If Schengen access goes, Rafael Cintron sees the Caribbean cutting prices and selling harder, Vanuatu-style, not folding.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says successful applicants must now travel to Dominica to receive and renew their passports, ending the program’s no-visit model and moving it in step with neighboring states under US and EU pressure.
From June 15, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Nicaragua lose visa-free access to Ireland. The move follows the UK and runs alongside a hardening EU stance on golden passports.
A government publication has exposed the identities of more than a hundred CBI applicants. The CIU says it had no idea.
Godwin Friday casts the program as a financing mechanism, not a growth engine, with national debt at 113% of GDP.
Caribbean aliases, Dubai villas, a sanctioned oil network, and a slain father’s concealed political ties.
An unnamed Caribbean counterpart estimated EC$200 million in revenue per year; Friday positions CBI within broader economic recovery.
Audited FY24 financials show EC$90 million surplus on EC$240 million revenue; category-level application data withheld for a third year.
Roseau reverses course on a market it reopened just four years ago amid the US-Iran war; however, some caveats still apply.
Existing CBI passports issued before April 14 expire for travel purposes on July 31, 2027 unless holders complete biometric enrollment.
14 months after the first announcement, Wheatley says discussions continue; no thresholds or timeline have been set. Explains why the country will never have a CBI program.
A bitcoin billionaire’s US$100-a-month offer to every Nevisian has split the federation’s politicians. The CBI angle is bigger.
PM Pierre says the country has “no intention of stopping the CIP”; Deputy PM Hilaire rejects any link between the suspension and program.
Saint Lucia’s CBI program registered 5,642 applications in 2023-24, up 423%, and London calls the practice “inherently high-risk.”
The withdrawal closes a chapter that hung over the world’s oldest CBI program for more than a decade; PM Drew credits three years of reform.
Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, and Grenada retain ten-year, multiple-entry terms; only Antigua and Dominica face the downgrade.
Browne uses inaugural Caribbean-EU forum to argue CBI vetting exceeds European standards; calls for engagement over coercion as Brussels and Washington tighten the screws.
Gonsalves claims Washington warned SVG against CBI and a China pivot. PM Friday calls his program a “sovereign capital” strategy.
St Vincent’s CIP will mandate residency. PM Friday: Not “revenue-at-all-costs” but “sovereign capital mobilization strategy.”
Grenada’s CIP is on track for its third best year ever, continues to cut the backlog, and has set a new historical record in Q3 of 2025.