The Case for Exclusive In-Country CBI Marketing Agreements
By Jose E. Latour, Esq.
MIAMI- As LatourLaw’s offices in Miami and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, wind up 2018, the final weeks of the year are bustling with case files and new investors, both for Grenada’s Citizenship By Investment (“CBI”} Passport investor program and for American Venture Solutions’ EB-5 investor visas. Prospective EB-5 investors in Vietnam these days don’t have too many questions for AVS EB-5: as the only EB-5 Regional Center with offices in Vietnam, a 100% record of approval on Vietnam I-526s and I-829s, and with our first investors already receiving 100% of their $500,000 EB-5 capital investment returned in full, AVS EB-5’s Vietnam track record is unparalleled.
If you are a regular reader, you know that AVS EB-5 has only marketed the Lake Point projects for the past 7 years. Why? Because I’ve known the Forbes 400 U.S.partners tasked with job-creation for over two decades and they are the only folks I trusted to deliver the job creation, permanent residency, and investment return I seek for each of my investors. While it would have been far more profitable to bring Vietnam investors less attractive projects from less stable developers willing to pay AVS Regional Center a lot more money to market their deals, my objective wasn’t to makes as much money as possible by subjecting AVS investors to higher risk. Accordingly, the results we have achieved speak for themselves, and for 7 years our “one project, one representative” approach, unique in the immigration industry, has delivered for ALL of our EB-5 investors.
While our EB-5 investor prospects have few questions, our prospective Grenada CBI investors…well, that’s an ENTIRELY different story. LatourLaw Vietnam is getting dozens of questions per week from very confused prospective Grenada CBI investors. The source of the confusion? Vietnam’s dishonest immigration agents and their lies, misrepresentations, and total ignorance of the legal underpinnings of each passport program they sell. In direct contrast to our philosophy, the Vietnam migration agent industry is ENTIRELY focused of ONE objective: earning the highest commission… irrespective of the damage they are doing to a family’s future.
LatourLaw Vietnam only began marketing Grenada’s CBI program in 2018, after years of declining to market the inferior CBI programs and risky projects that are the bread and butter of our so-called “competition”. We selected Grenada as the only CBI investor option LatourLaw would sell for reasons we’ve detailed in many articles: the integrity of the structure of the legal program, the stability of the nation, the unique opportunities offered by St. George’s University and, most importantly, the fact that Grenada is the ONLY nation with a CBI program which offers its new citizens the option of investing and living in the U.S through an E-2 Investor Visa. But, ultimately, the only reason I decided to proceed with offering Grenada CBI to our Vietnam investors was because I found ONE Grenada developer I trust fully. The truth is that had I not found the folks behind True Blue Development Limited and the stunning Kimpton Kawana Bay…LatourLaw would still not be selling ANY CBI Passport option today. Not even Grenada’s fine program. Because a good CBI option means nothing if the investment project won’t deliver what it promises.
But LatourLaw entered the CBI game a bit late. So while LatourLaw only markets the Kimpton Kawana Bay/Grenada CBI Program…we are not the only folks in Vietnam doing so. Unfortunately for us – and for would-be Grenada CBI investors – there are others in Vietnam marketing the Kimpton Kawana Bay…along with a host of other “options” ranging from defective CBI programs to crooked developers to outright fraud. Funneling money into unscrupulous and misleading online marketing, these unethical agents use “bait and switch” to steer investors away from the more expensive Grenada CBI requirements to inferior CBI options which pay higher “official” commissions (as well as under-the-table payments)…while ruining the future of their trusting investor.
A case in point: Monica and I have been working with a prospective Kimpton Kawana Bay/Grenada CBI investor for several months. We have spent many hours explaining everything from the benefits of Grenadian tax residency to E-2 visa options in the U.S. to SGU university benefits for the kids. They decided to visit ANOTHER Kimpton Kawana Bay agent in Vietnam. A few days later they called us: the agent convinced them to invest in the St. Kitts CBI program...the same program first blacklisted by the U.S. several years ago after issuing passports to all kinds of unsavory characters. Through their own agent, Grenada AND Kawana Bay BOTH lost a wonderful investor family. The family will wind up with an inferior passport solution, without the SGU educational options, and with zero chance of one day opening their U.S. E-2 business. So sad.
And so, we pine away, longing for the day when LatourLaw Vietnam can be the sole gateway to the best CBI investment project in Grenada, the best CBI program in the world. To the day when we can gently steer investors through the gateway that will realize their family’s dreams and hopes without confusing them. To the day True Blue says “I do”…(It’s like falling in love with a beautiful girl…who isn’t ready to go steady. )-:
KKB: some relationships are destined to be monogamous….(-;
