Citizenship of Vanuatu: How much, what for, and how you can get it

You can forget about applying for a Schengen visa if you acquire citizenship of Vanuatu. All you have to do is make a non-returnable donation to the Government fund and you will have a second passport and citizenship of a member state of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The process takes between 45 and 60 days and you do not have to ever visit your second home country. Yes, it is as easy as that! However, some hidden pitfalls will always exist and this article will help you avoid them. Below you can also find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about acquiring citizenship of Vanuatu.

Vanuatu is a tropical archipelago consisting of 83 small islands. It is located in the South Pacific region. It is a peaceful, colorful, warm, and culturally diverse country that welcomes tourists to the sunny beaches.

At the same time, the sandy beaches and the warm blue sea are not the only features that foreigners find attractive about Vanuatu. The jurisdiction is a magnet for wealthy people from other countries because it offers a fast and affordable way to acquire second citizenship. The status of Vanuatu citizen brings huge advantages to the holder.

Why do wealthy people choose Vanuatu?

Before we pass on to the small but important details of the Vanuatu citizenship-by-investment program, let us discuss the reasons why it is sensible to acquire a second passport of this tropical country in the Pacific.

Fast and simple

You do not have to travel to the faraway land neither prior to nor after obtaining the passport. The application documents can be submitted via a trusted agent. Moreover, the agent can be found not only in Vanuatu but also in Hong Kong and Dubai.

The applications for Vanuatu citizenship have to be submitted to the immigration authorities exclusively via a licensed immigration agency. The list of such agencies is publically accessible.

The procedure is perfectly transparent to the applicant and confidential at the same time. Before the documents are submitted, a small processing fee needs to be paid. The non-returnable donation that acts as the basis for granting citizenship of Vanuatu to a foreign applicant has to be paid only after the application for citizenship has been approved by the authorities of the country.

Both a single person and a family can apply for Vanuatu citizenship. A family application can include the main applicant’s spouse, children, and parents. The processing of the application does not take more than two months. For the sake of comparison, acquiring Caribbean citizenship takes between three and five months.

Incomparable mobility

One of the reasons why more and more people are acquiring foreign citizenship in general and Vanuatu citizenship in particular is the global mobility that it brings. The passport of Vanuatu allows travelling to 125 countries without any trouble: in some cases, visas are not required, while in other cases electronic visas or visas-on-arrival can be obtained. The list of free-access countries include the EU, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, and many others.

Thus, having the passport of Vanuatu will make your life much easier if you come from a national state with a ‘weak’ passport. You want to go to a business conference at the last-minute call? You want to spend time with your partner somewhere in the Swiss Alps? Simply use your Vanuatu passport and that will do the trick.

An ideal second home

Free travel around the world is not the only advantage that the passport of Vanuatu brings. It gives unconditional free access to your second home country whenever you need it. When you acquire citizenship of Vanuatu, you can start thinking about relocating to this tropical paradise.

It is a clean and calm place to live indeed. The diversity found on the islands is truly amazing: people speak over a hundred different languages English, French, and Bislama (a Creole dialect) being the official languages in the country.

Even if you do not want to move to Vanuatu for life, you can use this country to spend your vacations there. Besides, you can go there in case of emergency if something goes terribly wrong in the country of your birth.  

A wonderful business instrument

Citizenship of Vanuatu will also bring many business advantages, as the fiscal legislation is quite favorable in the country. There are few taxes in Vanuatu even though the VAT and customs duties are levied anyway.

At the same time, all companies – local or foreign – doing business in Vanuatu are corporate tax exempt. The capital gains tax is not used either. If you become a fiscal resident of Vanuatu by spending the best part of the year there, you will not have to pay any personal income tax.

The fiscal and financial legislation that is beneficial for entrepreneurs has allowed Vanuatu to become one of the offshore financial centers of the world. Indeed, the country has been preserving this status for decades already. There are a number of international banks to be found in Vanuatu, which makes setting up a company and doing business in the country non-problematic at all. Banking privacy traditions are held in respect in Vanuatu.

If you would like to invest into the economy of Vanuatu, you will find a number of lucrative investment options. Real property does not cost too much and even buying a whole island is not impossible. The growing tourist sector makes rental property a profitable business as the return on investment occurs within very reasonable timeframes.  

The transparent process of acquiring citizenship of Vanuatu

It is pleasing to know that it is not difficult at all to acquire Vanuatu citizenship. While some other national citizenship-by-investment programs may make you meet some tough requirements, the Vanuatu offer sounds inviting indeed: fast, simple, and affordable! Let us discuss the key principles that apply to the Vanuatu citizenship-by-investment program.

• At the first stage of applying for Vanuatu citizenship, you have to choose the licensed immigration agent and discuss your goals and desires with him or her. If you come to the conclusion that citizenship of Vanuatu is what you need, an agreement with the agent has to be signed. The agent will conduct preliminary due diligence checks. Then documents will start to be prepared and forms completed.
• At the second stage, the agent will submit your application for citizenship plus all the supporting documents to the immigration authorities on Vanuatu on your behalf. The authorities will process the application and conduct full-fledged due diligence procedures. If their decision is positive, you can make the donation in the required amount. (The donation to the Government fund serves as the basis for granting citizenship of Vanuatu to the foreign applicant.
• At the third and last stage, you will obtain the citizenship certificate and the passport of Vanuatu. Before you can do it, however, you will have to make an oath of allegiance to your new home country. You do not have to travel to Vanuatu to do that. You can make the oath at any embassy or consulate of Vanuatu in a foreign country. In 2020, making the oath is also possible via a videoconferencing application due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As you can see, the process of obtaining Vanuatu citizenship is simple indeed. The Government of the country tries its best to make the program as attractive for foreign investors as possible.

Vanuatu citizenship by investment: Specific requirements

A single person may apply for citizenship of Vanuatu and a family application can be filed too. The family application may include the main applicant’s spouse and parents of both of them if the latter are older than 50. The parents have to be financially dependent on the main applicant and his/ her spouse. Children below 18 years of age can be included in the application without any conditions. Children between 18 and 25 can be included in the family application for Vanuatu citizenship on the condition that they are full-time university students thus being financially dependent on their parents. 

The table below specifies the amounts of the required donation as they depend upon the number of applicants for citizenship of Vanuatu.

Number of applicants	Required donation amount
Single applicant	145,000 USD
Married couple	155,000 USD
Married couple + 1 dependent family member	165,000 USD
Married couple + 2 dependent family members	175,000 USD

This is an official Government program, which means that the foreign investor signs a fully legal agreement with the state of Vanuatu. The Constitution of the country and the Law ‘On Citizenship of Vanuatu’ (including the amendments to the Law) govern the Vanuatu citizenship-by-investment program.

Second citizenship of Vanuatu: FAQ

Below please find the answers to three most frequently asked questions about the Vanuatu citizenship-by-investment program. If you would like to learn more about this opportunity, please apply for our consultations. We have been helping people acquire citizenship of Vanuatu for a long time already and we know all the ins and outs of this procedure.