What Changes Could Mauritius Look at in the Nationality Act?
Mauritius is a beautiful place to holiday for hundreds of thousands of people every year. Still, it also hosts many expat residents looking to live their lives on an island paradise.
To continue pushing Mauritius forward and looking at innovative ways to spread Mauritian culture and grow its economy. The last time the Citizenship Act was amended in detail was 1995. We consider a few changes that can assist in its future growth.
Citizenship by Adoption
Citizenship by adoption is allowed if either parent is a Mauritian citizen, rectifying gender discrimination of only a male adopting parent currently allowed to pass on citizenship.
Citizenship by Descent
Citizenship by descent broadened to applicants with a Mauritian born grandparent and created a Foreign Births Registry. Anyone registered as a citizen may continue to pass on citizenship to future generations, so long as the registration occurred before the next generation is born.
The application for citizenship by descent can be made at the nearest Mauritian Embassy or Consulate to the applicant.
Citizenship by Investment
There is a demand for Mauritius to develop a Citizenship by Investment program. The Island hosts many attributes that contribute to a successful program if the criteria for citizenship compete with similar programs.
Mauritius would need to consider other existing programs in terms of pricing the CBI. In terms of value, the Mauritian passport, although ranked amongst the "Tier B" Caribbean counterparts, the Indian Ocean Island offers unique visa-free access to certain countries, which "Tier A" passports typically have.
Mauritius has the second strongest passport in Africa (behind Seychelles) and ranks amongst the strongest Caribbean CBI passports. The Mauritius passport has visa-free access to 146 countries, including the United Kingdom, Europe's Schengen area, Japan, New Zealand, China, and Russia.
No other CBI country has access to this group of visa-free access with their passport. Not even Malta can provide visa-free access to all of those countries.
Base costs for Citizenship by Investment could look something like the below
Government Contribution (Non-refundable Donation): $175,000 for a single applicant and $250,000 for a family of four. Additional dependents may be added for $25,000 for those over 18 and $15,000 below 18 years old.
Real Estate Investment: $500,000 minimum investment into Government approved real estate. There is an additional $35,000 Government fee for the principal applicant, $20,000 for a spouse or other adult dependents and $10,000 for any children, regardless of age.
Investment Fund: Investment of $750,000 into a Mauritian Collective Investment Scheme or another alternative investment fund. Government fees to apply as prescribed above.
The applicant cannot sell their investment within five years.
One of the most significant sticking points with existing CBIs is due diligence. Mauritius needs to introduce a stringent and exhaustive due diligence process to ensure that their new potential investors and their funds are legitimate.
Attractive Citizenship
Citizenship might be viewed as an essential political commodity and bring negative connotations to their political campaigns. Possible alternatives include offering an Honorary Citizenship by Investment which affords the investor the Mauritian passport but does not give full citizenship rights.
If a CBI program is entirely out of the question, then Mauritius might look to Portugal's Golden Visa Program. The primary benefit for investors looking for a clear pathway to citizenship is Portugal's limited physical presence requirements over five years to be eligible for citizenship.
Suppose the program was to process 1,500 applicants per year. In that case, the Government could increase their annual revenues anywhere between $150m - $300m, representing between 5-10% of the Government's annual collected revenue, which was $3.1bn in 2020/2021.
Outro
The Mauritian Citizenship Act in its existing form is by no means perfect. Conclusion: There are potential changes that will allow more people to apply from their ancestors and continue passing on citizenship for generations to come.
There is an opportunity for the country to introduce an incredibly successful CBI program that attracts thousands of applicants and increases government revenue by tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Citizenship by investment and having two types of "citizenship" were mentioned in the Prime Minister's 2018/2019 budget speech. Time will tell if the Government investigates developing a program in the future.