Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment in 2020

Would you like to become a citizen of a Caribbean country in 2020? Below please find everything that you have to know about applying for citizenship by investment of St Kitts and Nevis.

The immigration schemes that allow obtaining Citizenship by Investment (CBI), exist de jure since the 1980s. However, they became popular only in second decade of this century. The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 set the wealthy people thinking about a ‘Plan B’ that could protect them from such situations.

Today, CBI is a market with the yearly turnover of 3 billion US dollars. The notion of ‘citizenship’ is currently experiencing a huge change. All of a sudden, you do not have to be a citizen of the country were you were born: you can choose your citizenship. Few people actually know that the idea of ‘buying’ the citizenship appeared a long time ago. In particular, a payment of 83 pounds to the Royal Bank of Scotland would allow a foreigner to become a Scottish – and thus a British – citizen in the 18^th century.

Two centuries later, the authorities of the Caribbean country of St Kitts and Nevis borrowed this idea. They started issuing passports of the country to foreign investors in 1984, only one year after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1983.

Since that time, over a dozen countries followed suit and entered the market by offering their citizenship to foreign nationals in exchange for a donation or an investment. The CBI schemes has done good to a vast number of individuals and families who have obtained more opportunities, more mobility, and more freedom.

Even though the number of St Kitts and Nevis’ competitors is growing, the country continues to set the trends in the CBI market by offering some unique opportunities, attractive conditions, and competitive prices. The 35-year experience of the country in managing the immigration programs clearly shows.

The Government of St Kitts and Nevis has high hopes for the future of the immigration program that allows attracting foreign investments to the country that greatly contribute to its economic growth.

Foreign nationals are welcome to apply for citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis with their families including their spouses, children, and parents. They can do so either via making a non-returnable donation or by making a returnable investment into real property on the islands.

The Caribbean country offers a second passport to foreign investors that can be used to freely travel around the world, to plan the fiscal burden, to open bank accounts in different countries, and to carry out many other important tasks. It normally takes about six months to acquire St Kitts and Nevis citizenship in exchange for a donation or an investment.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: the advantages

You will gain the following important advantages when obtaining citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis:  

• Travel to a great number of countries without the need to apply for a visa. All the EU countries grant free access to holders of St Kitts and Nevis passports and Great Britain does so as well. You can also visit countries such as Georgia or Albania, among many others, without a visa when you become a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis.

• Possibility to become a tax resident in a low-tax jurisdiction. There are no income, inheritance, dividend, nor wealth taxes in St Kitts and Nevis. Other tax rates are very low. A businessperson can gain access to more fiscal burden planning strategies when acquiring citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis.

• St Kitts and Nevis passport and citizenship can be obtained within six to eight weeks if you are ready to make an additional payment for accelerated application processing. If not, the procedure can take from three to six months.

• You can acquire a source of a stable passive income if you invest into real estate on the islands. You can let the piece of property that you buy on a lease right after you sign the purchase agreement. Tourists are plentiful in St Kitts and Nevis all the year round so the chances to find a renter are high.

• You acquire St Kitts and Nevis citizenship for life. Besides, members of your family can also become citizens of the country. A family application does involve some additional costs but they are nothing extravagant.

• When obtaining the passport of this small and peaceful country, you can also enhance the level of your financial information confidentiality thus protecting your assets. You can also register a business company with your second passport thus achieving an even higher level of asset protections.

• You do not have to travel to St Kitts and Nevis in order to become a citizen of the country. There are also no residence requirements for retaining citizenship. As a matter of fact, you may never visit St Kitts and Nevis while remaining a full citizen of this country.

• The passport issued to the investor is valid for 10 years and it has to be extended afterwards. St Kitts and Nevis passport is a well-respected identification document as the country has good international reputation. At the same time, citizenship by investment in St Kitts and Nevis is one of the most affordable such programs in the world. The minimum required sum is only US$ 150,000.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: requirements to the applicants

The main applicant for St Kitts and Nevis citizenship has to conform to the following criteria:  

• He or she must be older that 18;
• His or her criminal record must be clean;
• All applicants have to undergo due diligence procedures that are carried out by the immigration agency, by an independent commercial organization, and by the Government of St Kitts and Nevis;
• The main applicant must demonstrate the legality of the sources of capital to be used for citizenship acquisition;
• The applicant must be in good health.

If you would like to apply for citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis with your family, you have to know that you can bring the following dependents with you when you act as the main applicant:

• You spouse;
• Your children up to 25 years old;
• Your parents and your spouse’ parents over 55 year old.

You will have to show that your children over 18 years of age are financially dependent on you (for example, because they are attending a university). The same goes for the parents. Please also mind that all adult applicants have to undergo the due diligence procedures.

In addition, you have to be aware that transfer of St Kitts and Nevis citizenship to the future generations can be problematic in certain cases. 

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: the price

Foreign nationals applying for St Kitts and Nevis citizenship have two financing options that they can use:

• A non-returnable non-refundable donation to the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF);
• A returnable investment into real estate on the islands of St Kitts and Nevis; the property can be resold after 5 to 7 years.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: the speed of acquisition

Investors can avail themselves of the opportunity to make the application processing faster by using the AAP (Accelerated Application Process). For an additional pay, the time of the application processing can be reduced to 45-60 days.

The AAP that was put into place in 2016 does not allow the applicants to avoid conforming to any of the requirements nor does it make the list of the application documents any shorter.

The additional payments that the AAP involves (including the legal fees) are as follows:

• Main applicant: US$ 25,000;
• Dependents above 16 years of age: US$ 20,000 each;
• Dependents below 16 years of age: US$ 500 each.

Citizens of the following countries are not eligible to use the AAP when applying for St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment:

• The Republic of Iraq;
• The Republic of Yemen;
• The Republic of Nigeria.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: a donation to the state fund

The St Kitts and Nevis authorities established the new Sustainable Growth Fund in 2018. The corresponding amendment to the immigration legislation went into effect on April 1 that year.

The money that is raised through the SGF is used to improve healthcare in St Kitts and Nevis as well as to develop education, alternative energy, infrastructure, and tourism sector, to preserve the historic and cultural heritage of the country, to combat the effects of the climate change, and to facilitate the growth of entrepreneurship on the islands.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: the passport in exchange for investment into real estate

If you choose to apply for citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis via investment into real property in the country, you will have to invest at least US$ 50,000 more than you would have to contribute to the SGF. Besides, the additional costs (see above) also need to be taken into account.

However, there are two factors that will compensate for this comparative disadvantage. First, you will be making a returnable investment as the property that you buy can be resold after five or seven years. Second, you can let the property on a lease right after purchasing it in order to obtain the St Kitts and Nevis passport.  

Please also bear in mind that you will not be able to buy just any property on the islands that you like. The development project has to be approved by the Government in order to qualify for the citizenship-by-investment program. The good news, however, is that the choice of such development projects is wide indeed. Currently, there are 96 Government-approved building complexes that are listed in the table below.

It is certainly a pleasure to know that there is a wide range of options that you can choose from when applying for citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis via purchasing a piece of real property in the country. Nevertheless, selecting the most suitable house, suite or apartment on the islands is not so easy and it should not be done in a hurry. The wrong choice of property can make it hard to rent it out and/ or resell it later.

St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment: some concluding remarks

Citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis in exchange for a donation or an investment into real estate is a highly popular immigration product. It attracts thousands of people from all over the world who seek to obtain a second passport. However, the multibillion citizenship-by-investment market also attracts a number of frauds who try to lure clients into their illegal schemes by offering ‘discounts’.

Our experts will help you avoid falling into various traps that can be found on the way to acquiring a second citizenship. We will provide full support to you in the process of applying for St Kitts and Nevis citizenship starting with collecting the application documents and ending with the issuance of the passports for the whole family.

Would you like to have a precise calculation of all the costs involved in acquiring citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis? Supply the necessary details about the nature of the application that you are planning to make and we will calculate the total cost including all government duties and other fees.  

Would you like to obtain tax residency of the St Kitts and Nevis? We can help with that too. We will also gladly assist you in registering a business company legal address in this jurisdiction, in obtaining a social security card, a driving license, a local SIM-card, and so on, and so forth.

If you have not made up your mind yet and you would like to have more information about St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and the country’s immigration programs, please contact us without hesitation at [email protected]. We have processed thousands of applications as of this day, and we know what needs to be done and what should not be done in order to become a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis, obtain a second passport, and start a new life.