Grenada Amends CIP: Resold CBI-Property to Qualify – Siblings, Grandparents Now Eligible as Dependents
In a statement released yesterday, the Prime Minister’s Office in Grenada informs the public of a series of substantial changes to the country’s Citizenship by Investment Programme.
Program authorities have expanded the ‘dependent’ definition to include:
- Parents and grandparents younger than 55 years
- Unmarried siblings of the main applicant and spouse
- Children born within 12 months of the granting of citizenship
Furthermore, the amendments also do away with the requirement for dependent children between 18 and 30 years of age to be enrolled at an institution of higher learning, as well as with that for parents and grandparents to be financially maintained by the main applicant.
Read also: 2018 a Record Year for Grenada CIP: Revenue Up 26% Show Q4 Figures
Opening up the secondary CBI-real estate market
The amendments, moreover, have now made it possible for investors to acquire citizenship through the purchase of CBI-approved real estate in the secondary market, i.e., CBI-qualified units held for the requisite period and then resold.
Applicants also will no longer need to hold a permanent residence permit before obtaining citizenship.
The government says the changes are intended to galvanize interest in the CIP by making it more attractive to investors but, crucially, without lowering the price.
Minister for Trade, Industry, Cooperatives and CARICOM Affairs, Oliver Joseph, said “You would note that there is no amendment that reduces prices. We must have a programme that offers attractive benefits, without having to reduce the price.”
Prime Minister Mitchell indicated the changes constituted a means of improving the program’s competitiveness without the need to compromise on security, and further warned that any CIP-country in the region playing fast and loose with due diligence would jeopardize even those programs that took no chances.
“Grenada is not dependent on CBI, therefore we do not have to compromise on security to maintain our programme. It is important that we stay competitive but at the same time, we must maintain the integrity of the programme. Any action by one country that compromises security can have serious consequences for the entire region, therefore we must all be mindful of that,” said the Prime Minister.
Read the full press release here:
Christian Henrik Nesheim is the founder and editor of Investment Migration Insider, the #1 magazine – online or offline – for residency and citizenship by investment. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, documentary producer, and writer on the subject of investment migration, whose work is cited in the Economist, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, and Business Insider. Norwegian by birth, Christian has spent the last 16 years in the United States, China, Spain, and Portugal.