User:Sarah Nicklin/Henley & Partners

Henley & Partners is a global citizenship and residence advisory firm based in London. The company also advises governments on residence and citizenship-by-investment policy and works with them to develop and implement residence and citizenship programs. It also consults on general immigration law and policy as well as visa policy and the negotiation of associated treaties. The company's Residence and Citizenship Practice Group advises individuals and their advisors such as law firms, banks, and family offices on alternative residence and citizenship. According to The Guardian, it "arguably invented the modern 'citizenship planning' industry".

It is active in refugee related philanthropy and has been criticised for its core business model, which detractors believe to threaten the fight against cross-border corruption and crime.

History
Originally founded in the 1970s, Henley & Partners was re-formed in 1997 through the combination of a private client immigration consultancy and a corporate and family services company. In the late 1990s and through the 2000s, the firm advised wealthy businesspeople and individuals move their businesses and families around the world, largely through the acquisition of residence and citizenship from Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, US, Switzerland, and St. Kitts and Nevis. At the time, the concept of residence and citizenship planning was relatively new and not considered to be of much relevance. This situation changed in 2006, however, when Henley & Partners became involved in the restructuring of St. Kitts and Nevis's citizenship-by-investment program, incorporating donations to support the country's transition to tourism and services following the closure of the sugar industry in 2005. The firm obtained exclusive rights to market St. Kitts & Nevis worldwide. In 2006, 1% of St. Kitts and Nevis's GDP came from the country's citizenship-by-investment program. By 2014, this figure had grown to 25%, with nearly half of the capital inflows generated by the donations under the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation contribution option.

Following the successful restructuring of the St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship program, Henley & Partners began to advise the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and Cyprus on how to develop their own investment migration programs. Already in 2012 Reuters wrote that Henley & Partners is “at the center of the citizenship by investment movement”. Henley & Partners, at that time, also advised Canada and the United Kingdom on how best to attract wealthy individuals through their investor visa programs. In 2013, Henley & Partners participated in a public tender and won the right to design and globally promote Malta's citizenship-by-investment program, the Malta Individual Investor Programme, which raised over $1 billion within 18 months of its launch. According to a report by the IMF, Citizenship-by-Investment programmes, besides tourism, were the main reason behind many Eastern Caribbean states positive GDP growth in 2019.

The firm and its individual partners, directors, and senior officers are regulated where applicable by the relevant authorities in the countries where they operate. They are also members of various professional associations, including the Investment Migration Council and STEP.

Henley & Partners is led by Christian Kälin, an immigration and citizenship law specialist. The firm's CEO is Juerg Steffen, a Swiss lawyer and former senior banking executive.

Publications and research
Henley & Partners has published a variety of books and reports offering information on the investment migration industry. The Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook, updated regularly, covers a number of topics pertaining to the industry, including residence rules, citizenship law, dual citizenship, passports, visa-free travel, and tax and real estate planning. The International Real Estate Handbook is a reference manual on the subject of international real estate The Global Residence and Citizenship Programs (GRCP) report uses a scientific methodology to systematically analyse some of the world's major residence- and citizenship-by-investment programs. 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 Passport Index (HPI) is the original global ranking of all the passports of the world according to the number of countries they can access visa-free or with a visa-on-arrival. The Index is produced in collaboration with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world's largest database of travel information. In June 2016, the firm launched its latest index in collaboration with Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, Professor of EU Constitutional and Citizenship Law in the Department of European and Economic Law at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The Kälin–Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index ranks the different nationalities of the world according to the quality of life they provide their citizens. It explores both the internal factors (such as scale of the economy, human development, and peace and stability) and the external factors (such as visa-free travel and the ability to settle and work abroad) that make one nationality stronger than another.

Impact
In 2015, Henley & Partners formed a multi-year partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As part of the partnership, the firm provides financial support and raises awareness for the refugee cause. The firm has also developed the annual Global Citizen Award, which consists of a USD 50,000 monetary prize.

Criticism and controversy
In 2013, Arton Capital, a competing firm that had also tendered to be the Malta government's concessionaire for the Malta Individual Investor Programme, filed a judicial protest, appealing the decision by the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security to elect Henley & Partners for the role. The firm claimed that Henley & Partners had already been associated with the former Maltese administration, providing consultation to the government on a similar program. Arton Capital eventually dropped its court case, however.

The launch of the Malta Individual Investor Programme in 2014 drew criticism from opposition 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 compromised because Malta had outsourced the vetting of citizenship applicants to a single company. Henley & Partners argued in response that 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.

In December 2017, The Shift News, an online news platform based in Malta, published a cease-and-desist letter sent by Henley & Partners that threatened legal action against the publication for their negative coverage of the firm, alleging the illegal sale of a diplomatic passport from Grenada to a Pakistani citizen who held no position within the Grenadian government.

Jhu Low, a businessman involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and international fugitive, was believed to be a client of Henley & Partners. Media reported that Low obtained a Cypriot passport by investing €5 million in a transaction facilitated by Henley & Partners. Henley & Partners denied these allegations, asserting that Low was never a client and was specifically rejected as such in 2015. A newly acquired subsidiary assisted Low in his real estate investment and referred his citizenship application to another company.