates Global attained the DIT business award because of the sheer volume of investment funds their clients invested into Portugal’s Golden Visa programme. This had an resounding effect in the rise in Portugal’s economy.

From humble beginnings, Coates Global has expanded in ways unimaginable since its inception in 2016. Our company has flourished enormously in the these past two years. Starting off with a single office, we now have seven offices worldwide!

This award is a monumental representation of the footprint Coates Global will continue to leave behind with every client on every programme; every step of the way!

 The National Development and Social Fund (NDSF) of Malta originally was established to manage and oversee receipts from the country’s Citizenship by Investment programme named the Individual Investor Programme (IIP). According to the fund’s board of governors, over the years since the inception of the IIP in 2014 up until 31st August 2018, the programme has raised an impressive total of €432,014,517 for the NDSF. Thus, with the presenting reported figures makes the NDSF the world’s 43rd largest sovereign wealth fund by assets under management (AUM). 

The fund receives an average of 70% of all applicant contributions that make up part of the Maltese citizenship by investment programme. The fund not only provides future charitable commitments that have reserved €56 million, it has admittedly retained the chief part of nearly half a billion euros in a separate account with the Central Bank of Malta. 

Moreover, there has been a profound increase in both in the public and private sectors when making higher yield investments. It was last month that the fund bought a 49% stake in Lombard Bank. According to the Times of Malta, the programme has acquired more than €130 million in publicly traded securities and treasury bonds. 

At current exchange rates, the equivalent to the NDSF’s recorded balance is exactly half a billion US dollars! 

On 16 July 2018, the Egyptian parliament passed a law that will grant residency – and, subsequently citizenship for applicants who have a continued residence of five-years in Egypt – to those who deposit an equivalent of US$ 391,000 (seven million Egyptian pounds) in one of the country’s state-owned banks.

A report revealed that the new programme has several unconventional features compared to the other programmes currently trending in the RCBI-market:

–  Those approved under the deposit option are permitted to apply for a citizenship within a five-year period in contrast with other programmes who offer this citizenship option only after a ten-year period

–  Family members of the main applicant are obliged to reside in Egypt to qualify for citizenship alongside the main applicant

–   Once the citizenship application has been approved in the fifth year of residence, the bank deposit is transferred to the Treasury, hence converting the investment in to a donation

–   Those who become naturalised through this scheme will only be eligible to “exercise their political rights”(likely meaning the right to vote), five years after obtaining their citizenship status

According to a report on Mada Masr:

 

“The legislation sparked backlash in Parliament from lawmakers who used nationalist arguments to criticize it, noting that the amendments essentially put Egyptian citizenship up for sale.”

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest citizenship by investment and golden visa news!

Amid the current political revisions appears a welcoming turn of events! Since Dominican Prime Minister (PM) Roosevelt Skerrit first announced negotiations with Russia regarding the visa-waiver agreement more than three months ago, the Russian government have come to endorse this proposition. Announced on 28th August 2018, this visa-waiver agreement will permit citizens from the Commonwealth of Dominica and citizens from Russia visa-free travel to each other’s countries for a period no longer than 90-days; as reported by TASS.

Detailed on an official statement published on the Russian cabinet’s website expressed:

“The draft agreement waives visas for holders of Russian passports valid abroad, including diplomatic and service passports, and citizens of the Commonwealth of Dominica who hold diplomatic, service and regular passports, provided their stay does not exceed 90 days in any 180-day period.”

In addition to PM Roosevelt Skerrit announcing that his administration was in the final stages of negotiating visa-waiver agreements with Russia, he also was in the final stages of negotiations regarding a similar deal with the UAE; as well as actively pursuing one with China.

Whereas the Russian visa-waiver agreement now appears to have been sealed, we are awaiting news on any such agreement being settled with the other two nations. Despite this, Dominica did announce earlier this week that they will be opening an embassy and a consulate out in the UAE.

With Russia joining Dominica’s index of visa-free destinations is a momentous gem in Dominica’s crown. Three other CIP-jurisdictions, which are Saint Kitts & Nevis, Vanuatu, and Grenada, already achieved visa-waivers with Russia, while Grenada stands as the only Caribbean nation that has visa-free access to China.

A further Caribbean nation welcomes a residency by investment programme as part of their medium-term agenda to be launched at the fourth quarter of 2018. The government of Anguilla are keen to implement this new programme that will offer foreign nationals permanent residency status in Anguilla once they have made a financial contribution to the nation, in addition to providing evidence of good health and good character.

When hosting an information session on the subject that took place on 23 August 2018, the government of the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla presented the purpose and benefits of the programme. They gave a preview of the proposed residency by investment programme, including the application process and fees as well as its plans for implementation.

The latest information regarding the residency by investment programme for Anguilla state the following:

– Two investment options:

1) Investment in a Capital Development Fund of US$150,000

2) A minimum investment in real estate of US$750,000

– A third route to investment is to be released as a tax residency option, however, details as still to be determined

– Accelerated processing times that could have are 30-day turnaround (from application stage to approval stage); this is still to be confirmed

– Dependants of main applicant are eligible to apply

– Permanent residency status ONLY

As information is being verified, finalised and accordingly adjusted, amendments to the residency programme could still come to play. For more information about the upcoming Anguilla residency by investment programme, please click here to view the government’s official announcement.