NewsSaint Lucia Remains Open to Receive CIP Applicants from Russia

Saint Lucia has decided not to follow the Antigua & Barbuda policy of refusing to accept CIP applications from Russian citizens, since the Ukraine- Russia conflict.

Former Saint Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, last week, called for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations to ban Russian super yachts and the rejection of Russian applications under Saint Lucia’s CIP.

Antigua & Barbuda’s CIP unit announced on March 4 that it had suspended applications“ from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine” to avoid “Due Diligence complications…”

In contrast, Saint Lucia’s Minister responsible for CIP, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, does not accept that Caribbean jurisdictions should turn away Russian citizens from applying for regional citizenship just because of their citizenship or where they were born.

He told reporters this week, “I do not believe we should penalize people just because they happen to have been born in Russia.”
According to Hilaire, Saint Lucia’s CIP, which processed 40 Russian applications between 2016 and 2021 and raised $97 million, will continue to consider “all applications” based on the findings of its usual Due Diligence process.

The Minister, however, said Saint Lucia “will not do business with banks and entities sanctioned by the United Nations or our partners in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).”

But he insists Saint Lucia’s CIP unit will continue to process “all applicants” because “we do not believe you should be banned just because you were born in Saint Lucia, or in Syria or in the USA.”

He maintains all applicants for Saint Lucian citizenship by investment “will be processed based on the requisites, and not on the fallout of a war.”