Is Grenada going to grant citizenship-by-investment faster than other countries?

The liberalization of the application document requirements, the restructuration of the document processing procedures, and the implementation of automated solutions should fasten the processing of the applications for Grenadian citizenship in 2020.

You can become a full citizen of Grenada if you are prepared to spend a comparatively large sum of money. You also have to be able to provide conclusive evidence that the money that you are going to invest into Grenadian citizenship comes from legal sources. Besides, you have to have a perfectly clean criminal record. These are the major requirements for obtaining a second passport of this Caribbean country.  

In addition to that, you will have to submit quite a voluminous package of documents when applying for Grenadian citizenship. You will also have to act through an immigration agent who holds a license issued by the Government of Grenada for providing the corresponding services.

Every single country that runs a citizenship-by-investment program requires that the applications for citizenship should be filed via an authorized immigration agency. Grenada is not an exception from this general rule. The agency, however, will provide all the necessary support to you throughout the application process. You are not going to feel that the money that goes to the agency has been wasted.

If you have already decided that you do want a second passport of Grenada, please apply for a rapid and exhaustive consultation on the matter of acquiring one by writing to [email protected].

Grenada citizenship by investment: Unique bonuses that Grenada offers to new citizens and unexpected problems caused by high demand for Grenadian passports

Grenada is unique with respect to the fact that its passport gives visa-free access not only to Schengen zone countries and Great Britain but also to China. This is quite unusual for the group of countries that grant citizenship to foreign investors.

Moreover, Grenadian citizens are eligible to apply for an E-2 visa to the USA. This non-immigration visa gives its holder the right to live and work in America for an unlimited period of time, in practical terms. This is also a rarity among those countries that offer citizenship in exchange for investment.

It should be noted that the end of 2019 saw rather long queues for Grenadian citizenship-by-investment. This situation is partly attributable to the general growth of demand for the passport of Grenada but even more so, to the change of leadership in the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU), the official immigration agency in the country. Percival Clouden, the new head of the Unit, is introducing some innovations into the processes that his subordinates are engaged in.

Grenada citizenship by investment: A sensible idea for application processing and an example to follow

It is important to realize that application for a second citizenship always entails the need to supply a large quantity of documents whichever country you apply to. Often, a few months are required in order to collect all the necessary certificates and other confirmation documents and to fill out all the forms. These months, actually, precede the submission of the application for citizenship to the authorities of the country by the licensed immigration agent on your behalf.

Grenada Citizenship by Investment Unit has resolved to adopt a very useful practice in order to shorten the time that passes between the moment when the applicant starts collecting the necessary documents and the moment when he or she makes an oath of allegiance to Grenada and receives the long-awaited passport. 

The Unit now allows the applicants to submit the application documents one by one. Previously, the applications were not accepted until all the required documents were collected and submitted in one package. Since a few months ago, the Government officials are prepared to accept the documents from the immigration agency separately and then pass them on to the security agencies for the applicant identification and inspection.

The immigration agent acting on behalf of the applicant for Grenadian citizenship can perform the ‘primary’ submission of the following documents to the authorities that will process them:

• A valid passport;
• A birth certificate;
• An additional (other than passport) identification document that carries the applicant’s photograph;
• Completed official application forms number 1, 2, 5, and 6;
• A police clearance certifying the absence of criminal convictions;
• An education certificate;
• A document serving as a proof of residential address;
• A marriage/ divorce certificate;
• A bank statement;
• A document confirming the legality of the sources of income.

Grenada citizenship by investment: A record-breaking speed of acquisition

Formally, the application processing will not start until the entire package of documents is submitted to the authorities of Grenada. However, with the two-step ‘informal’ document processing procedure, the due diligence checks and the application consideration should take significantly less time. Head of the CIU Percival Clouden has assured that it will.

“The Unit will accept the application documents necessary to perform the applicant identification and due diligence checks and pass them on to the relevant security organizations. While the process is going on, the immigration agent can continue filling out other application forms and preparing other documents. When they are ready, he or she can submit them towards the application whose processing will already have been started. Thus, when we have all the required application documents, we should be able to receive all the inspection results within 20 to 25 days”, he said.

This change of practices should allow completing the application processing within the sixty-day period as is required by law and even faster, in all likelihood.

We should note that currently there are two countries that take between 45 and 60 days to process the application for citizenship, namely, St Kitts and Vanuatu. We will have to see if Grenada is able to beat this record. With the new Government initiative, it looks like it may well do so very soon.

The CIU head has also stressed that the accelerated application processing will have no negative effects on the stringency of the complex security checks. Grenada will continue granting citizenship only to the foreign nationals that fully deserve to be trusted without any reservations.

Grenada citizenship by investment: Optimization of the requirements to the application documents with the view of the legislations in the applicants’ countries of origin

Apart from the introduction of the two-stage application processing procedure, the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Unit has made some adaptations to the requirements concerning the types of documents to be submitted by the applicant.

Clouden has also noted that the CIU specialists have spent a large amount of time and resources on studying the major markets where Grenada immigration products sell especially well. This was done to better understand the needs and the possibilities of the clients in terms of providing the requested application documents. The particularities of local legislations have had to be taken into account.

Based on the marketing research, the Government agency has optimized the requirements that it puts forward to the application documents. Some amendments to the list of such documents have had to be made.

“We have optimized the list of application documents that the prospective citizens of Grenada have to submit with allowances made for the specifics of the cultures and customs of the countries where the applicants come from. In some jurisdictions, obtaining certain documents is simply impossible. Thus, we have allowed for the possibility to submit substitutive documents in such cases”, said Clouden.

For example, neither birth certificates nor marriage licenses are issued in many Arab countries. So, the CIU now accepts Family Books that are traditional for these countries to substitute for these certificates.

Grenada citizenship by investment: The use of special software that will facilitate application processing

Following the example of Dominica, the Grenadian CIU officials are also installing new software that will help automatize a large part of the application processing and supporting document administration.

“We have almost completed the procedure of transiting to the electronic methods of processing applications for Grenada citizenship. Since January of this year, the application processing system has been digitalized to the extent that is possible. Only a few minor additions remain to be introduced”, said the CIU head.

Thanks to the computer software developed by a Canadian IT firm, Dominica has been able to provide for seamless processing of the applications for its citizenship. In 2017, a deadly hurricane slammed onto the island. However, the next year Dominica approved about 2,100 thousand applications for citizenship. It was more than any other country did and it certainly helped Dominica recover from the damages caused by the storm.  

Grenada citizenship by investment: some concluding remarks

In August-September last year, the processing of the applications for citizenship of Grenada slowed down a little bit. This occurred due to the CIU leadership transition from one person to another.  

Percival Clouden, however, has initiated some procedural changes that have allowed compensating for the delay. Currently, the CIU specialists are processing the applications that were submitted to the agency during the previous month. If this tendency continues, Grenada may well become the country that grants a second citizenship within the shortest timeframe in the world.

If you would like to have first-hand information about acquiring citizenship and a second passport of Grenada, please send your requests to [email protected]. We have already helped a great number of people from different parts of the world to become Grenadian citizens and enjoy all the benefits that this status brings. You can also join the group of the lucky ones if you apply for our professional services. Please contact us at the address specified above without any hesitation!