Path to citizenship for wealthy

Government is building a new immigration platform to allow high-net-worth individuals who want to reside and invest in Barbados to get permanent residency status and ultimately citizenship.

Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson said Cabinet recently approved the new immigration policy which would make it easier for those who want to invest in Barbados’ economy.

“Cabinet has approved that persons who fulfill that category, similar to Canadian immigration and some other countries, we will allow them permanent residence in this country, and after being here as an ordinary resident for three years out of five or six years following that, to become citizens of this country,” he said.

Speaking to members of the media at St Alban’s Primary where he delivered remarks to students during a special presentation today, Minister Hinkson noted that the change in policy was a significant undertaking because of the need to give persons such as high-net-worth individuals “a psychological feeling” that they are part of Barbados and can commit to help build this country.

“We can’t do it with the population that we have now, in terms of building this country and moving us to the next level, which is the vision of the Mia Mottley administration. We have to look to open up our country a bit more to people who can be productive.

“Now we are not talking about people who are going to be a security risk, or people who are criminals or who would be looking to bring drugs and create havoc in this country because obviously we have security testing and scrutiny to ensure that we get the best of people,” he said.

“We have a lovely country here to offer and these are people who would be able to build businesses in Barbados to create employment. These are people who will buy properties in Barbados and obviously to buy properties you will need to employ people who are in the construction industry.

“We need to build capacity and to increase our population with productive people and this is going to happen in a way by building platforms to attract both CARICOM citizens and also people from outside of CARICOM who are willing to help build our country,” Minister Hinkson added.