Data exchanged between European Commission and Five Eastern Caribbean states running citizenship by investment programs reveal record number of 100,000 passports issued from 2014 to 2024. Data for 2023/24 not provided by St.Kitts and Grenada. Some of the data is still being verified by the Commission.
The sheer volume of applications received shows unprecedented demand for caribbean passports under investment schemes.
- Closed to 50,000 applications received by five EC states running CIP programs. Dominica and St.Kitts remain at the top of the list
- CBI Passports issued exceeded 100,000 by EC states
- The application refusal rates remained low between 2-5%. Antigua and St.Lucia recorded very low rejection numbers.
The Commission said in the report, Dominica processed some 1918 applications from nationals of Iran accepted only by Dominica. Following the Russian aggression against Ukraine, all five countries have suspended the examination of applications from Russian and Belarusian nationals. However, in 2023 Grenada still had a considerable number (around 2 300) of pending applications from Russian nationals which have been processed in 2024. Grenada informed the Commission that as of 16 September 2024, there were 87 Russian applications outstanding.
The number of total applications is often lower than the total number of passports issued because applications can cover more than one person (e.g., a successful application for a family of 4 counts as 1 application, but 4 passports issued).
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia are included in the seventh visa suspension report due to their status as visa-free countries and their operating investor citizenship schemes.
The European Commission has continued the engagement with the five countries, at both political and technical level. On 12 January 2024, the Commission held a high-level meeting with the Prime Ministers of the five countries, which was followed by a technical fact-finding mission of the Commission services to the region in January 2024 and exchanges of information in writing.
The Commission considers that the five Caribbean countries’ screening and vetting procedures may not be sufficient to reject applicants who could be a potential security risk when travelling visa-free to the EU.
The EU expressed several key security concerns with the CBI/CIP schemes in the Caribbean, more importantly biometrics not registered and allowing change of name.
- None of the five countries require residence or even physical presence in the country before citizenship granted. This implies that the biometrics of successful applicants are not registered.
- All five countries allow successful applicants for the possibility to change their name after having obtained citizenship by investment.
The Commission did praise efforts taken by these countries to strengthen their procedures, all five countries have showed an increased awareness of the need to strengthen their due diligence and security screening systems, and openness to substantial improvements with the support of their international partners. In particular, in the first months of 2024, the five countries signed a Memorandum of understanding providing a framework for cooperation to strengthen the security of their schemes.
All five countries operate different investor citizenship schemes, which consist mainly in either direct contributions to the State budget or investments in large infrastructure, utilities or real estate projects. The first option is normally cheaper, while the real estate option is normally more expensive.
The successful applicants continue to include mostly nationals that would otherwise require a visa to enter the EU.
The Commission will continue to work in close cooperation with the five Eastern Caribbean countries and continue to monitor triggering of the visa suspension mechanism in cases of an increased risk or imminent threat to the public policy or internal security of Member States posed by investor citizenship scheme.
