(ZIZ News) — Service providers and developers of the Citizenship by Investment Programme were invited to submit issues and concerns in relation to the programme.
Faron Lawrence, a CBI service provider, said the main concern raised, across the board, was the 90 day timeline.
“The feeling is that our competitors are targeting 90 days. We need to be competitive and stick to the 90 days if that’s what we are selling to the world. 90 days has to be an objective. It has to be a measuring stick for evaluating the performance of the CIU. It cannot be that we put it in as something that we have to do. We must actually treat it as an objective and try to achieve it,” Lawrence stated.
Another problem, he said, is the length of time it takes to receive a Certificate of Registration (C.O.R) where he said persons have indicated having to wait for up to eight weeks.
“With the processing taking more than 90 days and in some cases 120 and longer, they finally got that ‘yes I got it’ and you still have to wait a month or two to get the actual C.O.R that will be of any benefit of it. Having been approved, that’s not really the end product that you want. The end product is really the passport and that C.O.R is what really gets you to the passport,” he explained.
The length of time to correct C.O.Rs and efficiency within the unit itself were also highlighted.
Most service providers and developers, according to Lawrence, said the Citizenship by Investment Unit has to appreciate that it does business with international clients across time zones; therefore, the unit should look into extending its hours.
Feedback was also welcomed on the twenty IPSA International recommendations for improving the programme.