Fed Up With the “Under-Selling Shenanigans in the Caribbean”: 10 on the Weekend with Stephen Barnes

10 On The Weekend is a weekly (-ish) feature in IMI, the concept of which is simple: Each time, we ask the same ten questions of a different IMI Pro, letting readers get to know the interviewee on a more personal and informal level than they might during the ordinary course of business.

Our guest this week is Stephen Barnes, Founder & Managing Director at Hong Kong Visa Centre

How do you spend your weekends?

Now that my children are grown up, have no grandkids (yet), and own homes in Australia, Hong Kong, and Bulgaria, I move between the three depending on where the sun is shining.

As a result, I no longer have a traditional “weekend.” While Saturdays and Sundays tend to be slower than weekdays (when the office is open and people are looking for me).

I typically spend two to three hours in the morning engaged in creative pursuits before heading out for a long walk—something I do most weekdays as well.

As a lifelong learner, I avidly consume podcasts while walking in the sun. Long ago, I abandoned the concept of work-life balance and instead chose to simply experience life.

Having recently turned 62, I feel that I am only now hitting my professional stride after more than 30 years in the immigration industry.

I consider myself fortunate to be in a position where I no longer have to do anything I don’t truly want to do.

What are your top three business goals this year?

For nearly 30 years, we have been developing and working with immigration technology of our own design.

Two years ago, we created our own Hong Kong immigration large language model (LLM), VisaGeeza.AI. A few months ago, we integrated this LLM with our bespoke immigration case management, workflow technology, and extensive website content platform.

This year, our primary goal is to bring all these components together into an AI-powered customer service agent—launching the world’s first fully AI-enabled national immigration practice in Hong Kong.

Following this, we plan to implement the same model for our GO-FOR-GOLD investment-for-residence business in Sierra Leone.

Additionally, we are aggressively expanding our GO-FOR-GOLD Official Partner network while handling a growing number of client cases—just 60 days into the program’s launch.

Our overarching business goal for this year is to consolidate all these advancements and prepare to deploy our capabilities in other African jurisdictions we have in the pipeline for the years ahead.

What’s your biggest business concern right now?

Scaling client services for the Sierra Leone program. We designed GO-FOR-GOLD with a service-user-first approach—arguably the only program design of its kind in the RCBI space.

This means delivering a level of service not typically experienced in this industry. Ensuring we execute this correctly is paramount, particularly as the advantages of the Sierra Leone jurisdiction become increasingly evident.

Which book is on your nightstand right now?

Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey by James Hollis.

I am a passionate student of Jungian philosophy, though I find Carl Jung’s core material too dense to easily grasp.

Hollis, a scholar with over 50 years of experience studying Jung, makes his work accessible to the average reader.

In this book, Hollis presents 21 principles for personal growth, emphasizing responsibility, self-awareness, and authenticity. He encourages individuals to stop blaming others, claim their personal truth, and integrate their unconscious aspects.

He advocates detaching from societal expectations, questioning ego-driven illusions, and embracing spirituality. Key themes include accepting life’s mysteries and contradictions, resisting fear-based thinking, and confronting mortality with courage.

Hollis underscores the importance of reflection, purpose, and continuous self-examination—acknowledging that life remains unfinished. His insights resonate deeply with those in the second half of life seeking fulfillment beyond societal roles and external validation—perfect reading for a gray-haired, inquisitive mind like mine.

How and when did you first get into the investment migration industry?

I entered the investment migration industry in Hong Kong in 1993, straight out of law school.

At the time, no one else focused on this niche, and I quickly learned that success in business is virtually guaranteed if you specialize in one thing, do it better than anyone else, and play the long game.

For this reason, I deliberately avoided the CBI space when it first emerged. However, last year, the government of Sierra Leone invited me to advise on and design what ultimately became the GO-FOR-GOLD program.

This marked my first venture beyond my core focus on Hong Kong inbound immigration. That said, the creativity that set me apart in the Hong Kong market was directly applicable in the design and execution of GO-FOR-GOLD, making it relatively straightforward to create something unique, compelling, and valuable for Sierra Leone.

What was your proudest moment as a service provider?

When I became an Australian citizen in 2012 (having been born in the UK), it felt like winning a gold medal in the immigration Olympics.

Later, when a sovereign nation invited me to design an immigration program, it was the equivalent of winning a Nobel Prize in our industry.

Which investment migration market development has surprised you the most in the last year?

The under-selling shenanigans in the Caribbean. Governments have a public law duty to seek restitution for the malfeasance that occurred.

The “pay-up-or-else” notice of November 2024 transformed a mere allegation of wrongdoing into an established fact.

This story is far from over, in my view. The increasing emphasis on good legal practices to protect CBI programs now and in the future will inevitably lead to accountability for past misdeeds.

All parties involved will need to address these issues to draw a line under the whole sorry saga.

If you could go ten years back in time, what business decision would you change?

To give my answer more context, I want to quote the movie Arrival:

“Would you take away the pain that shaped you, the mistakes that taught you, or the moments of doubt that led you to understanding? Life is more than just its joy—it’s the heartbreak, the lessons, and the quiet moments that define us. Perhaps it’s not about rewriting the story but finding meaning in every twist and turn. Would you still wish to change it, or would you hold it as is and call it yours?

Life is lived forward but understood backward. There’s nothing I would change. I am who I am today in spite of it all. Or, as Carl Jung said: “I am not what happened to me, I am who I chose to become.”

What investment migration industry personality do you most admire?

I’ll give you two for the price of one:

1. Henry Fan – What he and his partners have done at Globevisa is remarkable. He chose to go wide and has done a fantastic job, whereas I chose to go deep. We’re both Hong Kongers and pretty decent ambassadors for our profession, and we come from a small immigration jurisdiction. Go Hong Kong!
2. Martyn Penny – The unsung hero, my business partner. No one knows much about him because he prefers to keep a low profile. His 27 years of experience in immigration tech are outstanding and directly responsible for all that I’ve been able to accomplish since we moved the practice of immigration online in Hong Kong in 1996.

If all goes according to plan, what will you be doing five years from now?

More of the same. Life’s good. There’s no need to “retire” from what you enjoy most and know best.

Five years from now, I’ll finally be doing my best work—I’m only now getting into my stride.

Ten years? We’ll see. There are huge continents to explore that my feet have not yet touched, and they’re not going anywhere between now and then!