Economic citizenship of Saint Lucia – from 25,000 USD

Small countries that do not have many natural resources to export nor well-developed production industry need to sell something in the international market anyway. Thus, some of them ‘export’ a rather specific product: they sell their passports and their citizenships. Early in 2016, St Lucia in the Caribbean joined its neighboring countries and started offering its citizenship in exchange for a donation or an investment.

Currently, this country offers the simplest and the cheapest method of acquiring a second passport. Would you like to know how you can purchase citizenship of St Lucia? If you would, then please read on and learn the most important information about this opportunity. If you already know about the St Lucia economic citizenship program, we suggest that you go on to filling out the questionnaire right away (see the link below). If you answer the questions contained there and submit your answers to us, we will help you choose the second passport option that will suit you best of all.  

Go on to the questionnaire

A foreign national does not have to leave his or her homeland in order to become a citizen of St Lucia for money. The applicants to the economic citizenship program are not required to reside in St Lucia neither prior to nor after obtaining the passport. Actually, you can obtain citizenship of the country without ever visiting it: the immigration agent will send you the passport wherever you are.

On the other hand, St Lucia is one of those ‘paradise islands’ in the tropics with a wonderful climate and the idea of spending a vacation there should sound tempting. The procedure of acquiring St Lucian citizenship is plain. The price of the passport is quite affordable, especially for the wealthier ones. The timeframe of citizenship acquisition is among the shortest in the world. All these factors taken together make St Lucian economic citizenship program nearly perfect.

How much does it cost to acquire a second citizenship of St Lucia and how can you do it?

St Lucian legislation provides for an opportunity to acquire citizenship of the country via one of four immigration routes or investment options. The following possibilities are available:

• A non-returnable donation to the St Lucia National Economic Fund (SLNEF);
• A returnable investment into a Government-approved development project (full ownership of real property, tenancy in common, or purchase of shares of a construction company are possible);
• A returnable investment into a Government-approved business project (e.g. restaurants, seaport infrastructure, motor roads infrastructure, processing of agricultural products, pharmaceutical industry, scientific research projects, educational institutions, etc.);
• A returnable investment into Government bonds.

If you choose any of the returnable investment options, you can resell your property after five-year’s time while retaining citizenship of St Lucia. You have to remain the owner of the property over the five-year period though.

We have to note that currently, not all investment options are fully available. In particular, you could not buy an apartment, for instance, in a Government-approved development project because there is none at the moment. The time when you can make use of this option has yet to come.

A separate note should also be made on the possibility to buy Government bonds. In accordance with the economic citizenship program rules, you can buy interest-free (or ‘passive’) bonds only. You can buy those from a licensed broker or right from the Ministry of Finance. Currently, there are two licensed brokers in St Lucia: First Citizens Investment Bank (FCIB) and East Caribbean Global Investment Solutions Limited. The immigration program requires that the applicant for St Lucia citizenship should inform the authorities about the purchase of bonds not later that 21 calendar days since the deal has been finalized.

The amount of the non-returnable donation and the minimum amounts of the required investments are specified in the table below:

* This investment option also entails a US$ 50,000 administrative fee per one application whether it is an individual application or a collective one.

** The total amount of investment into a business project in St Lucia shall be not less than US$ 6,000,000. The application for St Lucian citizenship via a joint investment project can include up to six participants.

The money is to be donated or invested only after the application for economic citizenship of St Lucia has been approved by the authorities.

During the times of the coronavirus pandemic, the Government of St Lucia is introducing new incentives aimed at sustaining the number of applications for citizenship coming in. First, there is a tempting offer for large families. If you choose to acquire citizenship of St Lucia via a donation to the SLNEF, an application including your spouse will require a donation of US$ 140,000. A family of four will have to donate US$ 150,000. Any extra family member will ‘cost’ you additional US$ 15,000.
In addition to that, the St Lucian Government is putting out special coronabonds. As investment twice as small as an investment into regular bonds will make you qualified for citizenship of the country. Thus, making a returnable investment of US$ 250,000 you can become a citizen of St Lucia now.
Besides, some administrative fees are waived so you can save a few more thousand dollars if you apply for St Lucian citizenship right now. Please bear in mind that it is a limited time offer that will be gone on January 1, 2021.

We would like to stress that foreign nationals cannot file the application for St Lucian citizenship on their own. The local legislation requires that the applicants shall use the services of a licensed immigration agent. There is no opportunity to avoid this requirement.

One of these licensed agents is our partner company that has been working in the Caribbean very successfully for quite a long time already. Thanks to its agents, dozens of families acquired St Lucian citizenship last year. When buying St Lucian passport, you have to be prepared to cover the costs of the immigration agent’s services too.

 * This amount covers a family of maximum five members (the main applicant and up to four dependents). If you are going to apply for St Lucian citizenship with a larger family, please expect to be charged more money for the agent’s services.

So, file the application, pass the due diligence check, pay the money and bingo! You are almost a citizen of St Lucia! One last thing that remains to be done is making an oath of allegiance to your second home country and collecting the passport. The oath can be made in St Lucia or at any embassy or consulate of the country. The same goes for collecting the passport. The important thing is that the St Lucian official has to be authorized to put new citizens to oath. We will say it once again: you do not have to visit St Lucia in order to become its citizen.

There is also a possibility to postpone making the required donation or investment. You can file the corresponding request with the Citizenship by Investment Board and they will consider your case. Each such request is considered individually.

Important: At the current moment, the transfer of citizenship to future generations can be problematic. De jure, the children of economic citizens of St Lucia are granted citizenship of the country ONLY if they are born on the island. If you are not planning to reside in St Lucia permanently, you can theoretically give birth to your child on the island while visiting it when the time comes. However, it is quite a long flight and it may entail some risks for a pregnant woman.

De facto, citizenship can be granted to newborn children of economic citizens even if they are born outside St Lucia. The local Government tries to be sympathetic to economic citizens of the country and thus it allows for this opportunity. The problem is, however, that the Constitution does not actually permit this. The necessary amendments have not been made so far and experts say that they are unlikely to be made in the near future. In other words, there is no legal guarantee that citizenship of St Lucia will be granted to the children of economic citizens born after the former have obtained the passports.  

Please also bear in mind that in case the main applicant is deprived if St Lucia citizen status for some reason, all his or her dependent applicants will also lose St Lucian citizenship.

What are the benefits of acquiring a second passport of St Lucia?

The tiny and extremely beautiful country of St Lucia in the Caribbean basin is covered by mountains, beaches, and jungles inhabited by a small army of monkeys. On the coasts, luxury resorts can be found that are frequented by tourists from all over the world. But why should you be a tourist in St Lucia? You can become a full citizen of the country within only three to six months! A St Lucian passport will give you numerous advantages that include, but are not limited to, the following ones:  

• Visa-free travel to approximately 120 countries in all parts of the world. (Some countries issue a visa to St Lucian visitors on arrival). Please see the list of the countries below.

 * Visa-on-arrival.

• When you and your family become citizens of St Lucia, you will obtain the right to live, work, and study in a country with few economic problems and a stable political system. Moreover, you will actually become a citizen of the Caribbean region, as you will be entitled to live, work, and study in any of the CARICOM countries.

• The St Lucian legislation permits dual citizenship. Thus, when obtaining the passport of St Lucia, you will not have to renounce your current citizenship if your home country also allows dual citizenship.

• The fact that you have acquired St Lucian citizenship will remain 100% confidential. The local authorities are not going to inform your home country officials that you have become a citizen of St Lucia. They can share this information only on an official request, that specifies the individuals in question and that is well grounded.

• You can become a full citizen of a Caribbean country and simultaneously earn a profit. Investments into real estate, business, or infrastructure in the country are likely to pay back after some time.

• If you choose to naturalize in St Lucia via a donation to the SLNEF, you will thus make an important contribution to the economic development of your new homeland. The Fund is used to finance vital social projects that promote the well-being of the people and create more jobs. The list of such projects is drawn up by the Finance Minister every year and then submitted to the Parliament for approval.

• You can improve your lifestyle considerably by acquiring citizenship of St Lucia. The quality of life on this small island is better than in a great number of other countries of the world. The crime rate there is relatively low and the infrastructure is highly developed. You can have access to all the modern technologies in St Lucia while enjoying the perfect tropical climate. The temperature on the island is always about 25 °C to 27 °C (77 to 80 °F), the northwestern trade winds are cool, and most rains last only for a few minutes. High quality services, top-class restaurants, luxury hotels, and premium-class residential accommodations: you can find everything there.  If you choose to live in St Lucia, you will have a large choice of opportunities. You can put up at a suite in a large city or at a bungalow in the countryside. If you choose the latter option, you will not be too far away from all the modern amenities: crossing the island from one end to the other takes only a bit more than one hour.

• The possibility to lessen your fiscal burden and make use of numerous tax planning instruments is one more advantage that St Lucia offers. Thanks to the flexible fiscal legislation in the country, the new economic citizens of St Lucia can effectively protect their assets and increase their wealth.

The advantages of St Lucia citizenship-by-investment program over other such programs offered by other states

There are several countries in the world that offer citizenship-by-investment programs that allow foreign nationals to obtain second passports. St Lucia joined this club quite recently, in 2016 and it has to face tough competition in this market. St Kitts and Nevis, for example, has been issuing passports to foreigners in exchange for investment for thirty-five years already and thus this country has vast experience in administering the immigration programs. Dominica grants its citizenship for a donation of US$ 100,000, which is a bit less than what St Lucia charges. Malta and Cyprus provide for an opportunity to obtain a full-fledged European passport instead of a Caribbean one.  

So, how does St Lucia manage to withstand the hard competition and attract foreigners who are looking for a second passport option? Why do we recommend that you should choose St Lucia among other countries where you can buy citizenship? If you look at the St Lucian law “On Citizenship” with all the recent amendments that have been made to it, you will see that this jurisdiction offers the following advantages that its competitors in the economic citizenship market do not possess:

• Foreign investors in St Lucia can choose from four different options while other countries offer one, two, or sometimes three options. You can become a citizen of Malta, for instance, only in one way, namely, by making a non-returnable donation of 650,000 EUR. Some Caribbean neighbors of St Lucia offer the choice of a donation or an investment into real estate. Other countries add the opportunity to invest into business to the list. Thus, when buying citizenship of St Lucia, you have to largest freedom of choice and you can be most flexible in you financial decisions.  

• The price of the passport that St Lucia quotes is also quite attractive, as a matter of fact. Only Dominica charges a little less for its citizenship but the price difference of a couple thousand dollars is not really important. If you look to acquire citizenship of a European jurisdiction, you will have to invest (donate) five to twenty times more.

• In addition to that, becoming a citizen of St Lucia does not take too much time. The whole process normally takes between three and six months. This is much faster that acquiring citizenship of Malta, for example, where the process lasts for at least one year. The speed of a second passport acquisition can be a rather important factor. The situation in your home country can overturn and become unfavorable overnight. If this happens, you will want to leave as soon as you can. Practice shows that wealthy investors often buy seconds passports of the countries where they can do it quickly even though these countries may not be the best choice if other factors are taken into consideration.

• One more advantage that St Lucia alone boasts is the possibility to file an electronic application for citizenship – both individual and joint (or family) application. This certainly simplifies acquiring St Lucian citizenship by investment and makes the application procedure more transparent for the applicant in comparison to that in other Caribbean states.

• Finally, one more unique opportunity that St Lucia offers is the possibility to add dependent family member to the family application later, after the main applicant has already been granted citizenship of St Lucia. The addition can be made during five years since the date when the main applicant has been issued the St Lucian passport. All you have to do to obtain passports for your loved ones is pay the corresponding state duties.

Please fill out the questionnaire below and we will give you a free consultation on how to acquire a second passport WITHOUT ANY INTERMEDIARIES.