Citizenship by Investment Countries: Every Live Program, Real Costs, and What You Actually Get

St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St. Lucia all issue passports for donations starting between $100,000 and $250,000 per main applicant, depending on program and family size. Dominica is consistently the cheapest single-applicant option at $100,000 via the National Development Fund. Grenada is the strategic outlier because its passport is the only Caribbean CBI that includes access to the US E-2 investor visa treaty, which no other Caribbean passport provides. Processing times across the five range from four to six months on average under standard tracks, with expedited options in some programs cutting that to sixty days.

Vanuatu's Development Support Program issues passports in as little as thirty to sixty days, making it the fastest citizenship by investment program operating anywhere. The minimum contribution is $130,000 for a single applicant, with no residency requirement and no interview required. The passport gives visa-free access to around 100 destinations including the UK and Schengen area, which is weaker than Caribbean alternatives but still usable. It sits in a different tier from the Caribbean five strategically: its value is speed and simplicity, not visa count or treaty access.

Malta's Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services by Direct Investment program requires a minimum total outlay of around 690,000 euros for one-year residency track or 600,000 euros for three-year residency, plus a 10,000 euro donation and a property purchase or rental commitment. It is the most expensive CBI in operation but delivers an EU passport with full freedom of movement across all 27 member states, the right to live and work anywhere in the EU, and one of the strongest travel documents in the world with visa-free access to over 180 countries including the US. Malta imposes a genuine residency component: applicants must maintain qualifying residency status for the required period before naturalization. Full program-by-program cost breakdowns are in this CBI guide.

Jordan offers citizenship through a real estate investment route starting at $750,000 or a bank deposit route requiring $1,000,000 held for three years. It is the only Middle Eastern country running an active citizenship by investment program, which matters for applicants whose existing nationality or travel history makes other programs difficult. The Jordanian passport provides access to roughly 70 countries visa-free, which is modest, but Jordanian citizenship itself carries strategic value for business operations and banking access in the Arab world that a Caribbean passport cannot replicate.

Turkey's CBI program remains open as of mid-2025 with a $400,000 real estate minimum, but it has been under consistent pressure from the EU over due diligence standards and EU visa-free access for Turkish passport holders is suspended, removing a key use case. Portugal closed its golden visa real estate route in late 2023 and has not replaced it with a clear CBI pathway. Montenegro's program closed in 2022. The EU as a whole is pushing member states to eliminate CBI programs, which is why Malta's program is structured as it is and why Cyprus is gone. Anyone evaluating CBI should treat program availability as a perishable asset, not a permanent option.

The right CBI country depends on three variables: what you need the passport to do, your existing nationality, and your budget. If you need EU access, Malta is the only live option and you pay for it. If you need speed for a specific travel or business purpose, Vanuatu is the answer. If you are optimizing for cost and want a reliable backup passport with solid visa-free coverage, Dominica or Antigua at $100,000 to $130,000 is the default starting point. Grenada is the pick if US E-2 treaty access is relevant to your business structure. Running two or three passports from different programs is a legitimate strategy for people who need to solve multiple problems at once.