{"id":10979,"date":"2017-04-15T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=10979"},"modified":"2021-06-04T05:21:08","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T10:21:08","slug":"st-kitts-second-passport-program-crashes-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/st-kitts-second-passport-program-crashes-burns\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Kitts Second Passport Program Crashes and Burns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The St. Kitts second passport program has crashed and burned\u2026 and good riddance to them. Applications are at an all time low, which is good news for an island that\u2019s been decimated by unscrupulous developers and passport brokers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applications to the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Program have fallen to 150 in 2016 compared to nearly 2,000 in 2014 according to various <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">news outlets<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In total, over 10,000 people have purchased passports from St. Kitts and it accounted for a significant portion of the government\u2019s revenues through 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IMF estimates revenue from the program to St. Kitts at about $37 million per year for 2014 and 2015. It\u2019s obviously a small fraction of this for 2016\u2026 and 2017 is not looking any better. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One reason St. Kitts fell out of favor is that they oversold the program. St. Kitts was hot for a time and drew the attention of immigration officials around the world. For example, Canada revoked their visa free status a few years back and 60 Minutes did a hit piece on them January of 2017. To see the program, click <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/60-minutes-citizenship-passport-international-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Passports For Sale<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">St. Kitts failing is not a result of problems in the second passport industry. In fact, various sources value the total passport for sale market at over $8 billion per year. It\u2019s growing quickly as Americans look to escape the IRS and Chinese move to improve their passports. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve always refused to sell the St. Kitts program because it&#8217;s allegedly fraught with fraud and has destroyed the country. The island is littered with thousands of empty condos that no one will ever occupy. The cash has gone into the pockets of connected developers who kicked a good portion back to government agents, but nothing for the people. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For these same reasons I never recommend any of the real estate programs out there. If you plan to live in the country from which you buy the passport great. If you just want the citizenship, don\u2019t waste your time with real estate. It does great harm to the local economy and wastes precious resources, pushing up prices throughout the Caribbean. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exception to this rule is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/second-passport-from-malta\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Malta<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This country requires you live on the island and wants you to become part of the community before granting you citizenship. At $1.2 million, Malta\u2019s offer is much more than a cash for passport program. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I just don\u2019t understand the logic of buying real estate in St. Kitts. What do you expect to happen to the value when the government sells over 10,000 units to absentee investors? The population of St. Kitts is around 50,000. What do you think this many relatively high-end buildings does to the available resources? Would you want to live in a place with thousands of empty condos and homes?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And what of the real estate value? Who the heck is buying these thinking they\u2019ll appreciate? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then there\u2019s the real estate taxes, maintenance, and all the headaches associated with a property you might visit 1 week a year\u2026 a total waste. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m no eco warrior. I\u2019m a greedy capitalist\u2026 but I expect one could make money without corrupting a country and destroying their island. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are plenty of great passport for purchase options out there. For example, Dominica is low cost at $100,000. For more see: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/second-passport-dominica-best-value-caribbean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Second Passport from Dominica is the Best Value in the Caribbean<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then there\u2019s St. Lucia at about $130,000. For more, see: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Changes to the St. Lucia Second Passport Program in 2017<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What I really like about St. Lucia is that you can buy a government bond for $500,000, pay $50,000 in fees, and get your investment back in 5 years. No real estate to buy, no scamming developer to deal with, and no government representative to bribe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The St. Lucia program will tie up your capital interest free for 5 years and save you about $80,000. The larger your family, the more the bond program will save you. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, I ain\u2019t no eco warrior, but the tree hugging residency programs are also great. Note that these are residency programs that lead to citizenship, not passport for sale programs. These allow you to earn citizenship over time rather than buying it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most popular eco residency is Panama. Invest $20,000 in teak and get residency through their reforestation program. After 5 years of residency you can apply for citizenship. For more on this see: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best Panama Residency by Investment Program<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Panama\u2019s reforestation visa program is the most popular because it\u2019s the lowest investment amount and you don\u2019t need to spend time in the country to maintain your visa. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re willing to put in the time, Nicaragua\u2019s reforestation visa is better. You get permanent residency immediately and can apply for citizenship after 2 years. The catch is that you must spend 6 months a year in the country. Nica wants you to become a part of the community before granting you a second passport. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The investment required for Nicaragua is $35,000. For more on this program, see: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Best Second Residency Program in 2017<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I also note that you can invest in both Nicaragua and Panama using your United States IRA or other retirement account. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hope you\u2019ve found this article on why the St. Kitts second passport program suck to be helpful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St. Kitts second passport program has crashed and burned\u2026 and good riddance to them. Applications are at an all time low, which is good news for an island that\u2019s been decimated by unscrupulous developers and passport brokers. Applications to the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Program have fallen to 150 in 2016 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":686,"featured_media":7075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2864,2661,3226,3225,2543,3557,3222,3218,2276,3223,3220,2738,3224,1878,3227,1887,3204,2132,3219,3221],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Second_Passport-e1575647607836.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10979"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44782,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10979\/revisions\/44782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10979"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}