How I Got a Second Passport in Paradise!

Heidi: Welcome to a new episode today. I have a very special interview for you. Really special circumstances. Had my lawyer who helped me get a second citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, Jennifer Harding here with JH Marlin Law. She's in Portugal. Had to have the opportunity to, number one, meet up in person and get some information about the citizenship program. So Thanks for coming. Yeah, coming all the way out to Portugal. Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, how are you liking Portugal so far? It's amazing. I've tried surfing. I'm not too good at it, but having fun, so that's good. Nice, nice. So right off the bat, just to get to know you a little bit, like what brought you to explore this St. Kitts? Because you're originally from Canada and maybe you want to tell me a little about your journey, how you made it there.

Jennifer: So I'm originally from Quebec in Canada and I grew up in Canada my entire life and I went to law school at McGill University and it was when I was in law school I was looking to have international experience at a law firm and I did some research and found discovered St. Kitts and Nevis is one of the best jurisdictions in the world as well they had a Citizenship by Investment program that's been in operation since 1984 and I thought this was a really interesting concept so I went there to do an internship, fell in love with the island, decided that like I wanted to move moved there, lived there, become a citizen. And so that's sort of what started my journey to working in the investment and immigration industry. Nice.

Heidi: So how long have you been helping people get citizenships now?

Jennifer: Our firm has been operating for just over three years. So for three years now, we've been helping people all around the world get citizenship through investment.

Heidi: So what are some of the benefits of getting a citizenship in St. Kitts, regardless if you're going to, say, renounce and your original citizenship. What are some benefits people can see from, like why would someone want to choose St. Kitts? So

Jennifer: there's family, business, personal freedom advantages. So with the St. Kitts and Nevis passport you can travel visa-free to over 140 countries including the in the EU, Shang Tsien area, the UK, Switzerland, Russia. As a Canadian, I have both Canadian and Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship, and I don't have visa-free to Russia with my Canadian passport, but I do with Saint Kitts, so there's lots of visa-free opportunities, and visa-free countries are regularly added to the list of countries. It's also for business advantages. Some people want the passport to be able to travel on, as well as St. Kitts and Nevis is a tax-friendly country, so there's no personal income tax. So there's business advantages in that regard. And family advantages are that you can pass on the citizenship through Descent, as well as include other family members in your application.

Jennifer: So you can include sometimes your parents, sometimes your children, So those are some of the

Heidi: advantages. Nice. You know, some people hear, oh, there's no income tax. How do they make any money? How does the government survive? So what are people taxed on in St. Kitts and what aren't they? What are some notable?

Jennifer: So if you have a local business in St. Kitts and Nevis, then you're subject to taxation. As well, the Citizenship by Investment and Financial Services industry, they as well have taxation, and there's VAT on services locally.

Jennifer: So those are some of the ways that the government generates revenue.

Heidi: When

Heidi: it

Jennifer: comes

Heidi: to going through this process of applying for citizenship, just for people who are watching who might be thinking about it, like maybe one day, you know, one day I'll do that, just so they can have, you know, a grasp of what it all takes. How long does the process usually take? And I know that there's this donation fund route, or there's also through purchasing property, obviously, that will make that process longer. But yeah, what do you think is some expectations people should have?

Jennifer: So the expectations that people should have is that it takes a lot of hard work from both the attorney as well as the client getting documents to be able to submit the application. So you've been through it. I have. You can attest to the fact that there's lots of documents involved. Yes. So there's the donation option, which right now they have a limited time offer for a family of four or less starting at $150,000 U.S. Dollars, plus due diligence fees and legal fees and other fees. And then there's also the option to invest in government-approved real estate starting at $200,000 to be maintained for seven years, plus there's a donation fee as well with that, $35,000 for the main applicant, $25,000 for the spouse donation. As well there's a $400,000 real estate option which you can maintain for five years plus other fees. So those are the different options, the real estate as well as the investment fund. And you did the investment

Heidi: fund. Yeah. Yeah. And

Jennifer: that was me too.

Heidi: when you get going on the program, you sent me a list of all the paperwork you needed and I just remember going through the checklist like, okay, okay, yeah, okay. But then actually obtaining that paperwork can be time consuming, just so you know. So just plan and try to be efficient.

Jennifer: Get to know your local

Heidi: notary, for sure, that will happen. Yeah,

Jennifer: that you'll need that. You know, it can take as little, we've had applicants be approved in four months, and some has taken much longer. It really depends at the time that the application is submitted as well if all the documents and the file is complete or not. So it can take, on average, you know, six months plus as well. So just be, you know, just to just expect that to take some time.

Heidi: Yeah, it could vary. So yeah, talking about unplanned timing issues, how has this quarantine situation, has that kind of flooded you with new applicants or Have you seen a withdrawal or how has that affected the number of clients that you're seeing?

Jennifer: So we've seen a real increase in clients. It's kind of overwhelming, but we've had a lot of new clients. So right now they're allowing online submissions. If you wanted to start the process of doing the due diligence, they require only a few of the documents to start doing a due diligence

Heidi: background check. That's something that is usually like, you know, right off the bat, if you have a record chances are it's not going to go through. So I think that's something for people to know as well.

Jennifer: Yeah. So if you have a criminal record, they don't accept applicants that have a criminal record, it's really important that you disclose any sort of issue that you think might be a reason for why you won't be accepted as a citizen. And then the person, the agent that you have can sort of do a little bit of a risk assessment, but ultimately it's up to the Citizenship by Investment unit.

Heidi: to approve all

Jennifer: applicants.

Heidi: And

Jennifer: for

Heidi: sure, having you, someone who's there on the island to go in person and talk to someone you know pretty much where they're at and what's going to be a red flag or not. So if you have something that you're like, oh, I don't know if that's going to be an issue, go ahead and tell it to your lawyer, to Jennifer, if you have hired her. And she can definitely give you a better rate of expectations for your success there. Yeah. So you're getting this new influx of people coming in. What are they like? Where are they from? And yeah, are they into crypto?

Jennifer: Yeah. So we're getting a lot of people from all around the world, like really all around the world. But recently we've seen a lot of U.S. applicants applying as well as people that are in the crypto space that are interested in getting a second passport. So that's something that we're familiar with and that we're able to assist with. Yeah, and

Heidi: you see people internationally as well, so it's not technically limited to U.S., but then when you're dealing with people outside the U.S., that could be also an indication of it might take a little bit longer just for assessing, you know, things like translation or the types of documents and what they look like. Yeah. Okay, cool. So you have your citizenship. You got approved. Congratulations. You have this. And you want to go to St. Kitts or maybe you're already in St. Kitts. What is it like to be in St. Kitts? What's it like there?

Jennifer: It's absolutely amazing. I love it. I've been living there since 2014. I've also lived in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands as well and traveled throughout, but I really love St. Kitts and Nevis for its tranquility, friendliness of the people, and just if you're someone that really likes, you know, peace and to be in nature, it's the perfect place. There's lots of water activities. There's diving, snorkeling, kayaking, boating, you name it. There's, you know, if you want to find something to keep yourself busy, you can.

Heidi: Yeah. Maybe if a boat drives by, they're surfing. So, so how long have you lived in St. Kitts? Has it like been like all at once, like you moved to St. Kitts to start this law firm or were you there before? Or like, yeah, how did that work?

Jennifer: So I moved there full-time in 2014, and then in order to get more familiar with the country as well as to do the citizenship program. And then I realized I do want to come back and live in St. Kitts and Nevis in the long term. So I moved to the Bahamas to do a legal education certificate to become qualified as a lawyer in all of the Eastern Caribbean jurisdictions. So I did that qualification, and then I moved to the Cayman Islands for a year, and then decided I want to live in St. Kitts and Nevis and this is what I want to do. So that's when I started the firm and I moved to St. Kitts and Nevis full-time. Nice.

Heidi: And so what's it like for you having somewhat international clients and something as important as a citizenship program? What's it like for you as a lawyer? Dealing with that. I'm sure some people are stressful. They're always emailing you. How is, because in my experience, you're very responsive and it's like amazing. I kept thinking like, oh no, I have to send another email. Hey, Jennifer, how's it going? But so yeah, what's it like for you? Do you enjoy your work?

Jennifer: Yeah, I really enjoy it. And I encourage everyone to, you know, feel free to contact me at any time. I'm happy to answer the questions. It actually facilitates the process if there's open communication with the client. And yeah, so I mean sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night or if you need me at a certain time and you're in a different time zone, like I'm accommodating as much as I can. So

Heidi: Jennifer is also buddies with someone who you guys might be very familiar with and is also a famous Kittishian, not St. Kittsian, it is called Kittishian or Nevisian, depending on what island you're living on, Roger Ver. So

Heidi: Did you work with him or like, do you hang out with him or yeah, what's Roger like?

Jennifer: I am not gonna talk about him personally but he's done the citizenship program, I think he did it around 2014 and he lives in St. Kitts and he's there quite often so yeah. It's a success story. It's a success story and a lot of people are motivated in the crypto space, they hear about Roger's story and then they're interested in doing the same and becoming a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Heidi: which they consider

Jennifer: a country that's more freer than

Heidi: most. Yeah, that's been my experience as well, traveling with it. Honestly, the first time I used my passport was leaving the Bahamas. I flew to London and I was so paranoid that clearly I didn't look like someone who was originally from St. Kitts and Nevis. But the guy was so friendly. The passport control, I don't know if that's talking about the London passport control or just That was my first introduction using the passport and it was great. I've since used it through Asia, through Europe, and absolutely no issues. If anything, people are like, it's like a novelty for them to see a St. Kitts passport. I know you've had that experience as well. Yeah, I've had that experience as well. They almost want to take a selfie with you like they know someone from St. Kitts or something. But yeah, totally friendly, especially if you're someone who's, you know, been a U.S.

Heidi: citizen all your life and you've kind of been ingrained with this thing like, oh, the U.S. passport is like the end-all, be-all. There's other very well-respected passports to hold as well, and St. Kitts and Nevis, I think, is a really good option.

Jennifer: And right now, especially with U.S. citizens, they have restricted visa-free travel. So that's another motivation. We're seeing a lot of younger applicants as well as older applicants that are interested

Heidi: in... Yeah,

Jennifer: they're limited to like

Heidi: 28 or something. How many countries can U.S. citizens go to now? I think it's around something around 28. Very limited. Very limited. So yeah, that's pretty interesting. So that's another benefit of holding multiple passports. Just because I've said this, when I first did a video on my experience of getting a second passport back in 2019, 2018, time has been just melting around me. So when I did that video, a lot of people, it's hard for people to kind of have a forward thinking or understand this Plan B attitude. Not everyone, but situations like this where it's definitely like a black swan event, you're going to be happy that you have a second option, a second passport that will help you travel. Because when you say things like, oh, you know, The U.S. passport lets me go to these countries and St. Kitts lets me go to there. For some people, understandably, that can be kind of like a luxury.

Heidi: Like, oh, you have like a collection of passports to let... So you can travel all these places. But they're tools that allow you to live your life freely. And yeah, so the more the merrier, I think.

Jennifer: And how is your experience like? Because you ended

Heidi: up renouncing your U.S. citizenship. That for me was still the... A great decision for me. I have not regretted it since the day it happened. In fact, I think I got my St. Kitts passport in the mail and two weeks later I was in the Bahamas renouncing. I have done a video talking all about that experience. I'll be linking it up above for you guys to check it out if you haven't yet. But yeah, freedom. And that was talking about leaving the Bahamas and going to London that was the first time I was traveling on just St. Kitts Passport, like no backup of the U.S. passport. So that's why I was taking my first little baby steps and, you know, testing your life. The real free life, yeah. And it was great. And ever since then, I'm just like, oh, where can I go to next? So yeah, it's been great. I'm really glad that, number one, St. Kitts has such an really attainable program compared to most.

Heidi: And the legitimacy of the program has been well-established for over 30 years, and it lets you travel to so many different countries. I think it's a legit option for you if you have the ability to do it.

Jennifer: Yeah. So if anyone wants to contact me to get more information, you can visit our website at jhmarlin.com or send me an email at jennifer@jhmarlin.com, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Heidi: I can attest to that.

Jennifer: She can. She's very

Heidi: helpful. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so thank you for taking the time for this interview. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I keep checking the waves back there. Their monster, probably too big for us to get us. She's been showing me around Portugal, so she knows all the good spots. Yeah. Anyway, thank you everyone for tuning in, and it's going to wrap it up for this video, but we'll be seeing you again very soon, so

Heidi: stay happy and

Heidi: healthy. See you later.