ROSEAU, Dominica - The Dominica government says it is making changes to its Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI) a few weeks after the British government had imposed visa restrictions on Dominicans entering the country.
On July 19, London said the decision to impose the visa requirements with immediate effect on Dominica and four other countries had been “taken solely for migration and border security reasons and is not a sign of poor relations with these countries.
London also said nationals of these countries will also be required to obtain a Direct Airside Transit Visa if they intend to transit via the UK.
The British government said that “careful consideration of Dominica’s …operation of a citizenship by investment scheme “has shown clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK”.
Dominica is among a handful of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries with a Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI) through which foreign investors are granted citizenship of the island in return for making substantial investment in the socio-economic development of the country.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who had initially described the position of the British government as “unfortunate” told Parliament on Monday night that the island had been making changes to the CBI program based on recommendations from the United States.
“We have discontinued the granting of citizenship to citizens …in Iraq, Belarus and Russia. As a matter of fact Mr. Speaker we were the first country to stop accepting applications from Belarus and Russia.
“We have issued regulations to restrict the changing of names by citizens because that was one of the concerns of the British. They felt it was too easy for citizens to change their names normally.”
Skerrit said on his request and on the advice of the Attorney General “we put in systems in place to make it more difficult to change the name.
‘All our CBI staff received anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing training from a US-based firm. We restructured the Citizen by Investment Unit and engaged an expert compliance officer to ensure all procedures are updated and quality control is strictly followed”.
Skerrit said that the government had also issued notices of intention to revoke the citizenship of persons who made false declarations or mis-representations regarding their applications for visas in FAFT (Financial Action Task Force) countries, saying “this is part of Dominica’s legal requirements”.
He said Dominica also introduced biometric travel documents. And revised and updated the certificate of naturalization “including by improving its security features.
‘We also developed a new robust risk assessment and engaged firms from the US and UK to commence interviews of all CBI applicants,” Skerrit told legislators.
