The gov­ern­ment of this British Over­seas has an­nounced plans to es­tab­lish an of­fi­cial Res­i­den­cy by In­vest­ment (RBI) pro­gramme aimed at boost­ing eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and gov­ern­ment rev­enue.

In a re­cent in­ter­view with  BVI News, Pre­mier Dr. Na­talio Wheat­ley de­scribed the pro­gramme as a strate­gic ini­tia­tive to gen­er­ate rev­enue through ap­pli­ca­tion and pro­cess­ing fees for res­i­den­cy per­mits, as well as tax­es on new busi­ness­es and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties brought by in­vestors.

“The RBI is de­signed to di­ver­si­fy and strength­en the econ­o­my by en­cour­ag­ing in­vest­ments aligned with the ter­ri­to­ry’s eco­nom­ic goals and stan­dards,” Wheat­ley stat­ed. “It aims to at­tract in­vest­ments across var­i­ous sec­tors, in­clud­ing emerg­ing in­dus­tries, and fos­ter job cre­ation and skills de­vel­op­ment through new busi­ness ven­tures.”

The Pre­mier al­so high­light­ed po­ten­tial ad­di­tion­al rev­enue streams, such as prop­er­ty tax­es and oth­er re­lat­ed fees, as part of the pro­gramme’s ob­jec­tives.

He how­ev­er said that un­like the Cit­i­zen­ship by In­vest­ment (CBI) pro­grammes of­fered by some Caribbean coun­tries, such as Do­mini­ca, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lu­cia, the pro­posed RBI pro­gramme will fo­cus ex­clu­sive­ly on res­i­den­cy rather than grant­i­ng cit­i­zen­ship.

“This ini­tia­tive pri­mar­i­ly fo­cus­es on res­i­den­cy for di­rect in­vest­ment rather than im­me­di­ate cit­i­zen­ship,” Wheat­ley ex­plained. “It aims to at­tract for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment (FDI) by of­fer­ing res­i­den­cy per­mits to in­vestors.”

The pro­gramme will in­volve a joint eval­u­a­tion process be­tween the In­vest­ment and Im­mi­gra­tion agen­cies to as­sess and ap­prove ap­pli­ca­tions. “This ap­proach en­sures that in­vest­ments meet both eco­nom­ic cri­te­ria and im­mi­gra­tion re­quire­ments, po­ten­tial­ly mak­ing it more pre­cise than some CBI pro­grammes,” he added.

Gov­er­nor Daniel Pruce, in his Throne Speech on Jan­u­ary 7, con­firmed that the RBI pro­gramme will be sep­a­rat­ed from the In­vest­ment Act and in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the Im­mi­gra­tion and Pass­port Act. 

The move is ex­pect­ed to pro­vide new path­ways to res­i­den­cy, es­tab­lish clear guide­lines and cri­te­ria, and im­ple­ment a quo­ta sys­tem based on the ter­ri­to­ry’s ca­pac­i­ty.

While no im­ple­men­ta­tion date has been set, Wheat­ley con­firmed that the ini­tia­tive is cur­rent­ly un­der dis­cus­sion in the Cab­i­net. 

He said the over­all aim is to cre­ate a clear, ef­fec­tive, and col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach to ad­min­is­ter­ing the res­i­den­cy pol­i­cy while main­tain­ing ro­bust im­mi­gra­tion man­age­ment.

“Its ul­ti­mate goal is to con­tribute to the Vir­gin Is­lands’ eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment while up­hold­ing strong im­mi­gra­tion stan­dards,” the Pre­mier said.

TOR­TO­LA, British Vir­gin Is­lands, Jan. 16, CMC

CMC/bv/kb/2025