Citizenship by investment programs have become enormously popular and as more applications are received for processing, the processing times have become slow. The average time to receive a passport for all CBI programs is 3-4 months.
St Lucia has the quickest citizenship by investment program with approval times reduced to just 46 days (you dont need to pay extra), if all the documents in order. St Kitts has accelerated application process which expedites application approvals within 45 days. There are additional fees ($25,000) are levied for this fast track process (some nationals are ineligible).
In general, the Caribbean citizenship by investment schemes are usually the fastest. The European citizenship schemes are the slowest of all takes no less than a year to receive a passport. Vanuatu is the takes only 50 days to process applications.
We list CBI schemes below fastest to slowest, that is time taken to application stage to receiving passport. At the moment Vanuatu has the fastest processing times for citizenship by investment applications. Keep in mind citizenship programs that requires personal visits adds more delays. Covid has made it impossible to travel to these countries to complete the real estate and citizenship programs. These are the fastest countries to become a world citizen through citizenship by investment schemes. There is also a possibility for stateless to become a citizen and acquire passports through the investment schemes.
| CBI | Processing times |
| St Lucia | 45 days |
| Vanuatu | 30 days |
| St Kitts and Nevis | 45 days (Accelerated Application Process) 90 days (normal) |
| Dominica | 90 days |
| Grenada | 90 days |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 90 days |
| Turkey | 90-120 days |
| Montenegro (closed from 2023) | 90-100 days |
| Malta | 12-15 months |
Please note processing times and passport time are different.
- Processing time is the time required for approval of CBI application (60-90 days)
- Passport time the time take to issue passport after CIP approval (2-3 weeks)
The total time is calculated adding processing times and passport time.
1. St Lucia
- Price: $100,000 Donation to Govt fund
- Government Bonds – $250,000 (refunded after 6 years)
- Real Estate: $300,000 (hotel/resorts)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 2 months
- Citizenship approval: 45 days
- Passport time: 3 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport Validity: 5 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK
2. St Kitts and Nevis
- Price: $150,000 SGF Donation
- Real Estate: $200,000 (buyback shares (hotel/resorts)) or $400,000 (private villas/resorts)
- Fast track processing (AAP): 45 days (costs additional $25,000)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 60 days (accelerated) and 90 days (normal processing)
- Passport time: 60 days
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Oath: NOT required
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/Russia
3. Vanuatu
- Price: $130,000 Donation – DSP/VCP schemes
- Real Estate: $200,000 (approved projects)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 3 weeks
- Citizenship approval: Less than 1 month
- Passport time: 60 days
- Oath: YES
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/Russia
4. Montenegro
Montenegro is the newly launched economic citizenship scheme, the processing times are very fast due to low volume of applications.
This program is closed from 2023
- Real Estate + Donation: €100,000 Donation to Govt fund + €250,000 Real estate (hotels/resorts)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: YES
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Quota Limit: 2000 applications only
- Passport time: 3 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport Validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen only (no UK)
4. North Macedonia
Macedonia is the newly launched economic citizenship scheme, the processing times are very fast due to low volume of applications. This program is not active due to banking issues faced by clients applying for this program.
- Private investment fund: €200,000 (held 2years)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: YES
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Quota Limit: 1000 applications only
- Passport time: 3-4 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport Validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen only
5. Dominica
- Price: $100,000 EDF Govt Donation
- Real Estate: $200,000 (hotel/resorts)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Oath: YES
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Passport time: 3 months
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/Russia
6. Antigua and Barbuda
- Price: $100,000 Donation
- Real Estate: $220,000
- Residence requirement: 5 days (only renewing passport)
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport time: 3 months
- Passport validity: 5 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/Russia
7. Grenada
- Price: $150,000 Donation
- Real Estate: $220,000
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: NO
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport time: 3 months
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/Russia/China
8. Turkey
- Price: $400,000 Real Estate / $500,000 (bank deposit)
- Residence requirement: NO
- Visit to the country: YES
- Real Estate buying time: 1 month
- Residence permit time: 1 month
- Due diligence check: < 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Oath: YES
- Passport time: 4 months
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: NO Schengen/ NO UK/ NO Russia
9. Malta
- Price: EUR 600,000 (Donation citizenship in one year ) or EUR 750,000 (Donation for citizenship fast track in 1 year)
- Real Estate: (optional)
- Residence requirement: 12 months / 1 year
- Visit to the country: YES
- Oath: YES
- Quota limit: 1800 applications
- Due diligence check: 2 months
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Passport time: 1.5 years (12 to 18 months)
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK/USA/Canada/Australia
10. Bulgaria
- Price: €1 million (Govt Bonds) scheme closed
- Real Estate: YES
- Residence requirement: 1.5 years
- Visit to the country: YES
- Due diligence check: 1 month
- Citizenship approval: 2 months
- Passport time: 18 months
- Passport validity: 10 years
- Visa free: Schengen/UK//Canada
Video
What You should Know
It is important to remember you ONLY make the full investment (donation or real estate) after receiving citizenship approval from the Citizenship Investment Unit (CIU).
This is how it works
- Pay 50% of agent fee – 5 days
- Agent conduct initial background checks – 5 days
- Agent collects all documents and apply for citizenship approval to Government through agent – 1 month
- Receive citizenship approval letter. It is only issued after passing all background checks done by Govt. – 2 months
- Pay the full $100,000 contribution to Government bank account.- 10 days
- Take the Oath – 1 day
- Collect your passport from your agent or at embassy – 1 month
Documents
Having all necessary documents in the proper order, is the key to receive fastest citizenship approvals. It is advisable to plan 2 months in advance. Over the years of experience, we have noticed. The most important documents are police certificate, medical report, birth certificate and marriage certificate.
- Missing documents are the No.1 reason for long delays.
- Donation option are much faster than the real estate investment atleast by a month
- Document legalization or apostille process in birth certificates, marriage and police certificates also a culprit taking lot of time.
