"Golden passports’ threaten European security, warns EU commissioner"​

According to Věra Jourová, the EU justice commissioner, Europe’s security is being put at risk by golden visa programmes that allow certain EU states to sell citizenship or residency. The commissioner was marking the first anniversary of the death of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Malta following her investigation into corruption in Malta. She described the assassination as a “game changer” and seems indirectly to link it to states selling citizenship to potentially “dangerous individuals". She also said that the investor migration programmes are problematic and unfair and that “we have legitimate concerns, because if in one country a dangerous person gets citizenship, he gets citizenship for the whole of Europe". Read the whole article in the Guardian.

The commissioner's warning echo's my own concern last year in an article about the broader consequences of events in Malta: "While the assassination of Ms Galizia is under investigation and may be completely unrelated to Malta's 2nd passport industry, the question is if and how this tragic event and the negative publicity could cast a cloud over Malta's highly lucrative €6 billion Individual Investor Programme"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/setback-maltas-cbi-scheme-johann-vanrooyen-1/.

Time will tell whether Jourová's anger at Malta and her pending report will recommend much tighter controls on all EU-based schemes. However, my concern is that her concern seems to be directed only at the few thousand Golden Visa holders entering Europe each year. She completely ignores the much bigger danger posed by the close to two millionrefugees and economic migrants who have moved to Europe during past three years. Half are economic migrants with no right to asylum, but the overall deportation rate is about 3% of all asylum claimants and only 20% of rejected claimants. Most refugees and economic migrants will eventually become residents and citizens, without much, if any, due diligence. Why would this not be of concern to the EU commissioner? 

Land expropriation in South Africa: this is the time to panic.

South Africans emigrants are rushing to the exits in greater numbers than ever before. According to Henley and Partners’ South African office, there has been a 229% year-on-year increase in the number of people applying for citizenship by investment in the first half of 2018.

One of the largest push factors is ‘expropriation without compensation’, an ANC policy that could have disastrous consequences and may result in a substantial destruction of wealth in South Africa - not only will foreign investment and confidence be severely compromised, but commercial banks could go bankrupt. If fully implemented, private farm land technically will have little financial value to its current owners, neither to be sold, inherited or to be borrowed against. The massive financial risk is self-evident: South African banks have lent farmers about R150bn - already agricultural land prices have dropped 32% between December 2017 and July 2018.

Making matters worse are uncontrolled land invasions and illegal land occupation in many towns becoming the norm, with the government unable or unwilling to effectively counter it.

Kuben Naidoo, the deputy governor of the SA Reserve Bank, admits that there is still much to be decided upon with regard to the expropriation of agricultural land, but “if residential land comes under question, and if property rights more generally come under question, that could have an extremely large systemic effect on the banking sector”. However, he says, “it is too early to panic”.

On the contrary, with the economy in recession, foreign capital fleeing the country and South Africans rushing to the exits, this is exactly the right time to panic and for the government to reconsider taking the Zimbabwean path to self-destruction. 

New migration options for South Africans.

While Australia is already home to over 180,000 South Africans or almost 1% of the country's

population, this number could soon dramatically increase. More than 200 South Africans have recently applied for Australian humanitarian visas following comments by that country's minister of Home Affairs, Peter Dutton. The sympathetic attitude displayed by Dutton towards white farmers facing land seizures and violence, could open the floodgates to tens of thousands of South African migrants claiming asylum and using 'humanitarian' grounds to enter Australia.  

While Australia is one possible option, Canada presents another alternative to migrants with humanitarian claims, as Canada appears to be losing control of its land border with the United States. Potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants and asylum-seekers are expected to enter the country this year, at a rate of about 400 per day. The majority of these are Nigerians with legal U.S. tourist visas and who are simply walking across the Quebec border and claiming asylum.

At this rate, Quebec should see an influx of about 150,000 ‘asylum’ seekers and probably double that for the whole of Canada.

Asylum-seekers are welcomed at the border by RCMP officers and are taken to reception facilities. After processing, they are provided with housing, medical and social services and work permits, while their asylum applications are investigated - this could take two years or more.

It will hardly be a surprise if tens of thousands of South African migrants with easy-to-obtain U.S. tourist visas, do begin to use asylum claims (real of bogus), as grounds to enter Canada through the land border with the U.S. this year, along with their continental Nigerian counterparts.

There are of course other ways to enter Australia and Canada, with formal points-based emigration just one option. Another way is through citizenship by investment, with residency visas issued in exchange for investments starting at AUD 1.5 million or Can$800,000.

Read more at  https://www.residencycitizenship4investors.com/p/buy-book.html

Has Canada lost control of its borders?

A year after celebrating its 150 birthday, Canada appears to have lost control of its land border with the United States, with potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants and bogus asylum-seekers expected to enter the country in 2018.

After a huge influx in 2017 of Haitians trying to avoid being sent back to Haiti by the U.S., this year substantial numbers of Nigerian and Central American citizens are walking across the Quebec border and demanding asylum. The Quebec government estimates that more than 400 people could be crossing the border per day this summer, compared to 250 in 2017. Of course, this is only in Quebec, so the overall numbers could be much larger. At this rate, Quebec should see an influx of about 150,000 ‘asylum’ seekers and the whole of Canada probably double that, or about 300,000, equal to Canada's official immigration numbers.

Reception facilities, housing, medical and social services are stretched to breaking point and the frustration at this abuse of Canada’s traditional welcoming culture is running high among Canadians. Add to this the resentment felt by the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants who have been on waiting lists for years and who have spent thousands of dollars to apply for residence visas. With the Liberal Party refusing to close the loophole in the Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S., it is sure that the government will be severely punished in the 2019 general election. Most Canadians welcome immigrants and appreciate multiculturalism, but do not agree with the liberal, George Soros-style ‘open-borders’ ideology and with policies that endanger Canada’s territorial integrity.

Johann van Rooyen

Political Analyst and Director of the Citizenship by Investment Research Consultancy

www.residencycitizenship4investors.com

South African Emigration for YouTube 20 April 2018

New EU visa problems for Africa

With already the weakest passports in the world, things started to look up for African countries in 2018, with a grandiose scheme to introduce a continent-wide e-Passport. This will allow African Union passport holders to enter any of the 54 member states without visas.

But this week the EU warned that tough new visa requirements will be introduced targeting the source states that are responsible for hundreds of thousands of economic migrants illegally entering Europe each year. Unless they cooperate to readily re-admit their own citizens who have been refused asylum by EU countries, stricter conditions for processing visas applications from African countries will follow. These include Mali, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. 

New visa restrictions will include longer processing time, the length of validity of visas issued, higher fees and exemptions for diplomatic passport holders. The latter will surely hurt the travelling bureaucratic elites of Africa and should have an immediate impact and encourage offending states to re-admit their own citizens. 

Thirteen reasons why you should look at 2nd citizenship options NOW.

1    1. Contrary to the myth, Ramaphosa is not necessarily South Africa’s new savior, although he may have good intentions and is a capable politician. He was elected as ANC president by the smallest of margins, with a party deeply divided and with 49% of the ANC supporting the continuation of a Zuma-family kleptocracy. Ramaphosa is already hamstrung by having to keep several Zuma appointed, Gupta-tainted ministers in the cabinet, and he had no choice but to support the ANC’s radical economic transformation agenda such as land expropriation without compensation, nationalization of the Reserve Bank and free university education for all.

2   2. The ANC is being dragged to the left by the EFF, a party whose extreme and populist Marxist policies have the potential to cause havoc. Firstly, it is forcing the ANC to move away from the center, but secondly, its potential for destruction is even bigger if they merge with the ANC or become part of a governing coalition in 2019. The EFF’s dangerous and overt racism and threats against whites, present an existential threat to the white population. Its hate speech is laced with genocidal intentions: “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now”.

.    3. South Africa remains one of the most unequal society on earth, with the ANC, in true socialist mode, seemingly hell-bend to drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator through extreme wealth and estate taxes, land expropriation and more.

4.   South Africa is one of the most violent societies in the world and has the 19^th highest murder rate, at 31 murders per 100,000 people. The massive corruption and state capture have not ended with the departure of Jacob Zuma, a few cabinet ministers and the Guptas. Corruption is endemic, from the remaining ‘Zupta’ cabinet ministers which Ramaphosa chose not to fire, to Provincial government, parastatals, and city and town councils. It is estimated that corruption costs the SA gross domestic product (GDP) at least R27bn annually and about R700 billion in state funds since 1994.

5.   Expropriation without compensation: According to Julius Malema, who introduced the bill in Parliament, this means the expropriation of all land and that means no private ownership of land and that land owners will only have a 99-year leasehold on land. This is of course unbridled   Marxism, derived straight from the writings of Karl Marx and implemented so disastrously by Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Mugabe. While it is not sure that the ANC, who supported Malema’s bill, envisage expropriation in quite the same terms, if the bill is implemented as Malema has suggested, it means that private land technically will have no financial value to its current owners, neither to be sold or inherited. Not only will it lead to a massive destruction of wealth in South Africa, but commercial banks will most likely go bankrupt and foreign investment will come to an almost complete and abrupt end. In fact, foreign investment will collapse long before the bill is even finished being debated.  Already, South African; farmland prices have drop 32% between December 2017 an July 2018, following the ANC's expropriation folly.  

6.  The ANC government has a laser focus on radically increasing inheritance and wealth taxes and trusts. This is evident from the rapid increase in taxes on family trusts at a rate of 45% for any income earned and an effective 36% capital gains tax.

7. Foreign exchange controls could soon become stricter. Currently, citizens have a discretionary allowance of R1 million per adult per year and can invest up to R10 million per year offshore with approval from SARS, if they can show a statement of assets, liabilities and proof of the source of capital. SARS is making this more difficult as of June 2017, with required information going back three years, including disclosing all investments, loan accounts and distributions from local and foreign companies and trusts. With the Rand much stronger in 2018 that most of the past three years, renewed outflows may temp SARS to curb outflows and new tougher exchange controls should be expected.

8. This is a great time to take out as many Rands as you can. The currency has strengthened by more than 20% compared to six months ago. This means that taking funds out of the country has become 20% cheaper and instead of getting only U$69,000 for R1 million offshore, you will now get U$85,000. An annual investment of R10 million will now translate into U$850,000 as opposed to U$690,000 or U$160,000 more. This will easily allow you to obtain foreign residency or even a 2^nd passport in more than 20 top countries for you and your family.

9. In my book, I list 32 countries would love to offer you residency and or citizenship starting at a moderate investment (or once-off donation – think ‘buy’) starting at U$100,000 plus fees for an individual – a bit more for a family.

10.  The residency option, in many cases, will allow you to live, work, receive social services and run a business abroad. In some countries you may have to wait to get citizenship to receive all benefits.

11.  The Passport option will give you full citizenship rights (except voting rights in a few cases) and in visa free travel to between 120 and 150 countries which powerful passports guarantee. South African passport holders can only travel to 96 countries without visas.

12.  In most cases, taxes are much lower than in South Africa. In most Caribbean islands, tax rates are very low or zero on personal income and almost non-existent in the form of wealth or inheritance taxes.

  
13.  Even if you do not want to leave SA now (perhaps want to give Ramaphosa a change?), a second passport is the ultimate insurance for you and your family in case things go the Zimbabwe or Malema way. You can legally acquire a 2^nd passport within a few years by using your foreign allowance on R10 million by buying e.g. a holiday home starting at Euro350, 000 (R5,1 m) in certain areas of Portugal, for Euro250,000 in Cyprus, deposit Can$800,000 in a Canadian financial institution or by donating U$100,000 to Grenada’s Economic Diversification Fund.

How do you go about getting foreign residency or a 2^nd passport?

Thoroughly look at this website http://www.residencycitizenship4investors.com/p/home.html  to assess all the options.

Get an idea of the practical steps to take to become an investor migrant at How to apply.

If you wish to get more information, order the book Residency Citizenship For investors  on this website and pay by credit card or with Paypal account, OR  order it from Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078S3YJRT.  

If you wish to get in touch with a qualified investment migration firm, send us an email to residencycitizenship@outlook.com and we will be in touch with a short questionnaire, some suggestions and a personal, no-fee, no obligation, introduction to an investment emigration consultant.  

2018 Edition of Residency and Citizenship for Investors now available

The 2018 edition of Residency and Citizenship for Investors 2018 - Investment Migration Options for Emigrants, Expatriates and Global Citizens, is now available in eBook format at:

http://www.residencycitizenship4investors.com/p/buy-book.html

And also from Amazon at:   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078S3YJRT