Interview
Charmaine DONOVAN CEO ANTIGUA & BARBUDA CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT UNIT
Can you tell us about the early days of the Antigua & Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU)? The Citizenship by Investment Unit has been in operation for approximately eight years, and we’ve grown significantly during this time. I’ve been working in the CIU almost since its inception. When I joined the team, we were focused on setting up the policies and processes required to get the Unit up and running to process applications. This included the more granular tasks of designing the Certificate of Registration, which was the document issued to the new citizen once their application was successful, and the Oath/Affirmation of Allegiance document, which facilitates the swearing of the oath or pledging allegiance for all new citizens of Antigua & Barbuda. You may not know that in addition to citizenship applications, the CIU also receives and reviews applications from licensed agents who submit the applications on behalf of the citizenship applicants; authorised representatives who promote the Programme; applications to obtain approved development status; and applications for approval to be designated a qualified business investment. Therefore, processes for these applications were also necessary. Our programme is unique in that we facilitate the passport process for successful new citizens. To offer a straightforward process for our applicants, we worked with the Passport Office in Antigua & Barbuda in the early days to hammer out a process that allows the successful applicant to have a ‘one-stop shop’ experience through the Unit. What was your background before working at the CIU? I started with accounting in the hospitality sector and quickly leapt over to banking for about 15 years. During that period, I worked initially in commercial banking and spent the majority of that time as a bank examiner looking at banking through different eyes - the eyes of a regulator. Like every other financial activity, banking has inherent risks,
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THE CITIZEN
