Trouble in paradise: Chinese ‘astronaut’ dads caught in St Kitts passport tangle ***************************************************************** Ian Young in Vancouver Ian Young is the SCMPs former International Editor. A journalist for more than 20 years, he worked for Australian newspapers and the London Evening Standard before arriving in Hong Kong in 1997. There he won or shared awards for excellence in investigative reporting and human rights reporting, and the HK News Awards Scoop of the Year. He moved to Canada with his wife in 2010 and is now the SCMPs Vancouver correspondent. St Kitts and Nevis looks like a typical island idyll, but its shadowy market in passports helps keep the economy afloat. Photo: St Kitts Tourism St Kitts and Nevis looks like a typical island idyll, but its shadowy market in passports helps keep the economy afloat. Photo: St Kitts Tourism It’s been a tough time for Chinese passport shoppers lately. First came the revelation that Canada’s new millionaire migration scheme would likely only accept a few dozen applicants per year, a tiny number that stands in stark contrast to the thousands of rich mainlanders dumped from the previous scheme’s queue in June. Applicants to the new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital scheme will face fierce competition for those rare spots. The chosen few will then be subjected to a forensic audit of their finances, criminality and “political exposure”, a prospect to send a chill down the spines of many Chinese millionaires. But it’s not only would-be Canadian citizens and residents who are facing increased scrutiny from Ottawa. The citizens of the tiny Caribbean bolthole of St Kitts and Nevis are also in the crosshairs. Last month, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced that it was immediately halting visa-free access to Canada for holders of the Kittitian passport. This would not normally be a matter for much concern, either globally or in Vancouver. St Kitts is a federation with a population of just 50,000 people. It has nice beaches and an interesting history, having first been spotted by Christopher Columbus in 1493, but it would exist in pleasant obscurity except for the fact that one of its main industries, in addition to tourism, is the sale of passports. In return for a US$250,000 donation, or the purchase of US$400,000 worth of real estate, applicants to the St Kitts Citizenship by Investment scheme receive lifetime citizenship rights and a passport, all without ever having to set foot on the sandy shores of their new homeland. A Canadian immigration industry source said the scheme was popular with mainland Chinese by virtue of the phenomenon of “astronaut” families, in which the wife and children live in Canada, while the husband continues to earn a living in greater China, occasionally commuting back and forth across the Pacific. Yet Chinese passports do not offer visa-free access to Canada, posing an inconvenience to frequent travellers. Enter the St Kitts passport, which, until November 22, offered the coveted visa-free access. It became a popular option for “guys who still wanted easy access to Canada because mom and the kids live in Vancouver and dad, who has lost [Canadian permanent residency] status, has to attend Susies graduation”, said the source, who has been involved in the China-to-Canada immigration industry for many years. The source said the Canadian decision to cut off visa-free access to Kittitians meant there was “one less reason to get the St Kitts passport”. “Of course there will still be a market for this product but increasingly the St Kitts passport will be more of a fashion accessory than a useful travel document as other countries follow Canadas lead. After all, nobody actually wants to live in St Kitts,” the source said. The reasons for the clampdown appear to be related to security concerns. In May, the US treasury warned that “illicit actors” were abusing the Citizenship by Investment scheme, “in order to mask their identity and geographic background for the purpose of evading US or international sanctions or engaging in other financial crime”. The ostensible targets of the US advisory were “Iranian nationals [who] continue to obtain passports issued through the program”. In its subsequent November announcement, Ottawa said it was implementing the visa requirement “due to concerns about the issuance of passports and identity management practices within [St Kitts’] Citizenship by Investment program.” Canada’s decision to join in the targeting of Kittian passports may not have been aimed at Chinese dads visiting the wife and kids in Vancouver, but they have been swept up in the crackdown nonetheless (as have blameless Kittitians by birth). St Kitts is now frantically recalling passports in the hope that amendments to their data pages will satisfy Washington and Ottawa. Unfortunately it’s not known how many Chinese hold St Kitts passports - since the Kittitian government refuses to publish statistics related to the programme, adding to the fog of suspicion surrounding it. The Hongcouver blog is devoted to the hybrid culture of its namesake cities: Hong Kong and Vancouver. All story ideas and comments are welcome. Connect with me by email ian.young@scmp or on Twitter, @ianjamesyoung70
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 23:58:01 +0000
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