US passes legislation to prevent Grenadian citizens from having instant access to E-2 visa

Grenada: The United States of America passed legislation that prevents people who buy Grenadian citizenship from having instant access to USA E-2 Visa. The new US policy means CBI passport holders from Grenada must first reside in their adopted country for a period of three years before becoming eligible to apply for an E-2 Investment Visa. 

According to the reports, Grenada Citizenship by Investment Programme has been lucrative source of revenue for developing countries like Grenada in recent years. In 2021 Grenada collected 24 million EC dollars from CBI. In 2022. Grenada collects 78 million dollars in revenue from CBI. The newly elected government has projected that it anticipates collecting 240 million dollars in revenue from selling passports in 2023, that’s almost 20 percent of the overall budget for 2023. 

The news that the US has changed its E-2 Visa is terrible news for the newly elected government. It poses a severe threat to the Future viability of the Grenada CBI programme. Most of the people who buy Grenadian passports do so to get an E-2 Visa and enjoy all the excellent benefits of that Visa.

The E2 investor visa allows an individual to enter and work in the United States. Based on investment in USA business. The E-2 Visa can be extended indefinitely and is valid for three months to five years. 

Before the USA passed this new law on December 2022, Grenada was the only Caribbean country with a CBI program whose citizens were eligible to apply for the US E-2 visa under the treaty agreement between the United States of America and the government of Grenada. 

Successful applicants enjoy various advantages of the E-2 Visa; the spouse and the children under 21 years old can be included on the Visa. Along with that, the spouse can also apply for work anywhere in the United States of America, and children can also get access to the pre, high school education. 

However, due to the new policy, Grenada citizens will have to reside in the country before applying for the US E-2 visa. Various economist project a tough year for CBI in Grenada in 2023. They also projected that the government will fail to achieve the projected $240m in 2023. 

Grenada is the only East Caribbean state whose passport holders have application rights, but 99% of those who purchase economic citizenship do not reside there. This action effectively closes that wide-open loophole, and it is anticipated to have a great impact on future purchases of Grenada CBI citizenship & passports.

Kenneth Rijock, the investigative blogger, cited, “Whether the American action was specifically directed at Russian organized crime figures, a number of whom have invested in Grenada and purchased CBI passports, we cannot say, but it is suspected to be one of the reasons.”