A long-time reader raises an important question:
How much do the different Caribbean CIPs pay in commission to agents?
I am getting conflicting figures from different sources.
That’s a more difficult question to answer than you might think, for the following reasons:
First, different CIUs define “agents” differently. All five Caribbean programs have
accredited local agents, who are authorized to submit applications. Several programs also have international marketing agents, and some have
government marketing agents. In some instances, the government pays the commission to the local agent, while in others they pay it to the international marketing agent (sometimes called Promoters). For the purposes of this overview, we will consider only the commissions paid to
local agents.
Second, CIUs tend to update their commission structures at irregular intervals. These changes are not always communicated publicly. In most cases, they are communicated to agents via the familiar CIU circular format. In other cases, they are shared with a few select, large-scale agents directly.
Third, several programs operate with sliding-scale commission structures where the commission percentage is determined by whether the submitting agent meets certain thresholds of the number of submitted applications.
Fourth, the different CIUs vary widely in terms of their level of transparency and the access they grant to media outlets (like this one). They run the gamut from accessible and forthcoming to opaque and tight-lipped. Saint Lucia’s CIU tends to be best in class; Grenada’s is a close second.
