Thais Get EU Passport in Cyprus

Thais Get EU Passport in Cyprus.

The Cypriot government has confirmed that it is to extend its "golden" passport regulations to allow Thai nationals to be able to secure Cypriot citizenship and therefore an EU compliant passport via their "Citizenship by Investment Program".

Already, both Russians and the Chinese have access to Cyprus’s citizenship programme.

Whilst there is some screening, the basic criteria is that foreign nationals can invest a minimum of €5 million in shares or bonds in Cyprus or by a property with a minimum value of €300,000. The golden passport facility was developed to encourage foreign investment in Cyprus following their economic and banking crisis.

Comment

It makes sense for any country to develop closer economic and relationship ties with emerging market countries with already both Malta and Spain also offering similar propositions. Having a Cypriot passport does not mean that new "foreign" citizens will be able to enter the UK. The UK has not signed up Schengen free travel area within Europe.

That said, as Britain heads towards its negotiations with leaving the European Union we will no doubt have to develop stronger ties with other nations. It will come as no surprise that we believe at some point that Britain will offer some form of golden passport entry. The ironic thing is that it appears that both some European nations and possibly Britain will therefore be setting a price on citizenship.