February 23rd, 2026
Mr. Colin Dowe
Host
Beyond the Headlines
Grenada Broadcasting Network
Dear Mr. Dowe
Re Beyond the Headlines: Programme of January 5th, 2026
Permit me to present my compliments and best wishes for 2026.
Beyond the Headlines undoubtedly has retained its position as the premier current affairs programme of the local media Thank you for the role that you are playing. As has become the tradition some years now, going back to 2019, maybe 2018, the first edition of the new year features the Prime Minister.
Permit me to offer a couple of comments/queries in respect of the programme of January 5th, the first edition of 2026. They are offered in my private and individual capacity.
Citizenship by Investment Programme
I noted your questions/queries in respect of Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment programme.
Is there residency requirement for the Citizenship by Investment Programme?
Legislative: The Prime Minister indicated that the legislation makes provision for residency. While there may be provision for residency, these provisions are NOT being implemented based on the information in the IMA’s Grenada’s CBI Brochure.
Easy and Fast/CBI Brochure: Permit me to refer you to page 9 of the CBI Brochure which identifies easy and fast, no language or residency requirements as one of the benefits.
Special Treatment: Was there any special treatment from USA re Grenada’s CBI Programme? Grenada was not being criticized and threatened in respect of its CBI programme unlike the other OECS passport selling countries. Had Grenada come to some agreement with the USA ahead of the other OECS islands in respect of its CBI programme?
The response – this was a matter for American policy makers but Grenada had strengthened its processes in keeping with the MOA that the OECS passport selling countries had entered into with the USA in 2023.
a.1989 E-2 Visa Treaty with USA: Grenada is the only OECS country which has an E-2 Visa Treaty with the USA, established March 3rd, 1989. Might this be considered a special relationship that Grenada MUST protect? And HOW would it do that?
b.Benefit Marketed by the Grenada’s CBI Programme/Gateway to the US: Qualified for US E-2 visa application: Grenada’s CBI Brochure identifies ” qualification for US E- 2 Visa” as another benefit of Grenada’s citizenship/passport.
i.Pursue Your American Dream: Grenada’s brochure promotes the E-2 Visa/E-2
Investor Vis a – Pursue Your American Dream (ref. page 1 8).
ii.USA 3 Year Residence Requirement re E-2 Visa/E-2 Investor Visa: In 2023, the USA introduced changes fur immigration rules which introduced a three-residence requirement. To become eligible, the CBI citizen must be domiciled in Grenada for at least 3 years.?.
iii. Non-Immigrant E-2 Visas: E-2 visas are issued within 3 weeks for maximum of 2 years with extensions. The CBI citizens must invest $100,000 and create 5 jobs in the US .
c.Protecting Access to E-2 Visa: Given that this access” has now become a pilIar of Grenada’s CBI Programme, then Grenada would want to protect it. And how would Grenada do thar?
Ultimately Making Compromises? I do recall that there was a meeting of the OECS Prime Ministers with high level members of the US Government in early 2025. And I do recall that one of the Prime Ministers, in a meeting with the press, indicated that “we will ultimately have to make compromises”. Was that Prime Minister speaking specifically about his country or the OECS collectively? Undoubtedly, in the fullness of time, we the people of the OECS will become aware of the “compromises” made by our Political Leaders. Perhaps, it is already happening.
Other Observations/Queries re CBI
a.Voting Rights et aI: While this matter did not come up in your programme, I feel constrained to not this other benefit enjoyed by persons who PURCHASE passports. In the CBI Brochure, Nigerian client has ‘bigged up” in the benefits of Grenada’s CBI, “Grenada is a complete economic citizenship program, which comes with all citizen benefits such as voting rights, working for public offices and citizenship transferred through all family generations ” .
i.Should this matter of concerns to the citizens whose “nable string bury here”?
ii.Is this why some Political Leaders feel that they can stand on platforms and boast about being in office for the next 20 years?
b.Citizenship by Invitation: I did not hear any questions about Grenada’s Citizenship by Invitation initiative. We the people became aware of it around January/February 2025. It is interesting to note that even international marketing agents were asking questions about &is initiative and how it would affect their interests, the CBI programme.
Among other things, there was to be a Global Citizenship Council of ultra-high-net- worth individuals made up of persons who accept the invitation and would enjoy “a wide range of benefits” in addition to Grenadian Citizenship by Invitation. They would also receive an invitation to have a two-day Advisory Session with Grenada’s Prime Minister. What happened in 2025 in respect of this initiative?
c.Foreign Direct Investment: Your guest specifically mentioned CBI’s contribution to foreign direct Investment in Grenada and in terms of quality of the foreign direct investment making specific reference to Range Development in St. Davids – Six Sense and Inter-continental – two international brands. Well, those two hotels are located in his constituency. It is interesting to note that the CBI Brochure features these two projects, the Hartman Hotel and the Grenada National Resort in Levera. All of these projects in environmentally sensitive areas, inappropriate sizes and designs for their location, impact on citizen’s rights, e.g. access to beaches, and livelihoods and the financial and economic feasibility – funded by the sale of the passports of we the people!!
Relations between Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada
* I was amused by question re the relations between Trinidad and Tobago since the elections of 2025 which brought PM Kamla Bissessar- Persad and her UNC party to office. Some we the people seem to recall that the pollster/researcher Dr. Justine Pierre, who claims to have played a role in the victory of the PM Bissessar-Persad’s United National Congress! I do recall hearing Dr. Pierre boast about the role his research played in the victory of the current administration.
* There have been talks been Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada re oil exploration and the gas since the UNC government has come to power. Permit me to refer you to the following – T&T, Grenada ink energy deal:-
* On August 24th 2025, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell met with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to restart the process of strengthening co-operation in the energy sector in the context of the 2012 Energy, Framework Agreement on Energy Sector Co-operation which had remained in effect through automatic renewal.
Thank you for the opportunity to offer these comments observations.
Kind regards!
Sandra C.A. Ferguson