Samoa (Western Samoa), a commonwealth country in the Pacific offers a new citizenship by investment program since 2015, granting foreign investors and their immediate family members to obtain Samoan Citizenship by Investment.
The Samoan CBI is administered by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour under the provisions of the Citizenship Investment Act 2015 and its Regulations 2015. The Samoan CBI program is not promoted widely and only known to few investors. The Samoan passport is one of the best travel documents in the world, with visa free access to Canada, UK, Ireland, EU schengen, Russia etc.
Samoa is located south of the equator, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand in the Polynesian region of the Pacific Ocean. The Samoa citizenship by investment CBI is open to all country nationals.
Samoa has a population close to 200,000 and its GDP is $1 billion
Investment Requirements
The minimum investment conditions to qualify for citizenship in Samoa are:
USD 1.65 million (SAT$ 4 million) investment in the following areas:
- Leasing and developing of government lands
- Processing or manufacturing of agricultural produce
- Processing or manufacturing or fishery products
- Tourism
- Information or communication technology
- Electricity generation through bio-fuel, solar, water or wind
- Investment in a government development fund for the purposes of national development or investment in a prescribed charitable trust
- Any services other than any services listed in the Reserved List under the Foreign Investment Act 2000.
The net assets of the investor must also be no less than USD 1 million (SAT$ 2.5 million)
The total time to receive Samoan citizenship with passport is 3 years. This is because first permanent residence card is issued, then after 3 years before the expiry of card you can apply for Samoan citizenship. You are required to make 15% of the investment initially.
This program is not an instant passport program like CBI programs in the Caribbean where you can get a passport in 3 months.
CIP Committee will only be able to consider an application if;
- Fees for the application and due diligence have been paid in full;
- Proof of opening of the fixed deposit account and the payment into that account at least 70% (or instead a prescribed percentage of at least 50%) of the investment sum;
- Phe report on due diligence checks has been received
Dual Citizenship
Dual citizenship is allowed in Samoa.
Samoan Passport
Samoan passport is one of those few rare passports which has visa free travel to Canada, Russia, Europe Schengen Area, United Kingdom, Caribbean etc, to a total of 127 countries in the world according to Henley passport index 2018).
Samoan passport ranked as #37th powerful passport in the world.
Fees
There are additional fees involved under the citizenship by investment program which includes a fee for due diligence.
| Fees | SAT$ (1 SAT = 0.4 USD) |
| Application for investment
(principal applicant) Dependent child (0-11) Dependent child (12-17) Dependent child (18) |
120,000 120,000 60,000 60,000 120,000 |
| Due diligence fees
principal applicant plus; Spouse Dependent child (0-11) Dependent child (12-17) Dependent child (18) |
20,000
20,000 0 5,000 10,000 |
| Application to promote or market scheme | 1,000 |
| Agency application | 50,000 |
Official Sources:
- http://www.mcil.gov.ws/images/2016/WebsitePDF/IDIP/CitizenshipInvestmentBrochure.pdf
- http://www.palemene.ws/new/wp-content/uploads/01.Acts/Acts%202015/Citizenship-Investment-Act-2015-Eng.pdf
