Sri Lanka To Offer “Golden” Visas In Order To Raise Money

After running out of dollars to pay for food and petrol, Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that it will sell long-term visas to bring in much-needed foreign money.

The “Golden Paradise Visa Program” allows foreigners who invest a minimum of $100,000 locally to live and work in Sri Lanka for a period of ten years.

The government said in a statement that the money should be kept in a local bank account throughout the visitor’s stay.

According to Sri Lankan media minister Nalaka Godahewa, “this initiative would aid Sri Lanka at a time when we are experiencing the biggest financial crisis since our independence.”

The government will grant any foreigner who purchases a residence on the island “a five-year visa”.

Thousands of protesters camped out in front of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s oceanfront office to call for his resignation in the wake of acute shortages of food, gasoline, and medical.

The administration has shown a willingness to examine constitutional revisions that would limit the president’s authority following his 2019 election when he granted himself extensive powers to select and dismiss ministers, judges, and other public workers.

Additionally, his administration reversed democratic changes that granted statutory independence to the police, civil service, electoral commission, and judiciary, among others.

After the coronavirus epidemic decimated Sri Lanka’s tourist and remittances industries, the country’s economic collapse began to take hold.

Huge queues snake around service stations as residents wait in long lines for petrol and kerosene to be rationed by power companies unable to pay for fuel imports.

A lack of essential medicines in hospitals has sparked an appeal from the government, while record inflation has made life even more difficult for many people.

Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout for Sri Lanka began last week in Washington, D.C.