The Tax Appeal of Immigration to the Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), located in the Caribbean, is a British Overseas Territory. TCI offers a Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) program, and after residing there for five years, applicants can obtain a British Overseas Territory Citizen (BOTC) passport. This passport allows visa-free travel to the EU, United States, Canada, and other countries, making it far more desirable than other Caribbean passports, as it is essentially a British territorial passport.
The TCI PRC program has been flagged by the OECD as a high-risk scheme for circumventing the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). In other words, many high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) obtain TCI residency to avoid CRS reporting.
However, why don’t domestic immigration agencies promote this program? The main reason likely lies in its high financial threshold.
How to Obtain Permanent Residency
There are three ways to obtain permanent residency in TCI:
- Real Estate Investment
- $1 million investment in property.
- Alternatively, $300,000 investment in or renovation of distressed property in designated areas.
- Business Investment
- $1.5 million investment in a local business.
- Alternatively, $750,000 if the investment is in a designated area.
- Public Sector Investment
- $1 million investment in an approved public sector initiative.
Compared to neighboring Caribbean nations where citizenship can be obtained for as little as $100,000, TCI’s price tag is significantly higher. Moreover, the PRC program only grants permanent residency, not citizenship.
However, the high cost comes with good reasons, and these very reasons attract many genuine HNWIs.