A. The Global Investment Migration Industry
- Introduction
Annual global investment migration is roughly a 25 billion-dollar industry, the US being the largest participant and countries like Vanuatu being one of the smallest participants. A small group of high-income nations the US, Canada, UK, HK and Australia account for more than 80% of global annual investment visas.
Investment migration programs have enabled nations to grant residence or citizenship rights to individuals in exchange for a substantial investment. These programs have proliferated, particularly in the last decade, with demand for alternative residence and citizenship rights now driving thousands of individuals to apply for them each year.
Supply has increased, too, with a host of new investment migration programs emerging around the globe. At the beginning of 2019 there were programs in nearly 100 countries, more than half of them set up since 2000. In fact, there are more than 200 investment migration programs globally, by which you can buy citizenship or residency. Such programs are run not only by small island countries, but by large countries such as Australia, the US, the UK and Spain.
While the citizenship program of small island nations has dominated the narrative and the news, it is large economies that account for the bulk of investment migration activity, with major global players such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union participating in the industry since its inception. In fact, the US’s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, established in 1990, is the world’s largest investment migration program. It offers permanent residence in exchange for an investment of $500,000 to $1m in a new commercial enterprise that boosts job creation.
Between 2014 and 2015, capital investment and related spending from the EB-5 program contributed $33.6bn to the US economy and generated $4.2bn in tax revenues. The program supported 207,000 jobs in those two years. Despite significant pushback from anti-immigration forces within the Trump administration, in March 2018, the US Congress voted to extend the program. Advocates for the program argued that it is consistent with the nation’s founding idea of attracting talented individuals from around the world.
The US is not alone among high-income nations with such programs. More than 36,000 investor visas were issued globally in 2014, and a small group of high-income nations the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia accounted for more than 80 percent of them. Most Western nations operate some type of investment migration program. Canada established its Federal Immigrant Investor Program in the 1980s, followed by the US and the UK in the next decade. New Zealand, Australia and Singapore followed suit.
Some nations are beginning to move from residence-by-investment, as is the case with the US program, to citizenship by investment. Austria, for example, now grants citizenship in exchange for substantial financial contributions. The latest available figures suggest that by the end of 2018, approximately 40,000 passports had been issued via citizenship by investment since the time that the first program came into being.
“By comparison Vanuatu issued only a fraction of the number of passports of other countries and accounted for merely 0.0052% of annual global investment migration revenues” says Mr Carl Ngamoki-Cameron, Pacific Director of investment migration firm NCL Global Partners, experts in Pacific investment migration.
Today, the global investment migration industry has grown into roughly a $25 billion-dollar industry. The investment migration industry is in a period of evolution and growth, with residence and citizenship by investment now part of every savvy investor’s vocabulary. For millions of people, the confines of the state are no longer the limit of their ambitions and possibilities. Mirroring that trend, the number of investment migration programs is increasing steadily as governments tap into their potential to boost capital and talent inflows. Looking to the future, the International Monetary Fund expects continued growth in the investment migration industry.
- Nationality v Global Citizenship
In recent decades many individuals have begun to see the notion of national citizenship as limiting in terms of travel, economic liberty and culture. Large segments of the global population have expanded their notions of community to include the entire globe.
The modern idea of citizenship emerged in the nineteenth century along with the nation-state and it has persisted since. Rising states worked to create “nationalities” that moulded individual notions of identity to suit the needs of the state. “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians,” Massimo d’Azeglio, a pioneer of Italian unification, said in 1861.
Swiss lawyer Christian Kalin says traditional notions of citizenship are outdated. This is one of the few things left in the world that is tied to blood lines, or where you are born. Where you are born is by no means down to your own skill or talent, but instead pure luck. There is nothing wrong with regarding citizenship like a membership or admitting talented people who will contribute. Your birth determines where you can travel and reside, what markets and networks you can access, which both defines and also constrains you.
Debates over what it means to be a “true” American, Australian, German, Ni Vanuatu or other nationality have often highlighted the importance of a person being born in a particular country. But contrary to this rhetoric, a Pew Research Centre survey has found that people generally place a low premium on a person’s nation of birth. Just 13% of Australians, 21% of Canadians, 32% of Americans and a median of 33% of Europeans believe that it is very important for a person to be born in their country in order to be considered a true national. Similarly, a BBC World Service poll in 2016 found that more than half (51%) of the 20,000 people surveyed across 18 countries consider themselves more as ‘global citizens’ than as citizens of a specific country.
The proliferation of investment migration programs in recent years makes clear that many nations are embracing the idea that it is well worth bestowing citizenship on carefully vetted individuals who bring benefits that include but aren’t limited to capital, connections and talent. While nations granting citizenship in return for investment is an economic transaction without regard to ethnicity or heritage, the transaction is safeguarded by rigorous background checks and due diligence mechanisms that have evolved in tandem with investment migration industry.
Mr Ngamoki-Cameron says “8 Oceania countries, Tuvalu, Samoa, Palau, Micronesia, Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands are now considering launching their own citizenship by investment program due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
- What are the Benefits of Alternative Citizenship?
Expanding your residence or citizenship options insures you against political and economic uncertainty, and opens up opportunities to exploit in the rapidly changing mix of markets, business ventures and culture on offer around the world. In particular, you need to hold a second or multiple passports, or alternative residences, if you are to claim the power and flexibility of true global citizenship.
Smart wealthy individuals and their families are capitalizing on a more globalized world that links nations, economies and the markets in new ways. If they are not globally connected, they will remain limited by their particular context, policies and resources of their birth citizenship. Holding citizenship of only one country can hinder their ability to respond to new threats or opportunities or to access the global travel, culture and residence options that appeal to them.
- Why is Alternative Citizenship Relevant Now?
The World is constantly changing, Covid-19 and the ongoing political and economic tension between the US and China has created an uncertain environment for the future. Alternative residence and citizenship represent the most direct routes to global mobility, flexibility and access. As such, for families looking to protect the wealth they’ve accumulated, alternative citizenship is an insurance policy.
You need a plan in case you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everyone should have a Plan B that includes having some of your assets in other countries, and a way to live in another country if you need to. It’s a wise investment.
Families with multiple passports or residence permits benefit from each country’s best practices and are less vulnerable to a single country’s risks, shortcomings and unexpected changing fortunes. The more jurisdictions a family can access, the more diversified their assets will be and the lower their exposure to both country-specific sovereign risk and global volatility. High quality nationalities deliver precisely that level of access. Vanuatu Citizenship offers access to the European Union’s 28-member states and many other countries.
B. Vanuatu’s Investment Migration Program
- What is Vanuatu’s Investment Migration Program?
Vanuatu’s new Citizenship by Investment (Development Support) Program has fixed minimum selling prices.
Vanuatu’s investment migration program is not that dissimilar from those offered by several other small island states. Five Caribbean countries have citizenship by investment schemes. Antigua and Barbuda requires only five days of residence on the part of investors within the first five years. The other four, like Vanuatu, do not impose any minimum residence requirement.
Vanuatu has two citizenship by investment programs. An older program marketed by a single Hong Kong agent exclusively to the Chinese market, which is generally more expensive and nominally ‘honorary’ but with no additional benefits, and the new and improved citizenship ‘Development Support’ program marketed globally by NCL Global Partners and Stanford Knight Partners.
Mr Peter Mok, Chinese Partner of investment migration firm NCL Global Partners, experts in Pacific investment migration says “the selling price for the new program is strictly controlled and agents or their representatives risk losing their license if found to be offering Vanuatu Citizenship for less than the minimum selling prices” listed below:
| Category | Minimum Selling Price |
| Single | US$130,000 |
| Married Couple | US$150,000 |
| Married Couple + 1 Child | US$165,000 |
| Married Couple + 2 Children | US$180,000 |
“Vanuatu does not have a real estate option for citizenship at present, but is exploring a tourism investment option to generate local employment,” says Mr Ngamoki-Cameron. “All payments are to be made in US Dollars only. Crypto currency and bitcoin are not acceptable tender.”
- How has Vanuatu benefited from its New Citizenship by Investment (Development Support) Program?
Revenue for Vanuatu’s new Citizenship Development Support Program has soared, creating positive GDP growth and a record budget surplus.
Attracting high-net-worth individuals has increased Vanuatu’s overall wealth and standard of living, and decreased its reliance on international capital markets and over-indebtedness, leading to the early repayment of US$13m Chinese debt.
Revenue from Vanuatu’s Citizenship Development Support Program has soared and the Vanuatu Government has achieved a record budget surplus , which in the global fall out from Covid-19 is a rare thing for any country. Revenues have also surpassed foreign aid. Over the period June to August 2020 foreign investors contributed a total of $84 million US dollars to Vanuatu’s economy compared with $107.4 million US dollars from the program for the entire year in 2019.
According to Mr Ngamoki-Cameron, “the new citizenship by investment development support program is a win-win solution for Vanuatu”. The benefits of the program flow both ways. The foreign direct investment results in new capital flows both to the public sector in the form of government donations, increased spending, tax revenue or treasury bond investments and the private sector, in the form of investments in businesses, start-ups and real estate.
The program achieves two important policy objectives. First, attracting new financial and human capital to support government budgets and developmental agendas and second, cultivating economically engaged citizens or entrepreneurs who can drive economic growth and innovation.
- What is the Ongoing Development of Vanuatu’s Citizenship by Investment Program?
Vanuatu is considering expanding the program to include investment in the tourism sector to create local employment opportunities.
The Chairman of the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission, Ronald Warsal, has been tasked by the Vanuatu Prime Minister to review the program and consider expansion for investors to invest in the tourism sector to provide local employment. In 2020, the Commission is predicted to double its budgeted revenue from the program.
Mr Ngamoki-Cameron said “Vanuatu’s new citizenship by investment program was developed with the help of our Vanuatu partners and has undergone regular annual reviews and improvements to strengthen the due diligence process, background checks and transparency of the program to stay current with the industry expectations.”
From April 2020, the changes in table below were made to the due diligence checks for the citizenship by investment development support program.
| Condition | Before April 2020 | From April 2020 |
| Due Diligence Reply | 48 hours | 96 hours |
| Fee | US$2,000 | US$5,000 |
| Documents | Passport & No Criminal Record | Other documents may be requested |
| Who provide documents | Investor | Investor and all family members who participate in the program |
- Why is Vanuatu’s New Citizenship Development Support Program Popular with Global Citizens?
Vanuatu’s new Citizenship Development Support Program has the fastest processing time globally, with citizenship and passports being available in as little as 4 weeks, and at one of the most affordable prices in the industry.
Ms Elizabeth Yang, Asia Director of investment migration firm NCL Global Partners, experts in Pacific investment migration, says “the new Vanuatu citizenship by investment program is highly valued by Chinese Investors for several reasons, including:
(1) its ranked highly on the CBI Index before Malta, Cyprus, Montenegro, Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria, Cambodia and Jordan;
(2) the process can be completed remotely and during Covid-19 the Commission is using video conferencing to deliver Citizenship Certificates;
(3) Citizenship is granted within 4 weeks of submitting all the proper documentation;
(4) visa free travel to more than 130 countries worldwide, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Singapore; and,
(5) Transparency International scores Vanuatu reasonably well compared with most other citizenship by investment programs like Cyprus, Dominca, Malta and St Lucia and especially less corrupt than citizenship by investment programs from Turkey and Montenegro.”
By annual revenue in 2019, the top 10 investment migration programs, excluding the US are as follows:
| Ranking | Program | Income US$ |
| EU | ||
| 1 | Cyprus Citizenship | 1,480,000,000 |
| 2 | UK Residence Permit | 959,000,000 |
| 3 | Portugal Residence Permit | 885,000,000 |
| 4 | Spain Residence Permit | 850,000,000 |
| 5 | Greece Residence Permit | 835,000,000 |
| 6 | Malta citizenship | 280,000,000 |
| OCEANIA | ||
| 7 | Vanuatu Citizenship | 105,000,000 |
| CARIBBEAN | ||
| 8 | Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship | 99,000,000 |
| 9 | Grenada Citizenship | 61,000,000 |
| 10 | Saint Lucia Citizenship | 23,000,000 |
| Total | 5,577,000,000 | |
