Wondering where your next global mobility move could take you?

Mona sits down with Frank Cheang of Elysium 8 Holdings, a firm describing itself as more than a brokerage but a strategic gateway. They discuss three countries: Japan, Portugal, and Greece, including where investors are going wrong.

Our discussion begins with Japanese real estate, and the numbers alone are worth listening to. Foreign investors are claiming mortgage rates of 3-5%, whilst citizens can borrow at 1% with 100% LTV. Almost 250 episodes into Global Investment Voice, and we are only just landing in Japan… We should have booked this trip sooner.

From there, we move on to the better-known programs along the Mediterranean, with benefits that are harder to put a price on. Freedom to move, work, and outstanding education options. Portugal’s Golden Visa has raised over six billion euros and offers the fastest route to citizenship in Europe, five years. Whilst Greece takes seven years, they have zero minimum stay requirements, excellent for global investors.

Japan, Portugal, and Greece all have something different to offer, whether you’re a seasoned investor diversifying or a family weighing up your long-term options. This episode brings all three together to make your choice easier.

Never mind stocks and bonds, the savviest investors in today’s market are now diversifying with citizenship! In this episode of Global Investment Voice, Mona and Rebecca are joined with Tatiana Muntean from Global Freedom Capital to unveil one of the best kept secrets in the citizenship by investment community. São Tomé and Príncipe.

With Trump’s travel bans and pauses shaking up the immigration world and Caribbean CBI programs pricing out everyday investors, São Tomé and Príncipe has quietly entered the market, and it could be the smartest move for your global mobility.

With a price tag of just $90,000 (roughly one bitcoin), this small country, located just off the coast of western Africa, offers a fully remote and fast application process. Think of an overlooked pathway to citizenship in Portugal and Brazil, and the kind of privacy that doesn’t make Trump’s list.

One passport is no longer enough. Is this the best citizenship buy of 2026?

Global instability does not wait for anybody! With conflict in the Middle East altering international markets, individuals worldwide are rushing to secure a Plan B for themselves and their families. The U.S. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is a top choice. Sam Hussain from BLS Global joins our hosts Mona and Rebecca to ask the burning EB-5 questions his clients keep coming back to, and the answers may just surprise you.

Can you still file if your project is already built? And as the September 30th grandfathering deadline approaches swiftly, waiting until summer may already be a costly mistake. We unpack the issues investors must understand before filing, such as source of funds challenges, partial investment strategies, and rural versus TEA considerations.

Are you considering EB-5? This episode is a masterclass in what sophisticated investors should know before they consider wiring a single dollar.

EB-5 visa applicants from 75 countries woke up to their worst nightmare on January 14th, 2026. Trump announced an executive order indefinitely pausing immigrant visa processing for nationals of certain countries. Investors who have spent months, even years, on their applications and planning are suddenly in limbo.

The reasoning behind the indefinite pause is questionable. The government wants to screen out potential public charges, people who might end up on welfare or food stamps. However, remember that we're discussing investors who must invest between $800,000 and $1 million to obtain an EB-5 visa. How are these people a risk for public assistance?

Host Mona Shah sits down with Jill Jones, General Counsel of Institutional Client Services USA for JTC Group to explore what's happening. They talk through the questions everyone in EB-5 is asking, such as whether the panic is justified. Should investors continue with their applications or explore alternative options, such as E-2 visas? Some lawyers are even suggesting clients enter on tourist visas and apply for adjustment of status once they're in the country for ninety days, but that comes with real risks.

If you're an immigration attorney trying to advise worried clients, or an investor wondering what to do next, this conversation cuts through the confusion and gets to what actually matters.

Recorded on March 2nd 2026

This week’s episode starts off quite unlike one we have experienced before in the 10 years of this podcast series!

We speak again with our guest, Sam Bayat, who joins us from Dubai, a city that, just merely hours ago, was under missile alerts and explosions. Sam talks about his experience of a weekend of regional conflicts, and the city’s poise in the face of a disaster.

But the question, of course, comes up: in today’s world, when does a second passport stop being a luxury and become a necessity?

We talk about the UAE’s golden visa, how the Government of Dubai managed to maintain order and the implications of this situation for investor confidence in the region. How is Sam’s second office in Tehran managing? Which countries are open for Iranian people? Sam stresses the point that if you only have a passport of one country, you’re always at the mercy of things beyond your control.

This is a first-person account of the Gulf’s conflict, and a direct discussion about the implications of passport diversification in 2026.

Very few know about Jesse Jackson’s contributions to the EB-5 Industry. In this special tribute episode, we remember his words and honor his life and legacy . He was a civil rights activist and presidential candidate but above all, a towering moral voice who saw investment not merely as economics but as a pathway to justice.

Nine years after he joined us on our podcast, we revisit his powerful words on the Rainbow Push coalition, the Wall Street Project, and the regenerative potential of the EB-5 programme. He described economic access as the “fourth stage” of the civil rights movement and reminded us that “Inclusion is the key to growth, when there’s growth, everybody wins.”

As we reflect on his life and legacy, we allow his words to speak his vision, a vision of fair opportunity and capital flowing into underserved communities.

Rest well, Reverend Jackson.

What happens when a country shuts down every business immigration pathway precisely at the moment it needs entrepreneurs the most?

Canada is staring down a $2 trillion crisis. With 75% of Canada’s 1.2 million small business owners reportedly planning to exit within the next decade, Canada is facing a succession crisis. Whilst the solution seems obvious to attract new entrepreneurial talent to the country, Canada has instead systematically dismantled almost every route for them to enter.

In this episode of Global Investment Voice, immigration expert Sam Bayat joins our host Mona Shah to explore the shocking closure, suspension, and redrafting of major federal business immigration programmes in Canada, at precisely the moment Canada needs entrepreneurs the most.

The Federal Investor Programme? Terminated in 2014 after 70,000 fraudulent applications overwhelmed the system. Quebec's investor option? Reduced to single-digit applications after introducing mandatory B2 French proficiency. The innovative Start-Up Visa that once promised so much? Shut down in late 2025 under the weight of 42,000 applications and 35-year processing times.

Sam discusses the systemic failures which ended these programmes, such as paper startups and widespread abuse of the system with virtually non-existent enforcement. Perhaps most damning is the maths. Canada needs 100,000 entrepreneurs in the next 20 years, but their current intake now is merely 500.

Find out which pathways still exist for serious investors in 2026, what created the growing gap between political rhetoric and economic reality and whether the perfect storm of retiring Canadian business owners alongside closed immigration routes is disastrous or an unexpected opportunity.

It’s fair to say easy immigration to Canada is over. But has a more strategic game just begun?

What happens when a G7 leader accidentally makes the case for citizenship and residency by investment on the world’s biggest stage?

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made an unexpected declaration, stating the end of the American-led world order at Davos 2026. In doing so, he unknowingly provided the framework to validate what millions of globally mobile individuals have known all along. Multiple citizenships are not divided loyalties, but rather a means of survival, through an insurance policy.

In this explorative episode of Global Investment Voice, host Mona Shah reunites with Iliana Oris Valiente, who was in Davos at the time of Carney’s bombshell speech. Together, they unpack what this means for RCBI programmes across the globe, from the Americas to Europe and beyond.

You’ll discover the reason why Carney’s restructuring of sovereignty highlights second citizenship as a necessity and hear tell-all statistics from Henley & Partners’ 2026 Global Mobility Report, revealing Canada and the UK are dropping in mobility rankings. The conversation explores the evolution of citizenship from a loyalty pledge to a portfolio of strategic rights.

From AI’s disruption of the nature of work to the explosive rise of what Iliana has coined “The Flexible Class,” we connect the dots between geopolitics, investment migration, and your family’s freedom strategy. So, whether you’re considering future-proofing your family’s global options or learning more about Davos, this episode reveals why 2026 may be remembered as when multiple citizenships became a strategic necessity.

The world order has shifted. But the real question is: Has your citizenship strategy kept pace?