Good news | Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Antigua passports are visa-free to Canada! Identity upgraded again!

Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts, and Antigua passports now visa-free to Canada, identity upgraded

On June 6, 2023, Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, visited Winnipeg and announced the addition of 13 countries that are exempt from visa requirements when entering Canada.

These 13 countries are:

Saint Lucia, the Philippines, Morocco, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Seychelles, and Thailand.

Holders of passports from these 13 countries who have held a Canadian visa in the past 10 years or who currently hold a valid non-immigrant visa for the United States can now travel to Canada by plane without applying for a visa, but only need to apply for an eTA. eTA stands for Electronic Travel Authorization, which is an electronic travel authorization letter. eTA is linked to the passport and is valid for up to 5 years, with a maximum stay in Canada of 6 months (180 days) at a time.

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This will be the first time in years that several Caribbean countries will be conditionally exempt from visa requirements to Canada. Currently, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia all have investment citizenship programs that have low thresholds, fast speeds, and a one-step process to obtain Commonwealth passports.

Interestingly, among the Caribbean countries exempt from visa requirements to Canada announced this time, for Saint Lucia, this is not strictly speaking a “new” addition, but a “restoration”. Why is that?

As early as September 13, 2012, citizens of Saint Lucia were able to enter Canada for tourism or business activities without a visa, with a maximum stay of 6 months (180 days). Therefore, this official announcement of a new addition by Canada is actually a restoration for Saint Lucia. This means that Saint Lucia has been able to alleviate Canada’s concerns about the citizenship of citizens from these countries through investment reviews.

So let’s take a look at Saint Lucia, what advantages does it have compared to other Caribbean projects?

1. Identity Advantage of Saint Lucia

1. No diplomatic relations, no extradition treaty, low security sensitivity, better protection of personal safety, property safety, and tax safety.

2. Diverse models of financing/national debt/donation; among all passports, the cost-effectiveness of individual and family applications is high.

3. Convenient travel, visa-free access to 168 countries worldwide, such as European Schengen countries, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, etc.

4. Simple application materials, worry-free, loose background checks, only 6 personal documents required.

5. EU + bank double whitelist, convenient overseas account opening, full identity can easily open banks in Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and other countries.

6. The only passport in the Caribbean that can be renamed synchronously, the passport homepage and bank account opening do not display previous names.

2. National Advantages of Saint Lucia

1. A Commonwealth country and also one of the “Four in One Country”, enjoying a higher international status.

2. A developed island country in the Caribbean, with the highest GDP among island passports and second only to the EU in economic freedom.

3. A world-famous offshore financial center and tax haven, and a non-global tax country.

4. The international transportation hub in the Caribbean, with direct flights from major countries such as the UK, the US, and Canada. 5. The population of Saint Lucia is 180,000, with high national quality, and has produced two Nobel Prize winners.

Currently, there is increasing attention from around the world regarding the real estate immigration models of multiple countries. The price of investment immigration in Saint Lucia is about to be adjusted, and the threshold for processing will become higher in the future while the cost will correspondingly increase. Now is the time to take advantage of the relaxed policies, plan for investment immigration applications, and contact Yaotianxia Immigration.

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