Island Hit Hard by Hurricanes Is Selling Citizenship for $200K

Dominica, a small island in the eastern Caribbean, has welcomed thousands of new citizens in recent years who have no intention of living there. The country has been selling citizenship to fund government programs, including efforts to rebuild from 2017's devastating Hurricane Maria and make the island more resilient to climate change, the Washington Post reports. Stronger and more frequent hurricanes are a threat to all Caribbean countries, but Dominica's craggy landscape makes it especially prone to landslides, the Post notes. The former British colony, which has one of the world's biggest "golden passport" programs, recently raised the minimum price for citizenship from $100,000 to $200,000.

Dominican passport holders enjoy visa-free access to many nations, including those in the European Union, making citizenship attractive to many, including businesspeople from countries like Pakistan who have to travel for work but face strict visa requirements. Agents who help clients obtain Dominican passports have offices in Beijing, Berlin, and Dubai. The program now accounts for the bulk of government revenue in the country of 71,000 people. Officials say it has helped the country invest in better infrastructure and new, more resilient homes without taking on unsustainable amounts of debt.

Irving McIntyre, Dominica's finance minister, says they realized they had to "get a self-dependent form of financing" to deal with climate change after Hurricane Maria. But the project has its downsides. Last year, the Guardian reported that the thousands of people who had acquired Dominican citizenship since 2007 included at least one suspected war criminal and several people who had been put on Interpol's wanted list after gaining citizenship. The UK ended visa-free access for Dominican citizens last year, citing "clear and evident abuse" of the passport program. In response to pressure from the US, Dominica and countries with similar programs have stopped accepting Russian citizens and have pledged to stop accepting applications from people who have been rejected elsewhere, the Post reports. (More Dominica stories.)