Once more confirming the by-now tried and true IMI-adage that says “nothing is so unlimited as a limited time offer on Caribbean citizenship by investment,” Saint Lucia’s Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU), in a circular disseminated last night European time, informed stakeholders that its US$250,000 COVID-19 Relief Bond option will remain in place for another year.
The announcement comes a mere ten days ahead of the LTO’s planned expiry date – December 31st, 2020 – following approval from Prime Minister Allen Chastanet’s Cabinet of Ministers.
In the circular, CIU-head Nestor Alfred wrote that the “amendments to the requisite regulations to allow for the extension shall be done shortly and, once implemented, the CIU shall be receiving applications for the Special Covid-19 Relief Bond in 2021.”
Applicant fees and commission structures, furthermore, would not change, said the circular. See a more detailed overview of the Saint Lucia CIP’s commission structure here.
Saint Lucia’s Citizenship by Investment Program, currently eight months into its fourth fiscal year of operations, has seen revenues from the program grow consistently each year since the beginning.
In an article published in IMI at the end of September (five months into the 2020 fiscal year), CIU-boss Alfred reported the program had “seen applications increase in excess of 50% from its total applications received from the start of its financial year April 2020 up until September 2020, as compared to the last fiscal year. Since the start of our fiscal year – April 1st, 2020 – we have already recorded 154 applications received.”
IMI program guide: Saint Lucia Citizenship by Investment
