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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, August 25, 2021 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris has commended the hard working staff of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) and all other players for their hard and dedicated work that led to St. Kitts and Nevis’ Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme being ranked the best in the world in the 2021 CBI Index conducted by Professional Wealth Management – a magazine published by the prestigious Financial Times.

Now in its fifth year, the CBI Index provides a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of the world’s active citizenship by investment programmes and has become known as the industry’s most reliable comparison tool for CBI programmes.

In the 2021 report, St. Kitts and Nevis received top scores in five of the nine pillars that constitute the CBI Index, namely: Due Diligence, Citizenship Timeline, Ease of Processing, Family, and Mandatory Travel or Residence. 

“This, in my view, is a tribute to the high-quality performance by our employees and key stakeholders who work hard to maintain the platinum standards associated with our widely respected Citizenship by Investment programme,” said Prime Minister Harris at Tuesday’s (August 24) press conference held at the NEMA Conference Room.

The prime minister continued, “The programme has the most rigorous due diligence requirements and is the most efficient and innovative in the world. While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the marketing modalities, the programme is performing relatively well in accordance with our 2021 expectations.”

With its Accelerated Application Process, the Federation’s platinum-branded CBI programme is the only one that offers fast-tracked processing with successful applicants being offered citizenship within 60 days.

Moreover, Prime Minister Harris said the recently introduced Alternative Investment Option is one of the reasons why the Federation’s programme is ranked as the most innovative. The Alternative Investment Option provides an opportunity for privately supported projects that are in sync with Government initiatives.

“This shows why independent observers, having looked at our programme, evaluate it as being the most innovative one in the world. We continue to listen to the market; we continue to heed the advice of professional people who are advising us with respect to the CBI programme. We are aware of some of the challenges; we are aware of what happened before we came to office and we have been working very hard to do the very best we can to make it genuinely the platinum brand that we want it to be,” Dr. Harris added. 

Established in 1984, St. Kitts and Nevis’ CBI Programme is the oldest and most respected programme of its kind. Henley & Partners lists St. Kitts and Nevis’ passport as having instant visa-free access to 157 countries and grades St. Kitts and Nevis twenty-fourth (24th) in its global passport ranking.