IMI Podcasts

The news is likely to vex golden visa developers who had pivoted to neighborhoods near - but not within - Athens, like Piraeus.

Panama's retirement visas have never been this popular, while demand for the investment-based FNV remains stable despite the higher price.

Our summary of the news this week

• How the big entrepreneurship-based programs (Canada SUV, EB-2 NIW, and HQA) compare to each other in terms of how much hands-on involvement is required from the applicant;
• Why entrepreneurship-based programs more politically palatable than their more transactional golden visa and CBI peers;
• What kind of research investors are actually funding with the HQA program;
• Why processing for HQA visas is so much quicker than for golden visas;
• and , perhaps most importantly, how the physical presence requirements of the program actually work, and whether they really are as flexible as people say.

Our summary of the news this week.

Our summary of the news this week.

Our summary of the news this week.

A Grenada government minister this week surprised the CBI market when he announced that the country's citizenship by investment program had reopened its doors to all nationalities, including Russians. The move would have marked the government's fourth shift in policy on the matter in under two years. It swiftly became clear, however, that the Minister had spoken out of turn: He later retracted his statements, and the CIU confirmed the Minister had been mistaken.

Turkey continues to reform its Citizenship by Investment program. Last week, it removed undeveloped land as a qualifying investment option. Amid rumors of more program modifications and developments, including a potential increase in the minimum investment requirement to $600,000, Siren Chen's article traces the recent history of changes to the Turkish CIP. 

The 2024 CBI Transparency Index, published this week, reveals that CBI programs have become less – not more – transparent since the index was first introduced in 2022. Only 4 out of 11 citizenship by investment programs are adequately transparent, and the gap between the top and the bottom is widening as some programs show improvements while the laggards appear to have given up on transparency altogether.

El Salvador's new $1 million citizenship by donation program is overpriced and unclear, writes Brian Greco in an opinion piece this week. Questioning its competitiveness and viability in the global market, Greco - whose views are echoed by citizenship specialists Hon. Philippe A. May 梅正熙 and Parviz Malakouti, Esq. - points to three specific reasons the announcement falls short of expectations. 

Hungary surprised the market by accelerating the launch of its new Golden Visa, the legislation for which is now set to take effect in January – ahead of the previously scheduled September start. Applications for the program will open in July, explains Hungarian investment migration specialist Laszlo Kiss. Detailed regulations governing the program, such as which types of property will qualify, are expected later this month.

In a startling development in the Caribbean, the proprietor of a Dominica Citizenship by Investment (CBI) property, along with an alleged accomplice from Florida, has been charged with the double murder of neighboring resort owners from Quebec. The motive for the murders, say prosecutors, may have been a dispute over an access road that crosses both properties. The suspects will remain in custody until they're due in court in March, where they face a potential death penalty. 

Our summary of the news this week.

Our guest on this episode of the Mobility Standard podcast was Henry Fan, CEO and Co-Founder of the world's biggest investment migration company, Globevisa. 

In this episode, we talked about:

• How Henry got started in investment migration two decades ago, and what the Chinese market looked like back then;
• His “biggest, stupidest mistake” in business;
• Why he wants Globevisa to be the Amazon of immigration, and what he means by that term;
• What Henry looks for in a local partner and an illustrative story of things going wrong;
• Why Henry considers himself more of an expert on business operations than on immigration;
• Why International investment migration firms have not been successful in penetrating the Chinese B2C market;
• Why compliance risk grows in parallel with company size, and how to mitigate that;
• Why so few of the huge Chinese immigration firms have tried to internationalize;
• Why investment migration companies going to China need to keep a low profile;
• Why the main factor motivating Chinese emigration right now is a feeling of insecurity;
• What philosophy drives Henry Fan, and how he finds happiness in everyday life.

Henry says he doesn't spend much time trying to predict what the future of free movement will look like but that he's determined to do his job to enable freedom of movement for as many people as possible:

"I will try my best to build a platform. And with that platform, maybe I can help people realize they have so many choices. You don't have to pay a huge price to do it; you don't have to have a noble prize to do it. If you want it, the Globevisa platform will help you."

He also acknowledges that he had to learn costly lessons before he was able to make Globevisa a global - rather than merely Chinese - investment migration behemoth.

"One of the biggest, stupidest mistakes I have ever made was to send my best Chinese staff to other countries," he says about his first attempt to internationalize his originally Chinese company almost ten years ago. "I wasted a lot of money and several years' time. I thought that was the way. But then I changed the strategy. Now, I just partner with the best local guys. We enter the market together, and we market Globevisa in a local way."

Talking about the current state of China's investment migration market, Henry laments the prevalence of short-term, low-integrity approaches to business:

“Right now, the competition is too hot. So, no one plays the long game. You just have to survive. And, for some programs, like EB-5 or certain golden visas, you can charge a crazy high price so that just a single client may be enough to keep a small firm alive for a whole year. So, no one is doing business in a decent way anymore. Everybody plays the short-term strategy. They try to find one rich guy, get some crazy profit, and then move on.”