Economic Citizenship Programs in the Caribbean: Investment in St. Kitts and Nevis or Dominica

How can US residents easily earn citizenship in another country without living there first, getting married, or proving ancestry? Well, on some Caribbean island nations, the answer lies in economic citizenship programs. With an economic citizenship program, you can earn your expat passport the (ironically) American way: you can buy it.

That's right. In countries like St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica, citizenship is essentially for sale. These countries are stable democracies with large English-speaking populations and lovely Caribbean weather, but their developing economies welcome foreign investment so openly that they're willing to allow "immigrants" with large (though not necessarily staggering) sums of money to become citizens. Through the purchase of real estate and/or a cash investment, you can acquire full legal citizenship in one of these sovereign nations, often in just a few months.

Previously, the nations of Grenada and Belize offered economic citizenship programs, but now the Caribbean contenders have dwindled somewhat. Would-be expats still have two viable options in the Caribbean: 1) St Kitts and Nevis and 2) Dominica.

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Kitts (short for St. Christopher) and its sister island Nevis comprise a tiny nation located in the Leeward Islands near Anguilla. It earned independence from the UK in 1983 and only has around 40,000 residents.

To the extent that economic citizenship programs can be considered "model," the one operated by the government of St. Kitts and Nevis is often deemed ideal, as it has continued without incident since 1984. There are two main components to the process: real estate purchase and payment of a cash sum. For a minimum $250,000 investment in real estate (which is not a lot, considering average home prices in most US cities) a prospective expat can tackle the first requirement. The cash sum is then $35,000 for a single applicant, though a spouse and total of two dependent children can also gain citizenship for $15,000 a head.