Investment migration people in the news this week included:
- David Lincoln of Lincoln Global Partners
- Nuri Katz of Apex Capital Partners
- Jeremy Savory of Savory & Partners
- Eric Major of Latitude Group
- Kristin Surak
- Philippe Amarante and Juerg Steffen of Henley & Partners
- Philippe May of EC Holdings
- Paul Williams of La Vida
- Armand Arton of Arton Capital
- David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates
- Femi Ojumu of Femi Ojumu & Co
- Chee Okebalama of Multipolitan
Bloomberg – Argentina Offers Golden Passports to Foreigners for $350,000
Advocates of citizenship and visa programs hailed Argentina’s announcement, noting the South American nation’s location far away from global conflicts as well as the allure of Buenos Aires. Whereas some Caribbean nations offer citizenship to families for $250,000, Argentina’s size, culture and quality of living justify the higher price tag, according to David Lincoln, chief executive of Lincoln Global Partners, an international immigration consulting firm.
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“This isn’t just a premium second passport. It’s the complete Plan B and it ticks every box,” Lincoln said. “Argentina is a country people will genuinely relocate to, or at least want the option to.”
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Argentina “is the biggest country in the world — by far — to ever have done such a thing,” said Nuri Katz, president of Apex Capital Partners, which has advised the Argentine government on the program.
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Argentina is “the first G-20 country that has realized the value of allowing investors to receive citizenship as a way to encourage direct foreign investment,” Katz said. “It’s the first, but I don’t think it will be the last.”
Fortune – ‘Really wealthy Americans will be embarrassed’ not to have an Argentine passport, program designer predicts
“I expect that the Argentina program will become so popular with the American [high-net-worth individuals] that really wealthy Americans will be embarrassed if they do not have an Argentina passport,” said Nuri Katz, founder of Apex Capital Partners, told Fortune on Friday.
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He pointed to demand. “The desire for jurisdictional diversification amongst wealthy Americans, as can be seen by our survey, is overwhelming. The question is where to go, and until now the choices were not really that great.”
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“I lived through hyperinflation,” he told Fortune in June. “I don’t think people understand how dangerous that is, once the lid comes off and they have to start printing money.”
Forbes – Argentine Citizenship Will Be New ‘Status Symbol’ For Wealthy Americans, Say Experts
“I think every wealthy American will consider this,” Nuri Katz, president of Apex Capital Partners, told Forbes. “It’s so unique that it’ll be seen both as an insurance policy and as a kind of a status symbol, like the Amex Black Card. As in, ‘oh, you don’t have Argentina.’”
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“Any decent investor should be able to double their money in seven years,” he said. “For a family of four, paying $950,000 for a seven-year bond with zero interest means losing $950,000 in the future,” he said. “That’s worse than giving up $500,000 now.”
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Eric Major, CEO and chairman of Latitude World, told Forbes Americans now make up roughly three-quarters of his business, and that many clients are worried about doomsday scenarios. “They’re thinking, ‘if we have tanks rolling down streets in Washington or World War III or what have you, I may need to pick up my bags and move until the dust settles.’ What we offer is a form of insurance, and it’s one of those things where people would rather not pay for insurance unless they feel they really need it.”
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“In the same way we want to diversify our assets and our holdings in our portfolio, with exposure to the Japanese, Chinese, European and American markets, Americans are starting to realize there is value in having a European passport, a South American passport, an Australian passport—wherever they can get one,” Major told Forbes.
The New York Times – To Attract Foreign Cash, Argentina Offers a Golden Passport
Under the program, applicants must donate $350,000 to the Argentine treasury or buy an $800,000 government bond. Eric Major, the chief executive of a company based in Malta advising the Argentine government on the program, predicted that the vast majority of applicants would choose to make donations over buying a bond, given Argentina’s long track record of debt defaults.
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“Americans want a plan B,” Mr. Major said. “It’s really about a hedge, but also a worst-case scenario.”
Reuters – Argentina announces citizenship-by-investment program
Jeremy Savory, the United Arab Emirates-based CEO of consultancy Millionaire Migrant, which focuses on citizenship- and residency-by-investment programs, recently launched a waiting list for people interested in applying for Argentina’s anticipated program. Some are clients who already have a second passport that lacks the benefits of Argentina’s, such as the ability to travel visa-free to countries in the Mercosur trade bloc, he said.
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“There’s a lot of people interested, including people who have already been through this process before,” he said.
Fortune – The ‘golden passport’: Argentina to offer citizenship for foreigners that make a $350,000 contribution to its treasury—or invest $800,000 in its bonds
For wealthy people from countries that face visa restrictions, whether in Southeast Asia or the Arab world, Argentine citizenship could make it easier to travel and do business internationally, said Kristin Surak, a professor at the London School of Economics and author of “The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires.”
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“It’s not only the benefits that you get within Argentina,” she said. “You also get benefits globally in terms of where you can go.”
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“I think that this ‘Peter Thiel in Argentina’ story is maybe a bit of a proof of concept (for the citizenship program),” said Philippe Amarante, managing partner and head of government advisory at Henley & Partners, a consultancy that helps clients obtain passports around the globe.
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“He stands for this idea that independent, wealthy, successful people do have choices around the world. And if you provide the right environments and right habitats, the right ecosystem, they might choose you.”
FINEWS – Argentina: Citizenship for 350,000 Dollars
«The program is comparatively attractive,» Philippe May told finews.com. He is chief executive of EC Holdings, a Singapore-based residence and citizenship advisory firm, and previously headed Arton Capital in Singapore.
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Henley & Partners emphasizes that it held a series of constructive workshops and talks with the Argentine government. Chief executive Juerg Steffen is quoted as saying the country has considerable strengths, and that the firm aims to raise the program’s international profile.
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«Based on the publicly available information on similar programs and the insights gained during the bidding process, the government was quite capable of building this program largely on its own,» he says.
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The program’s significance reaches «beyond the realm of citizenship,» says Philippe Amarante, who heads government advisory at Henley. Argentina’s strengths in energy, critical minerals, food production, technology, and human capital give it an unusually broad platform to attract internationally mobile capital, he argues.
Spear’s – Interest in ‘golden visas’ up sevenfold in a decade: where are UHNWs moving next?
Dividing one by the other, La Vida added, provided it with figures on the derived total market – Google’s own estimate of the total number of searches made into golden visas, citizenship by investment, and other related terms.
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The organisation’s CEO, Paul Williams, told Spear’s that the sevenfold rise in golden visa interest over the last decade had been driven by several factors. These include a surge in US clients looking to relocate following the re-election of President Trump in 2024.
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‘Panama is currently enhancing its programme of residency through $300k real estate investment in new build property to benefit the economy,’ Williams said. ‘Panama offers superb tax benefits for anyone choosing to reside there.’
Financial Times – Argentina to sell ‘golden passports’ by end of year
Armand Arton, chief executive of Arton Capital, one of the consultancies, said that Argentina — whose passport has visa-free travel to more than 160 countries — would be more attractive than most of the tiny island nations that offer immediate citizenship options.
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“Having a G20 country with the size and opportunity that it represents, I think is a very different proposition than what it is on the market,” he said.
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“Schemes always become a political football in any election, and we hope that in the next year we produce the results necessary for the government to defend their point.”
The Standard – Billionaires worth £120bn quit UK as Labour tax rises spark super rich exodus
David Lesperance, a lawyer and integrated tax and migration adviser, told The National: “The simplest way of thinking about the impact of these super golden geese is that a billionaire contributes the same number of golden eggs as 1,000 millionaires in Income/Capital Gains Tax, VAT, property tax, consumer spending, direct and indirect employment, philanthropy.
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“With David Reuben joining Chris Rokos and the list of prior departures in leaving the UK, the loss of their prior annual contribution to the Treasury will put a permanent dent in monies available for social services.”
The National News – UK loses £120bn as super-wealthy flee
David Lesperance, a lawyer and former non-dom who describes his job as integrated tax and migration adviser, told The National the key damage being done to the UK tax take was down to the departure of billionaires, rather than millionaires.
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“The simplest way of thinking about the impact of these super golden geese is that a billionaire contributes the same number of golden eggs as 1,000 millionaires in Income/Capital Gains Tax, VAT, property tax, consumer spending, direct and indirect employment, philanthropy,” Mr Lesperance said.
Vanguard – Citizenship-by-investment: EU deadline throws Nigerian golden passport holders into uncertainty
Femi Ojumu, a foreign policy expert and international lawyer, said the planned shut has far-reaching implications, noting that the long-term viability of the CBI schemes are now mired in uncertainty.
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Ojumu stated that with the aggressive anti-immigration drive of US President Donald Trump, whom he described as the de facto leader of the West, countries like those in the EU, Canada and the UK have followed suit by embedding similar stringent anti-immigration programmes targeting developing countries like Nigeria.
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Chee Okebalama, Managing Director, Client Advisory at Multipolitan, a leading migration advisory firm, noted that Nigeria has remained “a market of considerable scale” despite the threat of shut down.
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“That is why CBI and RBI remain compelling. RBI allows families to add a European base in markets such as Greece or Malta while retaining strong economic, personal and commercial ties to Nigeria.”
