Citizenship by investment programs (CIP) offer a fast track citizenship to foreign investors against economic contribution to the Government, such as buying a property or one time contribution to the Government fund. All applicants and their family members had to pay the due diligence fee and pass the background vetting checks.

The first citizenship by investment scheme was introduced in 1983 by St Kitts and Nevis, since then the number of such schemes have proliferated to more than 10. Currently the CBI industry is estimated to be worth $10 billion annually.  An estimated number of 50,000 people become new citizens by investing every year. The proceeds from CIP were used for economic development and welfare projects. Caribbean countries in the past used citizenship for sale revenues for hurricane recovery, rebuilding and repaying debt.

Why the Demand?

Almost Half of the world countries have worst passports, restricting mobility and travel freedom to its citizens. Visa restrictions affect millions of people worldwide, impacts tourism and business and these industries have lost billions of dollars with slow growth. Wealthy people and their families also go through this time consuming process. The rich and the wealthy are looking to have a second passport with alternative citizenship in their portfolio. In a survey, one in three wealthy persons already hold a second passport and another third are considering to acquire one.

List of Countries

Today there are about 15 citizenship by investment schemes actively running and more countries are expected to join in the future.

Country Origin / Start Investment required Visa free countries (2023) Passport time
1. St Kitts and Nevis 1984 $250,000 155 4-6 months
2. Dominica 1993 $100,000 143 4-6 months
3. Saint Lucia 2015 $100,000 146 3 months
4. Cambodia 1996 $250,000 54 6 months
5. Antigua & Barbuda 2013 $100,000 150 4-6 months
6. Grenada 2013 $150,000 146 4-6 months
7. Malta 2014 750,000 € 187 12-15 months
8. Vanuatu 2015 $130,000 99 4-6 months
9. Saint Lucia 2015 $100,000 146 4-6 months
10. Turkey 2017 $400,000  111 3-5 months
11. Samoa 2017 $1.2 million 131 36 months
12. Egypt 2019 $250,000 43 3 months
`13.Jordan 2018 $1 million 53 3 months
14. North Macedonia 2017 $200,000 125 6 months

Note: Monenegro, Moldova, Comoros, Cyprus and Bulgaria have closed citizenship program for investments.

Source: Visa free countries (Henley Index)