Dr. Alex R. Suchy von Weissenfeld is a senior consultant and area manager for C&S International LLC based in Vermont. He has spent the last 10 years in Bahrain working in academia and helping form international business companies to help corporations and individuals achieve their goals. The document then discusses St. Kitts and Nevis' citizenship by investment program, which allows foreign investors to obtain citizenship by contributing to the country's sugar industry or investing over $400,000 in an approved real estate development and holding it for 5 years.

1. 20 AH february 2016
Dr. Alex R. Suchy von Weissenfeld is a Senior
Consultant and Area Manager Middle East for C&S
International LLC, an internationally active business
consultancy out of Vermont, USA. He has spent the
last 10 years in Bahrain and has held a number of
academic positions with several universities during
this time. For the last 5 years, however, his focus has
been on forming companies all around the globe
and helping corporations and individuals use these
International Business Companies to achieve their
personal and professional goals.
Follow-up article to “A Piece of
Paradise” by Dr. Alex Suchy von
Weissenfeld in Arabian Homes’
February 2016 issue.
Passport Portfolio
SaintKitts&Nevis’“Citizenship
byInvestment”Programme
DIVERSIFIED
ur next stop on our journey through the
Caribbean’s countries with interesting
perks when you purchase property: Today
we are re-visiting the “Federation of St. Kitts
and Nevis” and their “Property and Passport” programme.
Let me refresh your memory or maybe even introduce
you for the first time to this beautiful Caribbean island
nation.The larger of the two semi-independent countries,
Saint Kitts is not only the ‘keeper of the capital’, a city
called Basseterre, but also moreofficially known as Saint
Christopher Island, which is why you probably know by
now who discovered and claimed it for Spain in 1493.
Rule in Saint Kitts changed hands several times over the centuries
between England and France with only a short period of time during
the 17th century, in which Spain reclaimed the island for itself – a peace
treaty between England and Spain in 1630 put Saint Kitts firmly back
under English control.
The inhabitants of the island – before Christopher Columbus claimed
it for Spain - called it “Liamuiga”, which means as much as “Fertile Land”
and that has certainly proven true for many centuries past. Saint Kitts
has produced vast amounts of sugar, almost exclusively, until a declining
world market price forced the government to shut down the production
only as recent as 2005.
O

2. 21february 2016 AH
Since then, the government has successfully attracted foreign
investments into its real estate sector as well as the hospitality and
tourism industry. The latter contributed more than 23 per cent in total
to the country’s GDP in 2014 and is expected to rise to exceed 30 per
cent by 2024.
Nevis, which gained independence in 1983, has also since made
a name for itself in the financial offshore industry. With a stable
government and investment climate, the island nation has never been
in the tabloids when it came to the mention of tax heavens, money
laundering and the likes, yet remains very dedicated to providing
absolute privacy to investors and entrepreneurs.
It was also discovered by Columbus but a little later than St. Kitts,
in 1498, and then called ‘Oualie’ ("Land of Beautiful Waters") and
later ‘Dulcina’ ("Sweet Island") by British settlers and takes its modern
name from a Spanish abbreviation of ‘Nuestra Señora de las Nieves’,
which means “Our Lady of the Snows” and pays tribute to the miracle
of falling snow on one of Rome’s hills, a story of which settlers were
reminded by the clouds constantly surrounding Nevis Peak, the highest
mountain on the island.

3. 22 AH february 2016
Just as its ‘little sister’, Saint Kitts offers a varied portfolio of financial
services to local as well as overseas clients. Company formations are
uncomplicated, privacy can be protected as nominee directors and
shareholders are permissible, and incorporation time is usually less than
48 hours. But – just as Dominica – Saint Kitts does not only offer a home
to your company, but also to you.
In 1984, the government of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis
passed a law which allows foreign investors access to the country’s total
protection as one of their own; the Citizenship by Investment Act.
I have contacted a prominent consultant in this matter, Miss Giselle
Bru. She is located in Dubai and has helped thousands of international
investors to acquire a second and sometimes generally new citizenship
in the Caribbean over the years.
Miss Bru explained that in order to become a “St. Kittitian” or
“Nevisian”, one has the option to choose between two investment
strategies: investment in the country’s sugar industry or investment in the
booming real estate sector.
Pinneys Beach

4. 23february 2016 AH
The ‘Contribution to the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation
(SIDF)’ is a relatively straightforward process, she pointed out, in
which an applicant supports the local, St. Kittitian, sugar industry with
250,000.00 US$ (300,000.00 US$ for a family of 4 – applicant, spouse
and two children under 16) and after successful background checks, is
granted citizenship.
Similar to Antigua’s passport programme we discussed last
month, St. Kitts and Nevis also allow for an investor in its real estate
developments to become a new citizen.
Miss Bru referred me to the government’s official list of ‘approved
real estate developments’, which can be found on the “Citizenship by
Investment Unit’s” website* and pointed out that any of these property
units have to be owned by the investor for a minimum of 5 years before
they can be legally re-sold without any ramification to the newly acquired
citizenship. The minimum investment required by law in order to qualify
for this option in the citizenship programme is a unit worth at least
400,000 US$.
To give you an idea of what type of luxury property this buys you I
have looked at the currently available and already built units. The answer
is: a 1-bedroom studio just like this one at “Butler’s Estate” in Nevis.
But don’t despair it IS pretty and of course it can be rented out to
tourists who are coming to that part of the world aplenty. If you have
‘deeper pockets’, villas and units like those at “Pinney’s Beach” are
available, which have waterfront views and to me seem like a pretty
sweet retirement investment. Speaking of which, when I asked Miss
Bru about St. Kitts and Nevis being a nice place to retire to, she just
laughed and said that the country’s infrastructure is very well developed
and that medical and other services often required by the elderly are
readily available. “In fact,” she said, “St. Kitts and Nevis even allow for a
new citizen to acquire passports for their elderly parents if they so wish,
because in the Caribbean, family is as important as here in the Gulf!”
*http://www.ciu.gov.kn/
Butlers Estate
Butlers Estate
Butlers Estate