No syndication. No rehashes. No PR fluff. First-hand CBI industry observations, policy analysis, and client case debriefs — 11 years of field experience.
On May 17, 2026 the Investment Migration Agency moved interviews for 17+ family members from "ordinarily required" to mandatory. Three family profiles feel the change most — the interview is fact-level cross-check, not an English test.
Dominica vs Antigua due diligence comparison in 2026: Dominica's CBIU now runs a four-tier framework aligned with FATF, with enhanced due diligence taking 4 to 7 months. Antigua keeps its three-tier framework but holds the 5-day residence rule. Same Caribbean tier, very different client experience.
F. Chen has held a Saint Kitts passport for two years but feels increasingly exposed at the border — passport in hand, no real connection to the island. Priority One, launched April 2026, is built for exactly that gap.
From 1 May 2026, all $400,000 real-estate citizenship payments must route through Türkiye's Güvenli Ödeme Sistemi escrow platform, and residence-permit fees rise roughly ninefold. The substantive shift is not the extra payment step — it is that source-of-funds review now reads the central-bank escrow flows directly.
Saint Lucia citizenship 18 month backlog reality is now baseline. IMI Q4 2025 processing data shows 18 months average, 26 months at the tail, with applications up 424 percent. A late call from my LA home with a client at month 14, plus what I actually told him.
The Vanuatu passport lost EU and UK visa-free access by 2024. Counterintuitively, the $130K passport now occupies a clearer position than during its inflated 2022 era. Ken on the three narrow use cases that remain.
ECCIRA's proposed 30-day extension is postponed past mid-2026, so May 2026 applicants are locked into the existing five-cumulative-days standard. Eight of the most common buyer questions — entry-day counting, family aggregation, renewal-time catch-up, voluntary renunciation.
Grenada $235K vs Saint Kitts $250K. The $15K gap doesn't buy China 30-day visa free (mainland-born holders cannot use it without renouncing). Ken breaks down what it actually buys, with a real family decision.
Saint Kitts CBI mandatory biometrics April 2026 reform is now operational. Every applicant and dependent age 16 and above must submit fingerprints, photos, and a passport scan in person. Due diligence runs roughly four months. China-mainland collection centres are open. Here is the real timeline from our active files.
In May 2026 Dominica's CBIU consolidated its restricted-nationality screening into a five-tier framework. Investment thresholds and processing speed unchanged; documentation language tightened. Mainland Chinese applicants sit in Tier 2. Tier 3 carries a $7,500 non-refundable background-check fee.
Four months after the first Chinese batch of Sao Tome approvals in January 2026, three real use cases from a dozen clients: Dubai banking, CPLP Portuguese pathway, and cross-border trade backup identity.
The Saint Lucia CBI demand spike pushed filings up 424% in one fiscal year. Behind the headline sit a 20-24 month timeline, the price reset that drove demand, and a shift toward the real estate route.
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