Interesting the large number of Israels who have taken advantage of the Descendants Policy to become Portuguese citizens, mainly citizens of convenience as most are non-residents:
The Parliament is considering a change in the current legislation, which would enable foreigners who already live in the country to obtain Portuguese citizenship more easily.
According to Journal Jurid, all foreigners who have spent a certain time necessary to achieve naturalisation can be subject to this potential change. The Parliament is expected soon to analyse the current legislation and propose changes to the time required for a foreigner to stay in the country to acquire naturalisation, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Currently, a foreigner residing in the country has his time count reset when receiving formal authorisation to stay in Portugal,” the Journal Jurid points out.
The interest in Portuguese nationality has risen in the past few years, as the local media report that in 2022, around 37 per cent more people have filed their applications. According to the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), the total number of applications during this time reached 74,506.
Out of this total, the respective authorities issued 64,040 opinions, with only 911 of those being negative, while the majority received a positive answer. As per the origin countries, the majority of those who obtained Portuguese citizenship in 2022 came from Israel (20,975), followed by Brazil (18,591) and Cape Verde (3662).
However, for the acquisition of nationality in terms of marriage or de facto union, the majority of applications were filed by Brazilian nationals (9,435), followed by Venezuelans (1,536) and Cape Verdeans (900).
What is really interesting about Israelis in Portugal is that, more than often, they don’t reside in the country after obtaining their citizenship. Only 569 Israeli citizens are Portuguese residents despite 60,000 Israelis having Portuguese nationality as of 2022. As per Brazilians, 239,744 of them continue residing in Portugal after obtaining citizenship.
Some of the benefits that Israelis can enjoy after obtaining Portuguese citizenship include paying less taxes, having better living costs and, in general, spending a less stressful life compared to other countries. However, as pointed out, some disadvantages are the language barrier and lower income.
But one of the greatest benefits of Portuguese citizenship is travelling in the Schengen borderless zone, which Israeli passport holders are still subject to talks for the EU and US visa waiver programmes.
“This was a big deal for Israelis as carrying an Israeli passport is much more restrictive. This general conversation also touched on higher education. The academic prerequisites for state universities in Israel are high, and private schools are costly. In the EU, however, the terms of acceptance are more relaxed, and the cost is lower if you are an EU national. This general discussion motivated many families with European origins to apply for EU nationalities,” Lior, an Israeli national who now has Portuguese nationality, pointed out.
However, the number of Israelis applying for Portuguese citizenship might experience a decrease as 2022 was the last year when they could apply for nationality under the Descendants Policy – a programme that enables Israeli nationals with descendants in the country to acquire Portuguese nationality easier compared to other nationalities.
Meanwhile, in Canada, few if any settlement funding goes to citizenship preparation:
A group of Democrats is appealing to party leaders in the House to restore funding to a grant program that helps immigrants prepare for naturalization.
In a letter led by Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), 26 members called on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to support funding for the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program (CIGP).
The program is a relatively tiny fraction of the Department of Homeland Security budget: It has awarded $132 million in grants since 2009.
But the lawmakers say its effects are substantial.
Through 579 competitive grants over that time, the program “has helped more than 300,000 lawful permanent residents prepare for U.S. citizenship,” they wrote.
Still, they noted, that number represents a fraction of a percent of the estimated 9 million permanent residents eligible to naturalize.
A key target population for grants under the program is immigrants who are poorer and who lack English skills; 32 percent of eligible immigrants targeted by the program have income below 150 percent of the poverty line and about 3 million “speak little to no English.”
“By providing increased assistance through the Grant Program, this eligible population could have greater access to naturalization and English-language classes,” wrote the lawmakers.
Yet all funding for the grant, originally proposed at $10 million for fiscal 2024, was scrapped entirely in the House Appropriations Committee in June.
On the Senate side, the Homeland Security Appropriations bill cleared the committee with $23.5 million for the CIGP.
Gomez, who has pushed to increase funding for the program, last month sent a dear colleague letter to Democrats and Republicans, asking them to join his appeal.
Though only Democrats answered, the co-signers include representatives from nearly every region of the country.
In their letter, the lawmakers made the case that more funding is required to support immigrants who wish to naturalize and who don’t live in cities with high immigrant concentrations.
“… [W]hile [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)] reviewed and supported funding for only 66 organizations nationwide, recipient organizations served both traditional immigrant population centers and emerging immigrant population centers in only 35 states, out of 50 states and several territories,” they wrote.
“Increasing funding for the CIGP will both support immigrant-serving institutions, as well as increase the capacity for additional qualified legal service providers to assist with the naturalization application and process.”
That increased capacity, the lawmakers added, would ease pressure on the overburdened USCIS, “by reducing filing errors, likely contributing to the agency-wide effort towards reducing casework backlogs and improving processing times.”
Backlogs within Canada’s immigration bureaucracy are creating what one observer calls an “impossible situation” for families adopting children from outside of the country, with processing delays now far outlasting their children’s visas and rendering the kids ineligible for provincial health coverage.
Last weekend, Greg Hanniman and wife Marli Nicol arrived home from Bulgaria with their newly adopted two-year-old son Aleksandar, at the end of a long and expensive process for the Arnprior, Ont. family.
While Aleksandar is adjusting well to his new home and family, Hanniman says they’re now dealing with maddening uncertainty as they wait for bureaucracy at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to even begin processing Aleksandar’s application for citizenship.
Children adopted overseas are usually granted a six-month temporary residence permit, essentially a tourist visa, upon entering Canada. That used to be sufficient to allow IRCC to finish processing their citizenship applications. But delays for processing citizenship for adopted kids are now running close to two years, well past the expiry of temporary visas. That is leaving parents scrambling to get extensions and the children ineligible for basic social programs.
“The major concern we have now obviously is health care,” said Hanniman, a Canadian Armed Forces combat veteran who now works in the computer industry.
The couple began looking into adoption in 2019 and, after meeting Aleksandar in Bulgaria earlier this year and falling in love with him, they submitted their paperwork to IRCC in March.
“It’s clear that he will be granted his citizenship, there’s really no reason why he won’t, but now we have to wait years for the bureaucracy to sort itself out.”
Pavel Georgiev, intercountry adoption co-ordinator with Toronto-based Loving Heart International Adoption Agency, said adopting from out of country entails a two-step process to obtain Canadian citizenship for the child.
In the past, IRCC’s turnaround times for the first part’s approval — where the parents notify where they’re adopting from and demonstrate they are both citizens — was well within the six-month tourist-visa window, Georgiev said. But these approvals are now taking upwards of 20 months. And families are being placed in the position of their newly adopted children overstaying their visas.
“Throughout my 10-plus years of experience in the field of intercountry adoption, this is by far the longest waiting times we’ve seen,” Georgiev said.
“It’s a bit of an impossible situation for adoptive parents.”
Upon landing in Montreal on August 27, Hanniman said he managed to convince immigration officers to grant Aleksandar a two-year visitor record instead of the standard six-month visitor visa. Taking Aleksander back to Bulgaria after a visitor visa expires in six months would have been a non-starter, Hanniman said. And he wasn’t ready to wait nearly two years to bring their son home while IRCC processes his citizenship application
While the extended residency permit has solved most of the family’s short-term problems, it still leaves Aleksandar ineligible for Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) coverage until his paperwork makes its way through IRCC.
“We have his doctor appointment Tuesday and a dentist on Thursday, but once again, without OHIP, it’s going to be all coming out-of-pocket,” Hanniman said.
When he recently called IRCC to find out the next steps, he said the phone agent told him the government wouldn’t even begin to look at the file until 19 months had passed.
Parents have so far dealt with the uncertainty either by persistently hounding IRCC or their local MP to speed up the approvals, Georgiev said. But he said these are not acceptable solutions.
“Many children who are adopted through intercountry adoption will want to take the child to have a complete assessment by their family doctor,” Georgiev said. But without health coverage, parents are left to pay the medical costs.
Hanniman said he isn’t looking forward to dealing with IRCC when it finally gets around to processing Aleksandar’s paperwork.
“They were not helpful in the slightest,” he said. “They didn’t even try to help.”
IRCC spokesperson Mary Rose Sabater said that IRCC “understands the emotional and financial hardship” experienced in these situations.
She said the two-step process “may take up to six to eight months from start to finish. Depending on the child’s country of origin, it is not unusual for the process to last for two years or even longer.”
Enacting separate adoption-specific immigration streams could help alleviate backlogs, Georgiev said. Once IRCC receives confirmation that an adoption has actually been completed, he said, the government could expedite the paperwork.
“If there were a standardized process through which, once notified and shown documentation that an adoption has been finalized they expedite their review of the part one application and issuance of the approval, that would entirely resolve this problem,” he said.
Processing delays and red tape have become a common complaint for those dealing with Canada’s immigration bureaucracy.
This is an updated version of my earlier deck with 2022 numbers across immigration, citizenship, settlement and multiculturalism, OECD integration indicators and polling data. The narrative has also been updated to reflect the ongoing shift to two-step immigration, and arguably a shift from an immigration-based country to a migration-based country.
While some have argued this for Canadian citizenship, they forget that this contributes to support for immigration and citizenship among those who are already citizens, whether born in Canada or elsewhere. But given the current government’s lack of understanding of the meaning of citizenship, seen in proposed self-affirmation of the oath and the lack of update to the citizenship guide, wondering whether the government will partly move in this direction:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies…”
Exactly 10 years ago, I joined 136 people from 43 countries at a naturalization ceremony in a courtroom in downtown New York to proclaim our allegiance to the country that had embraced us as its own. Overcome by the emotional charge of the occasion, we struggled to keep our voices steady — and our eyes dry. Even Janet Napolitano, administering her Enal oath as secretary of homeland security, teared up as she welcomed us as “my fellow citizens.”
I was flanked by a young woman from Ukraine and a middle-aged man from Peru; she worked on Wall Street, and he was a cab driver. As we told each other of the journeys that had brought us to that magical moment, her English was heavily accented; his was liberally interspersed with Spanish.
At one point, we talked about what had been the final hurdle on the path: The citizenship tests. She’d found the civics quiz quite stressful; he, like me, thought it had been easy-peasy. We didn’t talk about the other test — the one that judged our English skills. More than likely, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services officers who had interviewed us skipped over that part of the process in order to move things along. In my case, the examining oficer had said something along the lines of, “You’ve made it this far. There’s no need to waste our time on this.”
The Biden administration, which is proposing to make the English test harder, apparently does not understand what my USCIS examiner had come to recognize, from some combination of intuition and experience: If you want to be an American and have lived in this country long enough to qualify, then a language test is entirely redundant.
In the current format, the officer conducting the naturalization interview can evaluate the applicant’s speaking ability by asking questions she or he has already answered when Eling the paperwork. The new test, meant to go into effect next year, would include a speaking section in which applicants would be asked to describe scenes depicted in photographs, such as kinds of food or activities like commuting to work.
It sounds simple enough, but it is no less superfluous for that. All applicants for citizenship are tested by the ultimate arbiter of American life: The free market. Before they can get to the naturalization test, their abilities are vetted by a system that requires immigrants to End work, shelter, food and access to education and healthcare, with little support from the state.
And living the American way puts us all through a long and continuous examination, unlike the brief, one-of test at the USCIS. I had been fortunate to be fast-tracked for the Green Card that confers permanent residency in the US, and then waited Eve years, the minimum requirement, before applying for citizenship. It had taken the Ukrainian twice as long and the Peruvian three times as long to reach the test stage. By then, we were as duent as required by the nature of our livelihoods and, by extension, our lives.
What’s more, we were in a country where the government — city, state and
federal alike — was getting better and better at communicating in languages
other than English. Multilingual forms are the norm rather than the
exception, and even the USCIS website offers information in 33 languages, from Amharic to Vietnamese.
If the language test is unnecessary, the civics test is just plain unfair. Applicants must correctly answer six out of 10 questions chosen from a published set of 100. Polls have shown most Americans would fail: Why should those who want to join their ranks be held to a higher standard?
Joe Biden is not the Erst American president to try and raise the bar for naturalization. Donald Trump wanted to make the civics test longer and to introduce more politically loaded questions. Biden rightly scrapped that plan. This makes his administration’s proposal for a tougher English test even more inexplicable.
Over 9 million Green Card holders are eligible for citizenship, but barely 10% of them apply for naturalization each year. The Biden administration has said it wants that proportion to grow. In typical Washington fashion, it has set up an interagency committee to come up with a strategy to encourage more people to take the path that brought me to that New York courthouse 10 years ago.
Here’s a good place to start: Scrap the civics and language tests.
Header doesn’t accurately capture this balanced analysis given that the author also stresses the “need to to address due diligence concerns related to inequality, alongside fraud, tax evasion and national security:
The move by the British home secretary Suella Braverman to impose visa restrictions on people from Dominica, Honduras, Namibia, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu has reflected again the tendency to employ a sledgehammer to crack a nut when managing immigration and border security.
In July, Braverman expressed concerns about the way Dominica and Vanuatu administer their citizenship by investment (CBI) schemes – so-called golden visas – citizenship in exchange for financial inputs in the host country.
According to her, these two Commonwealth countries have been conferring citizenship on individuals recognised as security risks to the UK. Braverman failed to identify these dangerous people.
Her decision has been met with scepticism. Critics contend that the numbers involved in these countries are scarcely large enough to warrant such measures. The move appears to disproportionately target black and brown-majority nations, raising concerns again about the justice in Britain’s immigration policies.
Against a backdrop of anti-migrant sentiment, the step aligns with the UK government’s normalising of restrictive immigration policies, distracting from the cost-of-living crisis, public transport strikes, NHS issues and economic inequality. The focus on externalising immigration challenges ignores migration as an issue that requires a more thoughtful and comprehensive approach.
It also prompts a closer examination of citizenship by investment schemes. Transparency International, a global civil society organisation that campaigns against corruption, has previously highlighted problems in Europe, stating: “Golden passport and visa schemes have turned EU citizenship and residency rights into a luxury good: with enough money, anyone can buy in.
It adds: “This is a particularly attractive prospect for criminals and the corrupt – and numerous scandals have proven they are taking advantage. These EU golden passport and visa schemes are not about genuine investment or migration – but about serving corrupt interests.”
The problem is insidious in the Caribbean, which has become a magnet for members of super-rich elites from the US and Europe seeking to take advantage of vulnerable nations to satisfy their need to create more wealth at the expense of the climate crisis, human rights and equality.
Golden visas have gained traction in Caribbean islands, especially those heavily dependant on tourism and foreign direct investment.
Advocates argue that CBIs can stimulate economic growth, create jobs and benefit local economies and infrastructure. Attracting overseas investment can provide valuable sources of funding for public services and development, benefiting both citizen and immigrant, and countries can diversify beyond tourism and agriculture. But they come with their own set of challenges.
They often require property investment, which can bolster real estate markets but exacerbate wealth inequality, catapulting house prices beyond the reach of local people. Providing privileges to the wealthy deepens the divide between elites and locals.
This is especially true for countries belonging to the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States – Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Reports from the International Monetary Fund show CBIs contributed nearly 30% of GDP for Dominica and 25% for St Kitts and Nevis in 2022. Citizenship scheme income helps to support hospitality, infrastructure, banking and youth development projects. CBI revenues have been pivotal in aiding these countries during Covid.
However, without robust background checks and enhanced due diligence, the risk of corruption, money laundering and illicit activities increases. The rush to attract foreign investments can make economies more vulnerable to external economic shocks and national security concerns.
A report last year by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project highlighted one of the best-known firms enabling these passport sales, Henley & Partners, whose chairman Christian Kälin has been dubbed the “Passport King”. The report illustrated the number of CBI applicants from countries including Russia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Armenia and Nigeria attempting to gain citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis.
Golden visa holders are often subject to tax in the host country. Income, property and other taxes bring other revenue streams. Tax evaders have ingeniously employed CBIs to obscure financial misconduct. Essentially, these individuals exploit tax havens to evade their obligations, relying on the host’s cooperation to reduce discovery risk. A key complicating factor is the acquisition of foreign citizenship as a safeguard against detection, a strategy favoured by the wealthiest tax evaders.
CBIs wield a transformative influence, redefining tax evasion in two ways: by reducing detection, thereby curtailing potential penalties from high-tax jurisdictions, and disrupting the international framework of tax information exchange, diverting potential revenue. This allows countries offering golden visas a discreet influence over global tax information-sharing initiatives.
The privileges conferred by investment visas vary significantly from country to country and even within programmes in the same nation. Generally, golden visas are premised on a significant financial investment, but specific rights and limitations can differ. Some convey rights to work, start a business or give access to services such as healthcare and education.
Some countries require a period of residency before granting voting rights, while others might not offer them at all to golden visa holders. This has led to controversy in the Caribbean where there have been allegations of using citizenship by investment for electoral manipulation.
The retired supervisor of elections in St Kitts and Nevis, Elvin Bailey, expressed concern that CBI holders were being allowed to vote. It has also been reported that a large number of Indian nationals, who are also Commonwealth citizens, and Chinese nationals, have been granted CBIs in St Kitts and Nevis that confer voting rights and ultimately allegiance to whichever administration dispenses these visas. Some were found to be involved in corruption and criminal activities.
Caribbean nations need to strike a balance between attracting investment and safeguarding their interests. In implementing robust procedures, including criminal background and funding source checks, they can ensure that those seeking these visas are genuinely contributing to society, and maintain the credibility of schemes.
Braverman’s approach to immigration raises questions about the UK’s commitment to equitable policies. Meanwhile, the Caribbean’s investment visa programmes offer economic opportunities but need to to address due diligence concerns related to inequality, alongside fraud, tax evasion and national security.
As the world grapples with issues of migration, corruption and governance, it becomes paramount for countries to wield more nuanced approaches to immigration, not the blunt force of sledgehammers.
The UK said the number of residents in England and Wales with dual citizenship doubled in the decade through 2021, reflecting the impact of the split from the European Union and more young people entitled to hold two passports.
Census data from the Office for National Statistics showed 1.26 million people in England and Wales held multiple passports as of 2021, up from 612,000 in 2011. That included a fivefold increase in the number of UK-born residents with both a British and EU passport.
The figures add detail to the long-term demographic trends captured in the census and likely to shape the economy in the years ahead. It suggests those able to get a second passport from an EU nation jumped at the opportunity to retain the flexibility to travel and work in the bloc after Brexit.
Visits to the EU by British citizens are currently subject to a 90-day limit, but those with an EU passport can travel and work freely across the bloc.
Children and young people among most frequent dual-citizens
The spike was also driven by changing migration patterns, as the children of first generation immigrants registered for a British passport.
“As people who have settled in England and Wales go on to have children, we can see an increase in dual citizenship among the younger ages,” said Jay Lindop from the ONS.
The number of residents in England and Wales with UK-EU dual citizenship who were born outside of the UK also grew to 147,000 in 2021, up from 31,300 a decade earlier.
“This change has been partly driven by migration over the decade, with an increase in people moving here from the EU,” said Lindop.
The raw number of those with dual citizenship nevertheless remains “surprisingly small,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London.
“This is often the result of country rules,” he said. “For instance, there are lots of Indian-born people in the UK and most eventually get a passport, but India doesn’t allow dual nationality.”
Interesting seems to mainly affect dual Canadian-Egyptians:
Canadian passport holders soon will no longer be able to obtain visas upon arrival in Egypt — a new rule that could mean additional headaches for thousands of travellers.
As of Sunday, Canadians travelling to Egypt will have to visit Egypt’s embassy or a consulate in Canada to apply for a visa before they leave the country, according to Global Affairs Canada’s travel page for Egypt.
Previously, travellers could get their visas upon arrival at the airport in Cairo, or obtain an e-visa before departure through the online portal.
As of Oct. 1, Canadians with proof of Egyptian citizenship also will have to apply for visas to enter the country. Prior to this rule change, Canadians could enter the country without visas if they had Egyptian passports, national ID cards or birth certificates.
An email from the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa laid out the visa application process for Egyptian nationals.
The announcement, sent to Egyptian-Canadians on Monday, cited the “principle of reciprocity” and claimed the rule change is a response to Canadian measures that deny visas to Egyptian citizens. It claims those measures are “offensive in nature to the dignity of the Egyptian state.”
Officials at the Egyptian embassy declined to comment when reached by CBC News. CBC has also reached out to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s office for comment.
‘It’s insane’
Adel Boulos, president of the Egyptian Canadian Business Network, says it’s not easy for Egyptians to get a visa to come to Canada.
“It’s getting more difficult for Egyptians to come to Canada,” he said. “I have cases, unbelievable stuff like parents wanting to see their children, people are getting married here and they want their parents and family to come and they can’t … It’s insane.”
But Boulos said the Egyptian government had other options to deal with the situation.
“I would have liked the Egyptian government to take another route by convening a meeting with the Canadian officials to discuss how to help them out in issuing visas faster,” he said.
And unanswered questions remain about the visa application process for Egyptian nationals in Canada, he said.
“We have about 300,000 Egyptians living in Canada and most of them travel with their Canadian passports because they didn’t renew their Egyptian passports or don’t have the national ID,” Boulos said.
“People travelling with their Canadian passport because their Egyptian passport is expired, they don’t have one, whatever the issue is, they will also be required to get a visa.”
Egypt has tried to encourage tourism in recent years. Tourist numbers plummeted following the violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations in 2011.
Egypt is on track to welcome a record-breaking 15 million tourists this year, the country’s tourism minister said in April. The country aims to attract 30 million tourists annually by 2028.
Some Egyptian media outlets claimed the news of the stricter visa rules was untrue.
A story in the Egypt Independent, a Cairo-based online newspaper, claimed that the Egyptian cabinet media centre “denied these rumours and added that the centre communicated with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to confirm the matter was false.”
But a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada confirmed the new rules for Canadian passport holders will take effect on Sept. 3.
