Latest / IMI Podcasts / This Week in IMI - Jul 19: UK Imposes Visa Restrictions on Dominica and Vanuatu - Portugal Approves Housing Bill in Final Vote - Stats from Antigua, Turkey Mulls Golden Visa ++

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This Week in IMI - Jul 19: UK Imposes Visa Restrictions on Dominica and Vanuatu - Portugal Approves Housing Bill in Final Vote - Stats from Antigua, Turkey Mulls Golden Visa ++ · IMI Podcasts

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to This Week in Investment Migration.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: The UK Home Office today revealed it has revoked the visa-free travel privileges of Dominica and Vanuatu citizens because of what it characterized as clear and evident abuse of those countries' CBI programs, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: In the final and definitive vote, Portugal's parliament approved the controversial More Housing Bill, which eliminates the real estate and capital deposit options of the country's golden visa, among many other measures.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: In a QA article for IMI, Inez Costamura explains the various scenarios the program and its stakeholders face over the next several months.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Since 2005, Jersey, the self-governing Channel Island, has raised billions in investment and taxes from participants in its high-value resident program, as well as untold amounts in the form of charitable donations and unrelated business investments.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Last week, the 49 deputies and connectibles of the State's Assembly, Jersey's Parliament, debated whether asking wealthy residents to pay more would increase overall tax revenue or encourage them to move elsewhere.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: According to a source in Portugal's SEF, 7,802 golden visa applications remain pending with the government.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Presuming an average per applicant investment of 500,000, that backlog is worth nearly 4 billion euros.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: The figures are remarkably high considering the SEF's average processing rate in the last 10 years has been 1,153 approvals per year.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even if the program were to close to new applications today, it would take some 6.8 years to clear the existing backlog alone.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: For more than three consecutive years, the Antigua and Barbuda CIU has withheld statistics on its citizenship by investment program from the public, despite its legal obligation under the CBI Act to publish reports on the program every six months.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: This week, however, the CIU finally published data on the program, releasing reports for no fewer than five half-year periods at once.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers also indicate Antigua and Barbuda is now the least popular of the five Caribbean CIPs.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: A week ago, Dominica's CIU issued a circular informing agents that, as of this Monday 17th, interviews will be mandatory for all applicants above the age of 16, and that Iranian applicants will henceforth be subject to enhanced due diligence, which comes with much higher fees.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: The difference in cost for Iranian families after July 17th is considerable.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: A family of four qualifying under the EDF contribution will now need to spend two hundred fifty one thousand eight hundred dollars, some fifty thousand dollars more, than families of other nationalities.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt has approved the launch of a new residence by investment program, which provides renewable residence permits with validities varying from one to five years at investments ranging from$50,000 to$200,000.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Real estate developers have been encouraging the government to also include the 92% of Egypt's properties that are unregistered as a qualifying investments, too.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: In a contribution piece in IMI, Turkey Real Estate Insider and CEO of Mars, Hokan Buchak, writes that following the conclusion of national elections in Turkey, property industry associations and organizations will attend a workshop with the government on July 20, 21, where stakeholders will evaluate the needs and propose solutions to be presented to the bureaucracy.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the policies the government is considering as a means of shoring up demand for Turkish real estate is a new$200,000 golden visa program with a five year path to citizenship.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.