Vanuatu Investment Migration Bureau (VIMB Services Ltd) - SCAM ALERT

[JohnnyDoe]

These guys Vanuatu Investment Migration Bureau | Get Your Second Citizenship in Vanuatu with VIMB offer citizenship by investment in Guinea Bissau. It is a scam: the country doesn't have a citizenship program, but it's quite easy to obtain, through fraudulent means, a passport and accompanying documents.
Of course they advertise this non existent program on OffshoreCorpTalk, the scam forum: https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/th...anuatu-investment-programs.49751/#post-376979 (you need to copy/paste the link into a private browser).

The company is an authorized CIIP agent in Vanuatu, but evidently they can't say no to easy money and fraud elsewhere.

 

[Paratore]

I did some internet research on Guinea-Bissau’s citizenship programs. They have one of those African citizenship by ancestry where you have to prove African descent by DNA test, similar to Benin. However, due to political instability it doesn’t appear to have ever actually processed any applications. They also have a legal means to waive the residence period for naturalization due to exceptional contribution to the nation or to its independence. These things, technically, do exist.

That said, there are no reports of the citizenship by ancestry program being active. I can only speculate how corrupt this program or any accelerated citizenship by exception program would be in this region. I investigated the Serbian program to the point of engaging a lawyer to look into it and found it to be such that I didn’t pursue it. Africa would be orders of magnitude worse. There aren’t any online reports of corruption in the Benin ancestry program but I’m watching those closely out of curiosity.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

They also have a legal means to waive the residence period for naturalization due to exceptional contribution to the nation or to its independence. These things, technically, do exist.

Yes this provision exists in almost every country of the world. It has nothing to do with citizenship by investment, and certainly a $100k fee does not qualify as “exceptional contribution”. It is the same old marketing story of every fake citizenship program.
Just google “Guinea Bissau citizenship scam”.

 

[Paratore]

Yes this provision exists in almost every country of the world. It has nothing to do with citizenship by investment, and certainly a $100k fee does not qualify as “exceptional contribution”. It is the same old marketing story of every fake citizenship program.
Just google “Guinea Bissau citizenship scam”.

We’re really just debating the magnitude of corruption and the size of the bribe needed. I have no doubt one could pay off a politician there to get “official” citizenship. The payment might be around $100000 US. How stable that status would be upon their next coup is an open question, though I’d hazard “not particularly” as a first answer. I doubt a citizenship by investment agency with Vanuatu as the only other option and that advertises on an obscure internet forum has the connections to pull it off.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

We’re really just debating the magnitude of corruption and the size of the bribe needed. I have no doubt one could pay off a politician there to get “official” citizenship. The payment might be around $100000 US.

You would not get citizenship, but a passport, perhaps with some supporting documents and even an entry in the registry.
$100k are not sufficient to buy the president and all the other people involved in the issuance of a genuine citizenship.
Politicians and generals in GB make millions with narcotraffic. They will not move a finger for a mere $100k.
Of those $100k, most likely $20k to some guy in the passport office who prints the document. The remaining $80k are split between VIMB and their middleman.

How stable that status would be upon their next coup is an open question, though I’d hazard “not particularly” as a first answer.

There is no status. It's just a worthless document.

I doubt a citizenship by investment agency with Vanuatu as the only other option and that advertises on an obscure internet forum has the connections to pull it off.

Correct. I bet that nobody in that agency ever set foot in Guinea Bissau.