Business as usual for Dominica’s CBI programme despite hurricane upheaval

Last updated: September 27, 2017 at 15:31 pm

The Citizenship by Investment Programme in Dominica – which earlier this year was ranked the world’s best – is open and working as usual following the destruction brought by Hurricane Maria.

Claims, circulated online earlier this week, state that applicants expecting Dominican citizenship should expect delays.

But this has now been branded false, with the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) reporting “minimal disturbance” to the processing of applications.

Infrastructural damage to the department’s building is minimal, and all lines of communications have been restored, including emails and phone lines.

‘Best in the world’

The CIU, which is responsible for the processing of all citizenship applications and due diligence procedures, recently launched an online submission portal.

Enhancements such as these are cited among the reasons that the department was able to get back to work so quickly.

Emmanuel Nanthan, coordinator of the CIU, said: “The streamlining of our processes has meant that we have been able to work with minimal disturbance despite everything going on outside our windows.

“We are fortunate to have robust frameworks that have enabled business to carry on.”

The Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, is among those urging Dominicans to ensure services on the island are back up and running as soon as possible.

"This is not a time for us to complain, it’s a time for us to roll up our sleeves, pull our socks up," he said.

[caption id="attachment_5570" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Roosevelt Skerrit (file photo).[/caption]

In June, Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment Programme topped the comprehensive CBI Index published by Professional Wealth Management.

The magazine is a publication from the London-based Financial Times.

Dominica scored 100% in four of the seven pillars used to calculate the overall score.

The perfect scores achieve over ease of processing, minimum investment outlay, due diligence, and residency requirements, have been unaffected by Hurricane Maria.

In the report, Dominica’s citizenship by investment was described as “a lifeline in times of distress” following Tropical Storm Erika in 2015.