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Having second thoughts about Antigua Citizenship by Investment after applying. Please help.

G

gmhdssuxef

Mentor Group Gold
Aug 5, 2024
4
0
1
34
United Arab Emirates
#1
Hi everyone.

I am a low-risk (as per OECD) Asian national. I have already applied for an Antigua Citizenship by Investment but I am having a lot of second thoughts.

Note: My home country does not allow dual citizenship.

Objectives​

My primary objectives for getting this citizenship are below, ordered by importance

  • Eliminate home country regulatory burdens like foreign asset disclosures and various other forms
  • Financial privacy & freedom for the future - Where I only need to deal with the country of tax residence and NOT so much with my (too grabby) home country
  • Optimise my taxes
  • Ensure easy future cash out (if my holdings grow significantly in value) by residing and/or getting a citizenship in low tax, low compliance countries now (Note: My home country does not have exit tax)
  • Better travel - My current passport is T3.
  • Ease/Neutral US travel once a year - Close friends work & live in the US and it would be a shame if I couldn't visit them because of this passport (Note: I have already applied the US tourist VISA using my home country passport and got denied due to lack of ties to current residence UAE)

Current financial situation​

  • Significant (at least to me) ($1.5m+) Crypto holdings.
  • Some Real estate ($0.5m+)
  • Been a UAE resident for 2+ years and have businesses in UAE
  • No criminal background

Long term plans​

  • Remain in UAE as long as it remains a low-tax, low-compliance (relative to other reputed counties)
  • Explore another long term residence in another country as a plan B
  • Hold on to crypto as long as possible
  • Slow travel quite a bit and figure out where I want to settle down eventually while building wealth

Concerns regarding the Antigua citizenship​

  • Getting flagged as HIGH RISK, loss/difficulty of banking around the world/UAE, triggering EDD/more paperwork. Below is from a brief talk with compliance officer (acquaintance of friend) at a bank in UAE
    • Getting a CBI citizenship automatically flags your profile as HIGH-RISK and this will trigger EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence) for all financial activities in UAE (likely true for other jurisdictions as well). If your goal is to reduce your paperwork/fly under the radar, this is not the way to go, especially if you have crypto investments/trading and/or real estate in your portfolio and you are cashing out crypto through P2P/OTC/Real estate.
      Click to expand...
  • Getting flagged in WorldCheck or similar databases and life becomes a complete mess
  • Difficulty in getting visas (where applicable) and getting through border controls. CBI citizenship raises immediate red flags
    • One thread in this forum where a US citizen got their bank accounts closed within 3 weeks of receiving their Dominican passport in mail in 2022
    • Some unofficial reports of detention and/or deportation due to CBI passport in this forum
  • Antigua being considered as 7 (high risk OECD) country and what it would mean for me
I would appreciate remarks from others who have received the citizenship (especially recently) regarding their current experience in banking/travel/other residence permits/US/EU travel. Remarks from professionals who help their clients do this is also welcome.
 
#2
I would definitely wait until the current U.S. administration finally settles its visa policy .
As Antigua and Barbuda is supposedly on a Yellow list .
If you have a Southeast Asian passport, I would think twice, as your citizenship offers great potential in real estate.



119037147.jpg
 
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#4
aniglo22 said:
I would definitely wait until the current U.S. administration finally settles its visa policy .
As Antigua and Barbuda is supposedly on a Yellow list .
If you have a Southeast Asian passport, I would think twice, as your citizenship offers great potential in real estate.



119037147.jpg
Click to expand...
Makes sense, although traveling to the US is a concern, it is really not the primary concern for the citizenship.
 
#8
Yes, unfortunately, holding an Antigua passport will likely lead to an automatic denial if you apply for another round of a U.S. visa, especially since your initial application was rejected due to a lack of strong ties to your home country.
 
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#9
Hi. You should really mention your home country if possible at all. It looks like you are using this country risk classification of OECD:
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oe...sk-classification/cre-crc-current-english.pdf
It's about credit default risk, nothing to do with banking due diligence.

So it's not clear what is your current situation. If you were from Japan (ok, ok, not Japan as you need visa for US), it's a big mistake. If you are from Pakistan, it's a good move.

Antigua & Barbuda passport will not help with your goals of "Eliminate home country regulatory burdens" (if you don't renounce your first citizenship), " only need to deal with the country of tax residence", "Optimise my taxes", "Ease/Neutral US travel once a year".
It doesn't have much negatives though. It many cases with potential downside you just don't mention it and that's it.

I've got CBI passport so speaking from experience.
 
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#11
Meta said:
Hi. You should really mention your home country if possible at all. It looks like you are using this country risk classification of OECD:
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oe...sk-classification/cre-crc-current-english.pdf
It's about credit default risk, nothing to do with banking due diligence.

So it's not clear what is your current situation. If you were from Japan (ok, ok, not Japan as you need visa for US), it's a big mistake. If you are from Pakistan, it's a good move.

Antigua & Barbuda passport will not help with your goals of "Eliminate home country regulatory burdens" (if you don't renounce your first citizenship), " only need to deal with the country of tax residence", "Optimise my taxes", "Ease/Neutral US travel once a year".
It doesn't have much negatives though. It many cases with potential downside you just don't mention it and that's it.

I've got CBI passport so speaking from experience.
Click to expand...
That is indeed the index I used. My passport is not a high-risk at all in terms of finance at least. However, it doesn't have very good mobility index. But yes, it's most better than Pakistan.



I do plan to renounce. Do you mind elaborating how this citizenship will not help me achieve the following?
only need to deal with the country of tax residence

My idea is that All my financial activities are only reported to my country of citizenship. And my country of residence is only obligated to send it to the country of citizenship if requested. So, renouncing and getting a new citizenship from a country that is not too interested in my financial activities will allow me in a way to get the monkey off my back.

Are you saying the concerns that I have regarding the citizenship in my post is not something I should be worrying about?

I have sent you DM. Hope that is okay.
 
#13
gmhdssuxef said:
That is indeed the index I used. My passport is not a high-risk at all in terms of finance at least. However, it doesn't have very good mobility index. But yes, it's most better than Pakistan.



I do plan to renounce. Do you mind elaborating how this citizenship will not help me achieve the following?
only need to deal with the country of tax residence

My idea is that All my financial activities are only reported to my country of citizenship. And my country of residence is only obligated to send it to the country of citizenship if requested. So, renouncing and getting a new citizenship from a country that is not too interested in my financial activities will allow me in a way to get the monkey off my back.

Are you saying the concerns that I have regarding the citizenship in my post is not something I should be worrying about?

I have sent you DM. Hope that is okay.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, if you do renounce it's different story. A bold move though. Re "only need to deal with the country of tax residence": you are probably not taxed back at home anyway, so not sure why the home country would send any requests... But that's the way if you 100% don't want to deal with original country anymore.

If you lose original citizenship, the concerns are valid. You will lose your ability to say "Yep, I'm just citizen of my original country who moved to UAE, low risk", it will always be a eyebrow-rising story of getting Antigua citizenship and getting rid of original one.
 
#15
lacomaco said:
Can you give us information about Namibia citizenship? I heard that they offered residency by investment, which is suspended now and no citizenship by investment
Click to expand...
I think we were talking about Trump's Nambia from his first term.

But I think if you invest into real estate, you should be able to get a residence permit and after 20 years or something maybe also citizenship.
 
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