The European commission has expressed serious security loopholes involved with Vanuatu’s citizenship by investment scheme, in a report recently published by the commission.
According to the European Commission, The granting of citizenship by Vanuatu under its investor citizenship schemes was deemed to constitute a circumvention of the Union short-stay visa procedure and the assessment of security and migratory risks it entails, as well as an increased risk to the internal security and public policy of the Member States, therefore obtaining visa-free access to the Union. Therefore the commission has extended deadline of the temporary suspension now extended from 3 August 2024 to 3 February 2025 for Vanuatu nationals, later reintroducing permanently the visa requirement for
nationals of Vanuatu
.
Vanuatu authorities have failed to provide satisfactory proof that these changes are being
implemented and are sufficient to mitigate the security risks of its investor citizenship
schemes, said EU report.
Short deadlines
The applications continue to be processed within very short deadlines. In particular, the
screening and due diligence process of an application takes maximum 14 days, extendable to 30 days.
No Residence / Physical presence / Interviews
The investor citizenship schemes operated by Vanuatu still do not contain any requirement
of effective residence or physical presence in Vanuatu for the applicants. The application
process continues to be managed by specialised agencies located outside Vanuatu whereby
the applicant does not need to have any direct contact with Vanuatu’s authorities. No
interviews with the applicant are held during the application process. The absence of a
requirement for a physical interview reduces the opportunities for the authorities of Vanuatu to properly assess the applicant or to corroborate the information provided in the application, including its veracity and credibility
Rejection Rate
The rejection rate has continued to be extremely low, thus corroborating the
Commission’s assessment concerning the low reliability of the screening process. According
to information provided by Vanuatu, in 2022 and 2023, Vanuatu has received 1988
applications for citizenship in exchange of investment, out of which only 27 have been
rejected.
Security checks
In March 2023, Vanuatu amended its Citizenship Act by replacing the institutions and
procedures for the screening and due diligence checks of the applications. In particular, the
previous Internal Screening Committee appointed by the Prime Minister has been replaced
by three institutions: the Vanuatu Police Force, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the
Vanuatu Immigration Services. Those institutions carry out the checks, including on Interpol databases, and report to the Secretary General of the Citizenship Commission. While on the one hand this new procedure appears to mitigate the risk of granting the citizenship to persons who are listed in Interpol databases, on the other hand it does not include other necessary elements to properly assess the absence of security risks of the applicants.
Document Verification
There is no adequate means for the authorities of Vanuatu to verify the veracity of the documents issued by the applicant’s country of origin or residence, including identity documents and criminal records, since those authorities do not exchange information with the applicants’ country of origin or residence.
Russians
Vanuatu has continued accepting and processing applications from Russian nationals following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
