Citizenship matters more than ever before
Just as before the pandemic, countries offering residence- and citizenship-by-investment programs continue to perform strongly. Malta, for instance, remains in 8th place, with passport holders able to access 186 destinations around the world notwithstanding any COVID-related travel bans. Austria remains in 5th place, with a visa-free/visa on arrival score of 189, and Portugal (6th on the ranking with a score of 188) and Montenegro (47th on the ranking with a score of 124) have also consistently performed extremely well.
Looking at longer-term movements in the rankings, the rise of the St. Lucia passport provides a prime example of the mounting passport strength of countries that offer investment migration programs. Over the past 10 years, the Caribbean island nation has climbed 17 places in the ranking, making it one of the highest climbers of the decade.
Research indicates furthermore that the Caribbean — a region with a high concentration of island nations that offer citizenship-by-investment programs — has had the greatest success in reviving tourism in the wake of the pandemic. In March this year, the region received 40% of the inbound international traffic it saw pre-COVID in March 2019, compared to North America (29%), Southern Europe (14%), Western Europe (5%), Southeast Asia (2%), and Oceania, which includes Australia and New Zealand and received only 1% of its March 2019 visitors in March this year.
While unpredictability will no doubt continue to define the coming months, the increasing demand for investment migration is a certainty. Since the pandemic struck, ensuring future access to multiple residence options and/or having dual citizenship, whether by exploring one’s ancestry or by participating in residence- and citizenship-by-investment programs, has become even more essential for entrepreneurs and investors and their families as a means to mitigate volatility and reduce their exposure to risk at a national, a regional, and global level.
