St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Application in Progress

Hi Alex, 
Why SKN?

John C. wrote:

Hi Alex, 
Why SKN?

Hi John 

Why SKN? There are a lot of reasons that I chose SKN.
1. a genuine white market passport issued by a government (vs. a grey market passport which one can get it by bribing some officials. vs. Even worse, a black market passport which can only throw the holder to the jail.)
2. well accepted worldwide--visa free or visa-on-arrival to 128 countries, including EU and UK. (vs. another legitimate choice: Dominica, which is not that well accepted and does not have such a good reputation as SKN. Yet Dominica is the cheapest way to get a second passport.)
3. my plan B 

What do you think about SKN? I'll go there next summer.

alexander07010 wrote:

John C. wrote:

Hi Alex, 
Why SKN?

Hi John 

Why SKN? There are a lot of reasons that I chose SKN.
1. a genuine white market passport issued by a government (vs. a grey market passport which one can get it by bribing some officials. vs. Even worse, a black market passport which can only throw the holder to the jail.)
2. well accepted worldwide--visa free or visa-on-arrival to 128 countries, including EU and UK. (vs. another legitimate choice: Dominica, which is not that well accepted and does not have such a good reputation as SKN. Yet Dominica is the cheapest way to get a second passport.)
3. my plan B 

What do you think about SKN? I'll go there next summer.

Hi Alex,

1). In everything you do you must cut costs because you do not know what the future brings.
With this in mind, I'd say Dominica because it's cheaper.
With such passport you can live and work anywhere in the OECS, the EC$ zone (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC$).

2). There are many other good citizenship by investment programs in other places, and I guess you already did your homework well.

3). I do not know what you try to accomplish with your relocation, or what work you can do so I could give you an independent opinion.

I just received my certificate of Citizenship and expect my passport from SKN to arrive next week.

We used one of the most prominent US firms to guide us through the process. This was important because he was able to review everything before it was sent to the required Attorney licensed in SKN. 

The process was smooth once we gathered all of the required documentation, with the FBI background check taking the longest time.

There were a few blimps along the way which delayed my partners certificate and passport, since his income over the years was from a company that he sold over a decade ago, and it was difficult to trace the source of income and the source of the money to pay for his citizenship. However, once current 1099's were produced indicating current income, they accepted that paperwork. Unfortunately, we were delayed a full six weeks additionally because the government of SKN closes down for six weeks in December and January. No one bothered to tell us that until we inquired what was happening. So that was a real surprise. Once they reopened in January it still was another 3 weeks before there was notification of approval.

So, all in all, I would say be sure to have your paperwork correct, and all together, and be very patient. Only in the USA is there a sense of urgency in anything, and a desire to clear one's desk at any time in the near future.

Thanks for sharing, robbb. Are you going to SKN to pick up your  passport or get it by courier? How long does the whole process take in your case? For me, I used the most internationally recognized firm (which is about US$10,000 more expensive than other firms) for a sense of secure. And I had my first skype meeting with the man there some day last July. I passed the initial check (not the real background check) in Aug., 2013. And according to the timetable they told me, I expect to get it before July this year.

To John, I just need another passport to travel. Not intended to relocate in SKN or that region, but will spend sometime there annually.   I grew up by the ocean and identified myself as an "islander," so no matter where I go, oceanfront is a must.

The documents were sent to the US based attorney at the end of June 2013 and I received my letter of approval in November.  I did not mention that I held up payment until mid January. It was about a month ago that this occurred, and as I said, the Certificate of Citizenship arrived last week.

The documents will be delivered via courier as it is not convenient to fly to SKN at this time.

Well, well, well..... here it is April 28th, and I still do not have my documents. The certificate of nationality was made available, but had the wrong place of birth on it. The US attorney handling this process asked the SKN attorney to request a corrected copy from the CBI department, which is just upstairs from his office. Still no corrected copy. The SKN attorney is holding the incorrect certificate and the passport (which IS correct) until both are available to be shipped not by courier, but by FEDEX via overnight at a $100.00 a pop.

Now the sad part: The CBI department provided a certificate of citizenship for my partner that also was incorrect. So that had to be returned as well. Finally after about 5 or 6 weeks, his passport arrived, and that too seems to be OK. However we are still waiting for those correct certificates. What a joke. Here the government has a 2 BILLION dollar cash cow and the only source of income for the islands as far as a national income stream, and they treat it like a piece of crap. Fortunately we want the passports only to escape the USA, and after this surely we will not be living in SKN.

Hi Robb, sorry to hear that crap. My attorney submitted my application to CIU in early March. So far there's no any update and what I can do is wait and pray. Hopefully the approval letter will be issued in June or July. Also I wish you and your partner all the best.

The last word:

The Certificates finally arrived in June 2014!  We are both official now. We finally gave up, and moved to Panama in the mean time, and are living here now. The documents were sent to us in Panama, and guess what? There was no opening of the letter, as there was when the passports were shipped (via FEDEX) to the USA.

Apparently Panama is not as interested in reading everyone's mail as the US is.

Hi Robb. You've worked on it for quite a while, why giving it up in the end?
Well, I got a reply in late July. The letter from the CIU asked for more personal information in an affidavit format. My attorney told me it would usually take 2 to 3 months to get further updates from CIU. Hope I'll get a approval letter by late September. Well the CIU got reformed (and moved to a new building) in July somehow under the US's press because some Iranian used SKN passports to conducts some crime. So what affects me is that seeing my case was submitted before the reform in July but my recent affidavit was submiited after July, I'm not sure whether it will postpone the handling time.

Clarification:  We did not give up on SKN and are officially citizens. We simply quit waiting to move to Panama before receiving the SKN passports.  Living in Panama for now.