Henley & Partners is a global citizenship and residence advisory firm, headquartered in Jersey with over 25 offices worldwide. It advises governments on residence and citizenship policy and works with them to develop and implement residence and citizenship programs. It also consults on general immigration law and policy, visa policy, and the negotiation of associated treaties. Henley & Partners’ Residence and Citizenship Practice Group advises individuals, their advisors, bankers and family offices on alternative or additional residence and citizenship.
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History
While its origins date back to the 1970s, Henley & Partners as it is today was formed in 1997 through the combination of a private client immigration consultancy and a fiduciary company. During these years, and the 2000s, the firm ran small ventures assisting individuals in moving their businesses and families around the world, specifically procuring passports for these wealthy business people in Austria and Saint Kitts and Nevis At the time, the concepts of residence and citizenship planning were not considered a subject of much relevance, however this changed in 2006 when Henley & Partners became involved in the restructuring of St. Kitts and Nevis's citizenship-by-investment program to incorporate donations to the sugar industry. The firm obtained exclusive rights to market St. Kitts & Nevis at its events. In 2006, 1% of St. Kitts and Nevis's GDP came from citizenship-by-investment programs. This grew to 25% in 2014 - with nearly half coming from the Sugar Industry Diversification Fund.
Following the St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship-by-investment program's restructuring, Henley & Partners began to advise the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Grenada and Cyprus on how to develop their own citizenship-by-investment programs. In 2013, Henley & Partners won the right to design Malta's citizenship-by-investment program, the Malta Individual Investor Programme, which raised over USD 1 billion within 18 months of its launch.
The firm, as well as most of its individual partners, directors and senior officers, are regulated where applicable by the respective authorities in the countries where they operate. They are also members of various professional associations such as the Investment Migration Council, STEP, FIABCI, and others.
Today Henley & Partners is led by Dr. Christian H. Kälin an immigration and citizenship law specialist. He advises clients as well as governments in those areas, is a writer and speaker on these issues and is regularly quoted in the international media.
Core services
Henley & Partners advises clients on how to acquire alternative residence in terms of taxation, business environment, the possibility of acquiring citizenship, and quality of life, through residence and citizenship-by-investment programs. The firm offers residence programs in 14 countries; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong, Jersey, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
It also offers citizenship programs in eight countries. These are Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, Cyprus, Dominica, Grenada, Malta, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis. The citizenship-by-investment programs of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Malta have been designed by Henley & Partners under relevant Government mandates.
Henley & Partners has also advised governments on projects ranging from strategic consulting to the design, implementation and operation of investment-related residence and citizenship programs.
Publications and research
Henley & Partners has published a variety of titles and indexes offering information on their industry. The Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook, now in its 5th edition, covers aspects of residence rules, citizenship law, dual citizenship, passports and visa-free travel, tax and real estate planning, among other topics. The International Real Estate Handbook, also in its 5th edition, is a reference manual on the topic of international real estate The Global Residence and Citizenship Programs (GRCP), the firm's newest publication, uses scientific methodology to systematically analyze residence-by-investment and citizenship-by-investment programs available throughout the world today. The report details the outcomes of the Global Residence Program Index (GRPI) and the Global Citizenship Program Index (GCPI), which are updated annually.
The Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index (HVRI) offers viewers an analysis of every country’s progress and development since the Index was first published in 2006. The Index is produced in collaboration with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest database of travel information. In compiling the index, the global ranking methodology by Henley & Partners is applied to data provided by IATA´s proprietary passport and visa database. In June 2016 the firm launched its latest index in collaboration with Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, Professor of EU Constitutional Law in the Department of European and Economic Law at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. The index, titled the Kochenov - Quality of Nationality Index, ranks the quality of nationalities worldwide. It explores both internal factors (such as the scale of the economy, human development, and peace and stability) and external factors (including visa-free travel and the ability to settle and work abroad without cumbersome formalities) that make one nationality better than another in terms of legal status in which to develop your talents and business.
Impact
In 2015 Henley & Partners formed a multi-year partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The firm will support the UNHCR with a contribution of USD 1 million as well as raising awareness for the refugee cause. Henley & Partners facilitated UNHCR presence and visibility at a number of conferences in Zurich, London and Dubai, including through the organization of a dedicated fundraising event for UNHCR in November 2015 in Dubai. As part of this partnership, the firm also developed the Global Citizen Award which consists of a USD 50,000 monetary prize — USD 25,000 of which is donated to the UNHCR. Henley & Partners' support to the UNHCR is mostly focused on funding the refugee registration and identification documents. According to the UNHCR, the strategy will be continuously reviewed to ensure it supports the refugee agency's longer-term objective: to raise USD 500 million from private sector partners by the end of 2018, with at least half of this being un-earmarked funding, allowing the organization to respond flexibly to new emergencies and unmet needs.
Criticism
In 2013 Arton Capital, a competing firm that had also tendered to be the government's concessionaire on the Malta Individual Investor Programme filed a judicial protest, appealing the decision by the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security to take on Henley & Partners instead. The firm claimed Henley & Partners was already associated with the former administration, giving consultation to the government on a similar program. However, Arton Capital dropped its court case against the government in 2015, effectively admitting there was no wrong-doing in the selection process.
The launch of the Malta Individual Investor Programme in 2014 drew criticism from officials who claimed the program could open a back door into Europe for criminals. It was reported at the time that officials believed the screening process would be shortchanged because Malta outsourced the vetting of citizenship applicants to one company. However, Henley & Partners argued that since the program was capped at 1,800 applicants, due diligence processes were strict. They stated screening encompassed multiple steps, including criminal and financial background checks using online databases, vetting by independent security contractors and an analysis using risk assessment software, with the Maltese government then doing its own checks through resources such as Interpol and American government agencies.