Travel to the Schengen area is likely to become difficult for those applying 
for a visa, according to EU's new Coronavirus response team. UK Prime Minister 
Boris Johnson also confirmed, after the Cobra meeting at Downing Street on 
Monday morning, that coronavirus is unfortunately likely to spread in the UK, 
although, for the time-being, people should go about "business as usual". CS 
Global Partners, a London-headquartered agency specialising in investor 
immigration, reports that demand for alternatives to international mobility and 
citizenship of safer countries is growing.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announced in a 
press conference on Monday morning that the EU has now established the Corona 
response team based on three pillars: medical, mobility and economy. Meanwhile, 
the British government said it would publish its nation-wide action plan on 
Tuesday, the BBC reports. 

According to EU's Schengen travel advice, third country nationals may be 
refused entry, as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 
announced on Monday that the risk to public health in the European Union has 
increased form moderate to high. 'Third countries' refer to those outside of 
the EEA (EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), UK, San Marino, 
Monaco and Switzerland. However, the EU Commission says proportionality of 
border control is expected, while health checks will be reinforced at the 
external borders of the Schengen area.

The European Corona response team website 
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response_en ] 
states that, "under the Schengen Border Code, all decisions to refuse or accept 
entry to the territory of a Member State must be subject to an individual 
assessment undertaken by the competent authorities. It is the responsibility of 
the Member States to refuse entry on public health grounds to individual third 
country nationals." 

Paul Singh, Director of CS Global Partners 
[https://csglobalpartners.com/about-us/ ], a London-headquartered government 
marketing agency specialised in investor immigration, says that demand for 
citizenship by investment (CBI) has increased in light of the latest 
coronavirus developments. "We work with three Caribbean governments – Dominica, 
St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia – promoting their CBI programmes worldwide and 
assist authorised agents with any enquiries their clients may have regarding 
obtaining economic citizenship of any of these three countries. There has been 
a significant increase in demand for information on how to obtain second 
citizenship from the Caribbean specifically, which are known for their 
experience, faster processing that takes between two to four months, and no 
residence requirement although this is compensated by tougher due diligence 
checks," Mr Singh states. 

He says that the outbreak has led to citizens of affected jurisdictions to look 
for a plan B: "Our office in China in particular is reporting that one of the 
main reasons Chinese applicants are seeking to obtain citizenship by investment 
now more than ever before is to get their families to safety and security 
fast." 

Entry into countries escalating their border control restrictions depends on 
where the person has travelled from and does not appear to be based on one's 
nationality, Mr Singh reports. "Fortunately, we have not heard of any 
nationality-based prejudice at border controls, but those travelling from 
affected areas may be denied entry in certain countries. Some of them resort to 
self-quarantining for 14 days in a connecting country before entering the more 
restrictive jurisdictions," he concludes. 

As far as those applying for a short-stay Schengen visa, the EU Commission has 
announced that they may be unsuccessful should they be considered a threat to 
public health. "Member States can refuse an application for a short-stay visa 
as well as entry to the Schengen area to visa holders on grounds of threat to 
public health." This is because "not posing a threat to public health is one of 
the conditions for obtaining a short stay visa (Visa Code) and an entry 
condition under the Schengen Borders Code." 

As regards passenger rights, the EU Commission says that airlines may invoke 
the "force majeure" clause to refuse compensation or delays: "Airlines can 
cancel flights two weeks before the scheduled departure and no compensation is 
due." This is not the case for rail, whereas for those travelling on cruise 
ships, "provisions on delay and compensation do not apply". The EU Commission 
says that travellers can expect flight suspensions within the EU, though the 
same non-discriminatory proportionality and transparency principles apply.

A list of the most updated official sources of information on the COVID-19, 
broken down per country from the EU/EEA and the UK, can be found here 
[https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/novel-coronavirus-china/sources-updated ]

pr@csglobalpartners.com, www.csglobalpartners.com

SOURCE: CS Global Partners