Citizenship by investment.
A second passport in 2–14 months — granted by states that operate formal economic-citizenship programmes. Below: the operative jurisdictions, side-by-side.
What citizenship by investment actually is
Citizenship by Investment (CBI) is a legal pathway through which a sovereign state grants full nationality — a passport — in return for a qualifying capital contribution. It is not a residency, and it does not require physical presence: at the end of an approved file the applicant becomes a citizen on equal legal footing with native-born nationals of that state.
Ten states currently run CBI programmes under formal statute. Five sit in the Eastern Caribbean (St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Lucia) and operate a harmonised minimum-contribution framework. Malta runs the EU's only CBI programme, accessible via a new four-tier diligence framework. Turkey, Jordan, and Vanuatu round out the operative set; Egypt and Cambodia accept investment but do not run formal CBI programmes in the conventional sense.
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Your citizenship journey, step by step
Discovery call
A 30-minute call with a senior advisor. We map your goals, family, tax position, and target citizenship against the right programmes.
A Golden Visa grants residency — the right to live in a country, often with a path to citizenship after 5–10 years. CBI grants citizenship directly, typically in months, with no residency requirement during processing.
Yes. Once granted, the applicant holds the same passport, voting rights, and consular protection as native citizens. Caribbean and Maltese CBI passports give visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 150+ countries including the UK and EU Schengen zone.
All current CBI programmes include the principal applicant's spouse and dependent children. Most include parents and grandparents above a stated age. Sibling inclusion is programme-specific — Caribbean programmes generally allow it; Malta does not.
Every operative CBI state runs multi-stage due diligence: government-mandated background screening, third-party investigative firms, sanctions and PEP screening, source-of-funds documentation, and biometric capture. Malta operates a four-tier framework with the highest evidentiary threshold.
Vanuatu is fastest at 30–60 days. Caribbean programmes run 3–6 months. Turkey runs 4–8 months. Malta runs 12–14 months under the new statute. Processing depends primarily on diligence depth — faster programmes accept narrower diligence.
Citizen Sure on Citizenship by Investment
We have advised CBI applicants since the Caribbean programmes began harmonising in the mid-2010s and through the Malta statute reforms of 2024–2026. Our practice covers source-of-funds construction for complex international portfolios, family inclusion strategy where multi-generational planning is the priority, and post-grant compliance — tax residency, banking, and second-tier passport stacking. Contact a Citizen Sure senior advisor for a 30-minute confidential consultation.
Across the operative CBI estate the meaningful trade-off is diligence depth versus cost. Malta's four-tier framework is the most rigorous in the world; the resulting passport is also the strongest. The Caribbean programmes are price-competitive and faster but carry shallower diligence, which Western banking partners increasingly factor into account opening. Turkey and Vanuatu sit at extremes — Turkey requires real-estate exposure that returns capital after a 3-year hold; Vanuatu is the only programme that completes inside two months.