Prospera Roatan Honduras

I actually talked to Matthew Lafferty who is part of the Prospera Development Real Estate project in the ZEDE economic zone on Roatan and Honduras. A ZEDE is a special economic zone that has semi-autonomous municipality governance functions. You have to pay a yearly maintenance fee. Businesses can also be located there as well as apartments, condos, and homes and a golfcourse is already built. The condos looked very modern and nice and run about $100-200k USD but there is no mortgage financing on them.

The only concern I would have is that the current Honduran goverrnmental administration has clashed with the Prospera ZEDE and challenged their right to some governance functions legalally. However, the ownership of land and property has been settled for the most part in Honduran courts I believe.

While Honduras has some issues, I am actually looking at it for a second citizenship/passport option that is low cost and relatively cheap to get if you don't have the money or don't want to spend it on the least expensive CBI program in Dominica or St. Lucia. I would look at either the Bay Islands including Roatan which are mostly English speaking or even La Ceiba or Trujillo on the mainland. I think Honduras gets a lot of negative press on the crime, gangs, and narcotics cartels. You can also get around without hardly knowing much Spanish on Roatan.

For Residency and Citizenship, you can either go the Rentista route which requires a $2500 USD deposit in a Honduran bank (and can be withdrawn that same month) or the Inversionista (Investor route) which requires $50,000 be invested into a business and then an additional $5,000 deposit into a bank. I believe you can purchase a $50,000 lot minimum or condo in a corporation's name and rent out the land or the condo via Air BNB and it would count towards the investor's visa. I don't think you need to have any employees, but, you might need a "business plan" on paper.

Legal fees cost at a minimum of around $2500 (including govt fees and attorney fees) to get Hondruran residency and it takes about 6-9 months to get it from the start of the process. You can either travel to Roatan, San Pedro de Sula, Trujillo (maybe), or Tegucigalpa to open the bank account and do some paperwork or the attorney can get a power of attorney for you to open the bank account and do paperwork like background check. Once you get the Residency Visa, I believe you must travel to Honduras (it does not have to be Tegucigalpa I believe as I know people may be worried about safety there although I don't think it is that bad in certain areas).

Once you get the Honduran Residency card, you can travel annually at a minimum for 1-2 days but probably figure about a 1 week in Roatan each winter would be nice. This would need to be done for 3 years. After 3 years, you can apply for citizenship and this process takes about the same as residency (6-9 months) or up to 1 year.

Citizenship legal and govt. fee costs are around $2500 so the total investment for a passport would be $5-7k in legal and government fees. You need to also invest the $2500 per month in the Honduran bank account which is your money and can be sent back to your other bank account in another country. Or, plan on purchasing some property or investing it an business.

Please double check everything I have said with an attorney. I talked to about 4 attorneys and got slight variations of this process, but, from what I can see, it is correct.

I can recommend Denton's law firm or Carlos Calix. Both law firms are in Tegucigalpa, but, you do not have to travel to their office.

I think it is obviously better to spend more time in country each year towards citizenship, but, there is no mandatory phsyical presence requirement of say 6 months per year in Nicaragua which I don't think is really enforced. Plan on spending like 2 weeks to 1 month per year or more.

Honduras technically only allows citizenship with other Central American countries like Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and I think Panama (not sure) and Spain. You are supposed to renounce your current citizenship, but, it is not enforced like in other countries like Singapore or Netherlands.

You can also get expedited citizenship with Spain if you want an EU passport, but, carefully plan your tax obligations there because Spain is not good for taxes.

If you don't have the net worth of some of the typical HNW on the OffshoreCorpTalk discussion board and you want to get a second passport (not just a residency), you will likely need to spend more time in the country and it will take longer unless you can citzenship by ancestry (which can also take longer).

Some good options that are relatively cheap to get and can take a fairly short amount of time can include Mexico (5-6 years), Honduras (3-4 years), Nicaragua (3-4 years), Ecuador (3-4 years), and Argentina (3 years).

If you want to look at an EU passport, I think the Porguguese D7 (Passive Income) or D8 (Digital Nomad Visa which does lead to citizenship) is the best option. You need to spend about 6 months per year there for 5 years and then apply for cititzenship so the whole process will take 5-6 years.

For just good cheap residency options, I would include Dubai (UAE), Paraguay, and Panama.

Sorry for the long post and it was somewhat off topic from Honduras. Take all this information with the disclaimer I am not an attorney or immigration expert. It is what I have been able to find out from different resources and I could be wrong.

CitizenshipSkr

citizenshipskr said:

You can also get expedited citizenship with Spain if you want an EU passport, but, carefully plan your tax obligations there because Spain is not good for taxes.

Click to expand...

I think this only works for native born LatAm citizens and not for naturalized ones. Or does it really work ?

This might be correct. I got this source from the following website: Spain Relaxes Minimum Stay for Citizenship. It would be good to verify with an immigration expert or the Spanish embassy. In other words, expedited Spanish citizenship might only apply to people born in Honduran citizenship and not naturalized citizens.

I like the idea, but last year I met with Massimo Mazzone and some others, lets just say I wasn't convinced enough. I couldn't make any sense out of it. One of the guys most used argument was "People are unable to understand (prospera/free trade) because they fear being free" or something like that. Okay I guess.

Interesting insides from people made real research on the topic.

https://www.piratewires.com/p/what-happens-when-your-city-is-deemed-illegal

What Happens When Your City is Deemed Illegal?​

honduras' new government has reneged on its 50-year commitment to charter cities like próspera. now, the city's founders are waiting to find out if their project will be deemed illegal.​

THANKS to the OP for a Terrific and detailed report on Prospera! And thanks to “void freedom” for the timely update. I would like to add further context and complimentary details because, during the recent Covid years, I did a good deal of research on the topic myself.

The island of Roatan is unique in Central America and the Caribbean. And Honduras residency and citizenship is quite attractive. However, Uruguay and Argentina should take only two years residence for citizenship, IIRC.

Also, the Dominican Republic, two years. And getting a bank account there is rather easy — although, the DR passport is of limited usefulness (50 nations visa free?), albeit good for the Caribbean and Central American. Official bureaucracy in DR has been notoriously lax in the last decade. But that’s seems to have narrowed in the last half decade. In other words, lassitude in practice — yet gaining international respect.

On my recent visit to DR, I found DR a hive of industry, the the largest public works project in the Western hemisphere being a subway for Santo Domingo. And I found DR to be wealthier than peripheral Mexico (ie, beyond the Mexico City-Guadalajara population core).

Now, what makes Roatan so unique and attractive? I’ll get to that in a bit, but after I dispatch Western Caribbean rivals like Columbia and Belize.

Columbia used to be good for gaining citizenship. But that’s changed, while residency remains easy. And the Northern most reach is an island reef off Nicaragua called San Andras, and geographically most comparable to Roatan.

Like Roatan, San Andras is very well connected by air service to Columbia — except Roatan is well connected year round to the US. San Andras was also hit hard by a hurricane in recent years

Belize, too, has inherent interest for Americans and English speakers because it is one of its official languages. Belize has roots in the lingering Caribbean tradition of piracy — and remains culturally and politically marked by the free spirit of casual appropriation and lax law.

The primary touristed islands, however, are rather small. Roatan is pretty large and mountainous by comparison.

Roatan is basically an American colony at the edge of Honduras. And it’s bread and butter tourism is serving serious scuba divers and snorkelers, mostly from North America. In this, it is more like Grand Cayman Island than, say, the Virgin Islands which serve sailing craft.

Roatan is almost uniquely blessed in being sheltered from hurricanes. First, the Western Caribbean Sea tends to generate tropical storms like the one currently developing, rather than cyclones that are better developed.

In addition, Roatan’s mountainous and extensive inner and outer reef systems tend to dampen hurricane winds and tame tidal surges, respectively. Nonetheless, hurricanes strike around every 20 years or so — and damage the island more extensively on half century or longer time scales. This makes Roatan uniquely attractive for investment and real estate development. Hence, Prospera.

Now, the economic geography of this unofficial island-colony — and exactly where is Prospera?

Roatan is rectangle of several miles wide and maybe 40 miles long, laid out East to West off the East side of the Honduran mainland. Prospera is on the Eastern tip. The Scuba Center is on the West End with a hippy-like assortment of business and dive shops and inns.

Beyond this, one finds condo resorts and similar beach oriented developments. Further away, one finds actual small towns near the airport. And land is for sale throughout most of the island for building homes or lot holding. Again, these is a very attractive aspects of the island.

Roatan is best and greatest for weekly scuba adventures — and much more affordable than Grand Cayman. Yet people who live here grow tired of the small local population and isolation. In this way, it is like most any resort area, experiencing a high level of churn among the residents. But frequent electric power outages from the gas fueled generator is a fundamental limitation on quality Island living.

These defects are remedied at Prospera. The founders want to make it a business incubator, as well as a crypto-friendly home. This fall’s news on the project “critical community” mass puts this bright future in doubt.

But Prospera has two strengths in its future. First, its backing from deep pockets like Peter Theil and Marc Andresson means means that the current crisis maybe resolved by waiting out the unfriendly Socialist government. Secondly, Honduran constitutional hurdles of a free zone or city-state authority have been faced and overcome before!

A final limitation on investment and enjoyment must be mentioned. Despite the small size of the Island of Roatan, it takes 30 minutes to 60 minutes to get around by vehicles. Therefore, both residents and holiday-making visitors are pretty much limited to enjoying the three regions of the island — Roatan West End, Central, or East in Prospera — alone during there stay.

But, unlike much of the Caribbean island realm, this also means the challenges and costs of overdevelopment remain far off!

To finish my thoughts, either the deep pockets of Prospera will either wait it out or they will sell. The rest of the island remains uniquely attractive and useful for expats and beach combing wanderers alike. Thanks again to the OP and the critical updater— very informed and detailed.