GCG Structuring

private clients / residency / caribbean-cbi

Caribbean citizenship by investment options for investors

01_introduction

One citizenship limits where you can travel and how quickly your family can move. Caribbean citizenship by investment adds a second, without a residence period, across five programmes now under reform. GCG facilitates applications through its partner network and does not issue or process them.

02

01
What decides the cost of a Caribbean CBI application?

A 2024 regional agreement set a common minimum and ended the discounting between programmes.
Four things now drive the total:

 

  • Route: a state fund contribution or approved real estate, each with different amounts and holding periods.
  • Family size, ages and relationships.
  • Government processing and due diligence fees, charged per applicant.
  • The licensed agent’s professional fees.

Timelines vary widely, and application volume moves them more than anything else. The stages are the same everywhere:

 

  1. Retain a licensed agent. The citizenship units do not take applications directly.
  2. Submit the file and pass due diligence, including source of funds.

3. Attend the mandatory interview.

4. Get approval in principle, then invest.

5. Receive naturalisation, then the passport.

Today, yes. All five passports carry short-stay Schengen access, but that access is under formal review and is not permanent.

 

  • December 2025: the EU made operating a CBI programme, by itself, a ground for suspending visa-free access.
  • June 2026: the Commission asked all five governments to phase the programmes out.
  • No suspension has been imposed, and citizenship already granted is not affected.

Treat Schengen access as a current feature, not a guarantee, and weigh the citizenship on what else it gives you.

Vetting is stricter than most applicants expect, and files fail on documentation as often as on substance.

 

  • A mandatory interview for every applicant over the age threshold. The agent cannot attend for you.
  • Source of funds, evidenced document by document.
  • Criminal and financial checks by accredited firms, plus national screening.
  • Information shared between the five units. A refusal by one blocks the rest.

Get your source of funds in order before choosing a programme.

They answer different questions, and many clients hold both.

 

  • Caribbean CBI gives citizenship and a passport, and it passes to children.
  • The Golden Visa Dubai investor route gives long-term residence, not citizenship or a passport.
  • Caribbean citizenship carries little or no presence obligation. UAE residence assumes a real connection.
  • Tax residence follows where you live, not the passport you hold.

Mobility points to the Caribbean route; relocation points to UAE residence. GCG sets out the wider citizenship by investment and Residency by Investment options.

03

How GCG handles a Caribbean application

GCG does not issue, process or decide these applications. It decides whether the route fits, places your file with the right partner, and keeps the outcome aligned with your wider structure.

  1. Establish the objective. Mobility, succession, a travel document or a fallback.
  2. Test the route. Against your citizenships, tax residence, assets and who is included.
  3. Prepare the source of funds. GCG gets your position in order; the partner agent builds the application.
  4. Place the file. With a licensed partner agent, GCG as your point of contact through to decision.
  5. Align the result. Checked against holdings, reporting and succession, within GCG’s Wealth structuring work.

GCG advises and coordinates. The partner agent prepares and submits. The government decides.

HIDE

Speak to GCG about a second citizenship

A first conversation settles whether Caribbean citizenship fits your objective, or whether residence elsewhere fits better. Where it forms part of a wider plan, it is scoped alongside HNW wealth planning.

free consultation

04_faq

A common minimum applies across all five since 2024, but it excludes government, due diligence and professional fees, so it is never the full cost. GCG confirms current figures before you commit.

Five: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. Grenada is the only one with a United States E-2 investor treaty.

All five allow it and none requires renouncing your current nationality. Whether you may hold a second citizenship depends on your own country’s law, so check first.

Historically no, but that is changing. Several programmes have added or announced presence requirements, so confirm what applies to yours at the time you apply.

Citizenship and tax residence are separate. A passport does not change where you are tax resident. Treat it as a mobility tool and take tax advice separately.

Yes. All five cover a spouse and dependent children, and several extend to parents, grandparents and siblings, subject to conditions that vary by programme.

  • Travel access can change; the EU is reviewing all five.
  • Processing can run well past advertised timelines.
  • Rules change mid-application, including presence and vetting.
  • A refusal by one programme closes the other four.

None of this withdraws citizenship already granted. What can change is the travel access attached to the passport.