The newest programme on the citizenship by investment block, unveiled just as the pandemic kicked off, Egypt joins Jordan and Turkey in providing an attractive economic immigration option especially to HNWIs in the Middle East.
Launched on June 10 with a news story titled 'Chinese citizens turn to CBI for Plan B', the CBI Guide has just passed the significant milestone of 1 million page views.
Of the nearly 7 million (6.9 million) houses purchased in Turkey in the last five years, 154,871 were bought by foreign investors, demonstrating a rapid increase in foreign property purchase in Turkey in the last year due to the easing of minimum requirements for acquiring Turkish citizenship by investment.
While, predictably, the pandemic has triggered a sharp increase in demand for citizenship by investment, unpredictably, coronavirus has changed the who, why and where of the CBI landscape, with applicants from unexpected countries surging, reasons for economic citizenship changing, and some CBI countries really standing out from the citizenship crowd.
As one of just three Citizenship by Investment Programmes worldwide (and the only one in the Caribbean) that allows its citizens to enter, invest and work in the US via the E-2 Investor visa treaty, Grenada’s CIP is proving increasingly popular with HNWIs, especially from India and China, where there is increased private wealth.
When it comes to securing economic citizenship, high-net-worth individuals are looking increasingly for Citizenship by Investment programmes that allow them to include their families, both immediate and extended. And the CBI Programmes are responding, with many adjusting their dependent criteria to cater to client demand. So which CBI countries are family friendliest?
With nearly 4,000 citizenship applicants approved during the first three months of the pandemic, Turkey continues to process high volumes of passport applications via its Citizenship by Investment programme, with no let-up during Covid. Such numbers make Turkey’s CIP currently the most popular on the market today.