The Grena­da gov­ern­ment has banned na­tion­als from Yemen from ap­ply­ing for cit­i­zen­ship un­der the is­land’s Cit­i­zen­ship by In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (CBI).

Yemen has be­come the sev­enth coun­try whose na­tion­als are un­able to ap­ply for cit­i­zen­ship through the pro­gramme that pro­vides for for­eign in­vestors to make a sub­stan­tial in­vest­ment in the so­cio-eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment of the is­land in re­turn for be­ing grant­ed cit­i­zen­ship.

The oth­er na­tion­als banned from the pro­gramme are from Iran, North Ko­rea, Rus­sia, Be­larus, Su­dan, and Afghanistan.

How­ev­er, there is an open­ing for peo­ple born in Iran, Su­dan, Afghanistan and Yemen. They have to re­side all of their lives in a ter­ri­to­ry or ter­ri­to­ries that is not sanc­tioned by Grena­da.

They could al­so be­come a cit­i­zen of Grena­da if they mi­grat­ed be­fore the age of ma­tu­ri­ty and resided for more than 10 years to ter­ri­to­ries that are not sanc­tioned by Grena­da.

Grena­da’s CBI pro­gramme is in­to its 10th year of op­er­a­tions and fig­ures from the au­thor­i­tirs show that more than 10,000 peo­ple have be­come cit­i­zens of Grena­da through the pro­gramme with the is­land earn­ing mil­lions of dol­lars used to fund cap­i­tal projects and pay debts.

Gov­ern­ment said it projects earn­ings of EC$280.6 mil­lion (One EC dol­lar=US$0.37 cents) this year from the pro­gramme, while it earned EC$324 mil­lion last year.

ST. GEORGE’S, Grena­da, Apr 10, CMC