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New Underground Citizenship Path Explained (Not CBI) · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is there an actual shift from citizenship by investment to citizenship by merit?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would say yes.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: To people that can actually show merit or value to a country.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So there's also countries that you can't access with citizenship by investment that you can with merit.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in my opinion, every country in the world has citizenship by merit to an extent.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to the UAE with a hundred million dollar business, a ten million dollar donation, you build a hospital, something massive, you can get UAE citizenship by merit.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely possible.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know personally people that have done it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a shift.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you want those niche citizenships that are not too common, you don't want a Caribbean passport, you don't want a Turkish, you don't want an African, you want a Balkan, Serbia, other countries in the Balkan region, you want something in the European Union, just know that the better quality the passport and citizenship is, if you have freedom of movement in the EU, it's gonna cost you a minimum a million, and it's gonna be significant contribution.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Slovakia, it's possible to get PR by merit with around a million contribution, either in a business or in real estate.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then that PR, if you keep contributing, can be turned into citizenship by merit.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So every country has it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for those investors that maybe they already have a citizenship by investment, they already have Dominica, they already have St.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Kids, they already have Turkey, maybe they already got Malta, they want something on top of one of those niche citizenships that is not known to anyone to sell their passport, that's where the movement is coming from.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is citizenship by merit very niche in the type of client that they accept or very specific?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would say yes, but most people, as long as they don't have a criminal record, they're not under sanctions, they're not politically exposed to an extent, and they can prove a track record.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've had some clients that are 22 million,$10 million net worth in some mean coin, very hard to prove merit to a country.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And for those cases, it's been basically impossible.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas a guy like that with 10 million in bitcoins, 22 years old, can get El Salvador.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Easy.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I want to send them to a citizenship by merit country, they're gonna get rejected.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it has to be a good history, good business, good track record, no criminal record, strong CV, and potential to, for example, increase the tax base of the country.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So pay, let's say, a million per year in taxes, contribute some sort of skill.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say there's a huge engineer from China that's coming to a place in the Balkans to contribute to the country.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the kind of clients that should apply.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: This very selected pool of people, but there are people that just simply don't qualify.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It can be productized.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've done it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've done more than 40 applications that have been approved by the government and they receive their passports, they're traveling with it, they're very happy with the application, they got driving licenses in the country, have companies, pay taxes, bought real estate.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not as scalable as something like Turkey, St.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kitts, Dominica.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's people that have made literally$100 million in commissions just offselling Dominica.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that scalable at the citizenship by merit.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's an issue program.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as scalable, it's not as profitable to a massive extent, but it will make a client very happy.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like some of these citizenships can be obtained in a third of the time as a regular CBI program.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like this because then countries that don't want to damage their reputation, they see what happened to Wanuatu, they see what's happening in countries that sell their citizenship and then they have bad relationships with other countries.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They care about the EU to an extent, although I don't see it to be that important.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people care about EU access, but you just get a golden visa and done deal.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: But for countries that really care about it, they can bring investors, multimillionaires, contribute to the economy, and not damage their reputation.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, in my opinion, I think more countries are gonna come out with citizenship by merit, honorary exception, and they already have the law written.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So more countries will come onto the game.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I really see it happening, yeah.