Trends for residency and citizenship in 2022

Kaline Kennard, managing partner at Citizens International, quoted today in Uglobal Magazine said she expects the trend of doing video consultations with global clients to continue in 2022 and predicts that niche businesses would do well in the RCBI industry.

“In general, I think we can expect more growth for businesses that are located in the country of application and are ‘niche’ experts,” Kaline said. “It’s our experience that clients like to deal with a well-established boutique firm versus someone trying to do it all.”

The pandemic has also changed the habits of how investors do business and submit applications.

“The explosion in video consultations, which has mostly been driven by Covid, has increased the comfort level clients have dealing with someone online for an investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even on the millions if they’re investing in property,” Kennard said.

The RCBI industry is experiencing growth in the wake of Covid.

“Covid is also partially responsible for the huge increase in awareness internationally of residency and citizenship pathways, especially in North America and Europe where many people did not necessarily appreciate the critical value of having more than one passport before,” she said. “We are expecting our busiest year to date in 2022.”

Kennard also said that more and more clients in the Caribbean are investing in property as opposed to using government donations to acquire permanent residencies and citizenship – a trend that might continue in 2022.

“I think in the Caribbean, especially in Antigua & Barbuda and St Kitts & Nevis, we will continue to see the majority of our clients invest in property versus making a government donation,” she said. “The property markets are hot right now, especially in Antigua and there is increased awareness globally that the region is a crossroads for the international elite. Five years ago, 20% or less of our clients were investing in property as a basis for their citizenship applications. In 2021, 78% of our clients based their citizenship application on a property investment.”

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