- Grenada CBI office says programme is not open to all nationalities
Grenada Citizenship via Investment Unit Friday disagreed with a senior government official who said that the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme is available to all nationalities.
Foreign persons are awarded citizenship of the island under the CBI in exchange for making a major investment in Grenada’s socioeconomic growth.
Adrian Thomas, the leader of Government Business, stated in Parliament during debate on the 2024 national budget, “the programme is open for everybody, whether you are Chinese, Russian, or African, the first thing this administration sees is a human being, we don’t cut you to see what blood runs through your veins, whether it is African blood, Chinese blood, or Russian blood.”
However, the CBI Unit said in a statement that the Agriculture, Lands, and Fisheries Minister’s assertion during the discussion was incorrect.
“Senator Adrian Thomas, on Thursday evening, December 14, 2023, averred that his submissions in the Senate the previous day on the acceptance of CBI applicants from all nationalities are incorrect,” said the statement, issued hours after Thomas told Parliament while wrapping up the debate that Grenada had stopped accepting applications from Russia and Belarus on March 31.
He did not apologise or notify lawmakers in the Upper House that his prior information was incorrect, and the new information to Parliament was to guarantee that the proper information was posted on Hansard.
“In making the correction, he confirmed that in truth and in fact applications are no longer accepted from Russia and Belarus as of March 31, 2023; and that the longstanding ban on North Korea and Iran remains in full effect,” the U.S. Department of State said.
Until Mame, Grenada was the only nation in the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) having CBI programmes.
Grenada decided to suspend accepting applications in February, after the US-Caribbean Roundtable on Citizenship by Investment held in St Kitts-Nevis.
According to the announcement, Grenada remains committed to the six CBI Principles agreed to on February 25, 2023 by the US Treasury and the five nations of the Eastern Caribbean Investment Migration programmes.
“The CBI Unit’s steadfast adherence to these Principles; and the building of mechanisms to further entrench them in its operations continue unabated and uninterrupted,” the press statement read.
