IIP citizens bring in €130 million

Applications for Maltese citizenship under the Individual Investor Programme number over 200 and most of the applications do not face any serious objection, MaltaToday has learned.

The applicants are mostly Russian, but applications hail from over 30 countries.

All applicants made the relevant deposits and in some cases the agents, which include many leading Maltese legal firms, have already been paid a €70,000 fee upfront.

With most of the applicants believed to be headed for Maltese citizenship, it would mean that the government would have raked in at least €130 million, which is €100 million more than estimated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for the first year alone.

Legal firms could theoretically and cumulatively have earned €14 million. It is unclear how much Henley and Partners, the IIP’s concessionaires, will be earning for each citizen accepted.

Government sources were tight-lipped on further details apart from saying that they were overwhelmed by the interest in the scheme.

Investors who make a minimum contribution of €650,000 (plus €25,000 each for any spouse or minor child) will be granted Maltese citizenship, provided they meet due diligence criteria and pass a criminal background check, which could be performed at https://crbdirect.org.uk/.

Apart from having had to purchase a property worth at least €350,000, or to rent a property for €16,000 a month, the third requirement – purchasing €150,000 in financial instruments – would mean a cumulative impact of €30 million in such investments.

The new citizens’ Maltese passport will give them full voting rights on the island and free access to the border-free Schengen area inside the EU.

Muscat estimated a conservative €30 million would be generated in the first year of the IIP, the programme devised by the Labour government to create a posterity fund that would finance government capital spending in health, education, and social spending.