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54 applicants for Malta's cash-for-citizenship scheme succeed last year

Xinhua, March 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Fifty-four out of 578 applications for Malta's Individual Investor Programme (IIP), known as the Malta's cash-for-citizenship scheme, have been awarded citizenship in 2015, a minister said Tuesday.

Maltese Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government Owen Bonnici made the remarks while replying to a Parliamentary question.

Bonnici said that 476 applicants had provided all the necessary documentation and had passed to the second stage of scrutiny. Of them, 147 were approved and 54 had been through the whole process and were granted Maltese citizenship.

Some 102 applications have not gone through to the second phase of scrutiny for failure to provide all the necessary documentation required, or they had been been refused outright, he added.

On Monday, the minister also revealed that the Identity Malta received a total of 7,903 applications for Maltese citizenship from 2010 till February 2016, 2,035 of which are still being processed. The most significant increase registered in 2015, amounting to a 38 percent jump when compared with 2011.

IIP requires applicants to pay in total of 1.15 million euros (1.26 million U.S. dollars), with 650,000 euros going to the national fund and the consolidated fund; at least 350,000 euros for purchasing a property, otherwise applicants could alter to rent a property for 16,000 euros per year, and no less than 150,000 euros invested in the government issued bonds or shares.

Being an European Union Member country since 2004, Malta joined Europe's borderless area, known as Schengen, in 2007. The archipelago's passport holders can travel to 163 different countries and regions without requiring a visa, including the United States. (1 euro=1.10 U.S. dollar) Endit