Investment migration people in the news this week included:
- Elena Ruda of Immigrant Invest
- Judi Galst, Christian Kaelin, and Dominic Volek of Henley & Partners
- David Lincoln of Lincoln Global Partners
- Jean‑François Harvey of Harvey Law Group
- Eric Major of Latitude Group
- Nuri Katz of Apex Capital Partners
- David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates
- Christopher Mason of American Lending Center
- Micha Emmett of CS Global Partners
Maison Global – Arrivederci, Second Passport. The Glory Days of Citizenship-by-Descent Programs Are Over.
Elena Ruda, co-founder and managing partner at Malta-based visa consultancy Immigrant Invest, said the glory days of citizenship-by-descent programs are over.
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Globally, “the ancestry route has become a bureaucratic minefield characterized by rigid language requirements, extensive document checks stretching back generations and swelling processing times of five to six years,” Ruda said.
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Judi Galst, managing director of private clients in New York at immigration consulting firm Henley & Partners, said that despite the new restrictions, citizenship-by-descent programs still remain one of the most established and cost-effective pathways to an EU passport, as they require no direct financial investment or property purchase.
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“A number of well-established ancestry-based pathways continue to attract strong interest from individuals who can demonstrate a qualifying family connection,” she said.
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David Lincoln, managing director at Dubai-based advisory firm Lincoln Partners, said that as some programs become stricter, some Americans are looking to Eastern Europe.
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“The cheap, fast, real estate version is largely dead,” he said.
The Washington Post – E.U. tells Caribbean nations: Stop selling citizenship or we’ll require visas
Such programs have long suffered a “bad image,” said Jean‑François Harvey, an attorney whose multinational firm specializes in business immigration.
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Harvey Law Group serves more than 100 clients seeking Caribbean citizenship each year. Some want to live there, Harvey said, “but the vast majority … want a second citizenship for estate and tax planning, and for safety.”
Forbes – US Passport Stuck At No. 10 In Power Rankings—As 36 Countries Offer More Freedom Of Movement
Other prominent investment migration advisory firms see the same trend. The U.S. has replaced China as the largest market for clients seeking secondary or tertiary citizenships, Eric Major, CEO and chairman of Latitude World, told Forbes in May. More than six in 10 Americans (61%) earning over $200,000 annually are considering moving to another country within five years, according to a study released last month from Apex Capital Partners, another advisory firm that helps people secure foreign residency and citizenship.
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Just as there has been a shift in how nations prioritize freedom of movement, “we are witnessing the same shift in how families think about their future,” Dr. Christian Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and creator of the Henley Passport Index, said. “True wealth is no longer defined solely by financial capital, but by the freedom to choose where they and future generations can live, work, study, invest and belong.”
Fortune – The global rich like Peter Thiel are eyeing the exit door. Argentina wants to be a ‘serious contender’ in the migration game
[Nuri] Katz pointed to several selling points for wealthy investors. The country sits on Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s largest shale oil and gas formations, which has been geologically compared to the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas by experts, alongside major lithium, gold, silver, soy, corn, beef, and wheat industries. He cited the roughly $22 billion a year in trade that Argentina has with the European Union as further evidence of the scale of opportunity.
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“I think it will be a serious contender and player in the wealth migration, investment migration space,” Dominic Volek, who advises ultra-high-net-worth families on residence and citizenship planning at Henley & Partners, told Fortune.
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“For our business and for the investment migration industry as a whole, it will be quite a game changer,” he said.
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“There’s really no such thing as a golden visa,” Katz told Fortune. “These are temporary statuses, and they can go away.” Only citizenship, he said, gives someone the assurance that they’ll be able to remain in a country indefinitely.
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David Lesperance, a leading international tax and immigration advisor with over three decades of experience, tells American clients to think of their citizenship and residency options as a hedge against whatever their personal “wildfire” might be—a hurricane, an earthquake, political violence, antisemitism, mass shootings, or a punitive new tax.
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“If you look at these alternative residences and citizenships as fire insurance, and people incorporate them into a fire escape plan, they may not actually leave unless the literal wildfire happens,” Lesperance told Fortune. “But I recognize that it could happen, and I have the means to protect my family from it.”
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“Everyone is sort of waiting for the program to actually be available before they’re making any sort of decisions,” Volek said.
Times of India – A draft proposal narrows flexibility in seeking bridge finance for EB-5 projects
“For years, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) accepted this structure, provided the bridge financing was temporary and formed part of the original funding plan. This allowed projects to move ahead without any delay and enabled EB-5 investors to receive credit for jobs created during the construction phase,” explained Christopher Mason, chief communications officer and attorney with American Lending Center, an EB-5 regional center operator.
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“The proposed regulation seeks to narrow this flexibility. If finalised in its current form, EB-5 investors will no longer receive job-creation credit because the EB-5 capital has been used to repay the bridge loan. Jobs would only begin to be counted once EB-5 capital is actually deployed to the project, which could happen somewhat late in the project’s development,” added Mason.
Daily Post – Citizenship by investment is entering its strongest era, says experts
“What some perceive as the end of the industry is, in reality, a process of strengthening and refinement. Investment migration is not shrinking; it is evolving,” said Micha Emmett, CEO of CS Global Partners.
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“We believe the coming years will be the strongest period in the industry’s history.”
