Citizenship by Investment program 

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Recently, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, asked neighboring Dominica to hand over India’s fugitive businessman MehulChoksi to India directly. 

About Citizenship by Investment Programme 

• It is a program allowing individuals to get residence or citizenship of a country in return for making qualifying investments. 

These programs offer: 

• Citizenship by investment in which the person gets a “golden passport” or “cash-for-passports” 

• Residence by investment in which person gets a “golden visa” or 

• Hybrid with immediate residence followed by accelerated citizenship. 

• Applicants of the Program must fulfill multiple qualification criteria. Investment by them can be done in various forms including contribution to government funds, purchase of qualifying real estate, investment in qualifying business, or creation of a specific number of jobs. 

• As of now, five countries in the Caribbean – Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia); Egypt; Cambodia, Malta; Jordan, Montenegro, Vanuatu, and North Macedonia are running the citizenship by investment program.

Background 

Mehul Choksi has been living in Antigua and Barbuda since 2018 after taking citizenship in 2017 under the ‘Citizenship by Investment Programme’. He will not be having the same rights in Dominica as he was having in Antigua and Barbuda.