The European Court of Justice is clamping down on “golden visa” and Citizenship by Investment schemes – where people obtain citizenship if they invest a certain amount in a country. Here, James Taylor, 36, from Bath, explains why he exchanged more than £300,000 for a property on St Kitts that led to full citizenship, which he can pass on to future generations.

I work remotely as a freelance management consultant, and after Covid I knew I wanted to move abroad permanently. I had visited St Kitts briefly when I was about 16 and my family picked up a last-minute Caribbean cruise deal. It was one of the islands that stuck out because it’s just naturally beautiful. It has rolling hills because it’s volcanic. It has big mountains, and I remembered the beaches being really nice.

When I started looking into it, I knew that, longer term, I’d probably want to open a business here. If I have kids, I would want them to attend school here. So citizenship just made sense. I opted for St Kitts’ Citizenship by Investment (CBI) scheme which you can obtain by investing at least $325,000 in an approved development property. My application was approved in November 2023. I moved to the island in January 2024 and have only been back to the UK once since.

When I went out to look for properties, I took my parents with me because I wanted them to spend the winters overseas with me, which they do. We were taken to a more impoverished part of the island, which had shack-style housing, and I was told that it was one of the areas where the government reinvests the CBI money. I was really glad to see that my investment would go towards doing something for the island.

The poolside view from James Taylor’s condo (Photo: James Taylor)

Not long after, I sold my house in Bath to move into a mixed community of expats and locals in a nice little community block with about 50 or so families. My two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo overlooks the beach and cost $480,000 (£361,000) plus an extra $50,000 (£37,000) for lawyer and government fees. As a citizen I did not have to pay an additional 10 per cent tax for an Alien Landholder Licence as long as I own the property for seven years.

My family are from a construction background, so I bought the condo using money I’d made from selling my three-bedroom mid-terrace house which had needed a lot of work done to it. My council tax bill alone was almost enough to give me the push to leave – it was around £3,000-£4,000 a year. In St Kitts, the equivalent is $200 (£150).

There are maintenance fees and insurance, of course. Here, you have to insure against everything – hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes – because there’s a lot more that can go wrong. But it’s still worth it. The services are very good. There’s high-speed internet and the power is reliable. The water is shut off every now and then during the tourist months. When the cruise ships are in, the population of the islands can double and a lot more water gets used so the government has to be very sensible.

James Taylor, first-right, with friends at an Inception Fest event in St Kitts

At first, food shopping seemed more expensive, because so much is imported – there are tariffs on goods like teabags or cans of soup from the UK. But now I know it’s much cheaper to buy locally grown fruit and veg, and fish at the market. My monthly grocery spending is around $150 to $200 a month. I cook a lot, but when I do go out to eat, I go to local establishments which don’t import their products.

I wanted to move somewhere with a warm climate, but the thing I also love about St Kitts is that it’s a small island community – it has a population of over 40,000. Once you’re welcomed in, you keep running into people you know. Every time I go to the supermarket or a coffee shop, I end up having a 15-20 minute chat. That was the vibe I was going for and I’ve made lots of good Caribbean friends.

For me, that was the appeal of the CBI scheme over just a residency. Being a citizen means I have the passport but also shows that I’m serious about living there. When I tell people I have done the CBI, they know that I have made a commitment to be part of the island and part of the culture rather than just flying in and out, or parking a yacht here and disappearing.

I go to the local fetes (parties) and try and take part in carnival – although I’m not brave enough yet to do the full dress for it. Maybe next year. It’s on a whole different scale to Notting Hill Carnival – it’s the landmark event of the year. I’m just amazed at how many speakers you can get on a truck.

I love learning about how carnival culture came about as well. I’ve been told that in St Kitts it originated because they were making fun of the French who had masquerade balls. It’s mocking the colonisers, and I respect why that’s an important tradition to keep alive.

There’s an incredibly positive attitude out here, which is nice. SKN news, one of the island’s national broadcasters, is full of stories about new hospitals opening, tourism, how they’re helping farmers grow and preserve vegetables. There’s a lot of positive affirmation of the islands growing and developing and that’s really nice to see.

I haven’t travelled much since I moved, but I will be soon. Another great thing about having a Caribbean passport is how easy it is to see the neighbouring islands. I’ve been to Antigua and St Lucia, and everybody tells me I should go up to St Martin for the weekend.

EU plans to impose travel restrictions on CBI countries won’t affect me as much because I still have a UK passport, but I don’t think it’s necessary anyway. The background checks they do when you apply for CBI are extensive. You have to get police reports from every country you’ve lived in, medical checks to show that you’re fit and healthy, and they get all of your bank statements from the past several years so they can check whether there’s something fishy going on. They share all this information with the US as well.

Their concern might be that there are people who get the passports and never go to the country and just use it for travel. But this scheme been very, very good for the island in terms of getting investment and a reliable source of income for the government. And it could impact people who were born and raised Kittitian.

St Kitts’ mountainous landscape

My buddy Javier studied in the UK, and he wants to study abroad again in the future. He shouldn’t be restricted because his government decided to do a passport-selling scheme. If it is brought in, it should only apply to the economic citizens.

When I moved here, people said, “You’ll get bored because it’s a small island”, but I really haven’t. “Island time” de-stresses you – I enjoy the slower pace of life, where if you go out to dinner, it might take a while. Some days I have the beach to myself to go snorkelling and see all sorts of amazing sea life. I have no regrets about moving here.

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