Citizenship - Antigua & Barbuda - FAQs

The Antigua & Barbuda government allows dual citizenship and will not publish any information about persons acquiring citizenship nor will they inform your present country of citizenship.You may be required by law in your home country to declare a second citizenship and we recommend you take professional legal advice on this matter

Yes. Your family can also obtain citizenship under your application. Qualified dependents can include parents above the age of 65 and children up to 25 years of age with additional government fees payable.

To qualify for the property investment program, you need to make a minimum investment of USD $400,000 in a government-approved real estate project, such as GISGL Hotel & Spa. In addition, you need to pay other fees and taxes as applicable and fulfill the formal requirements as specified by the government.

Government approvals and processing may take about 3-6months from the submission of your application, though currently the processing time is very efficient and 3 months is the average length of the process.

It is important to choose a reputable and approved legal representative for the processing of your citizenship application. GIS can recommend approved legal representatives who work very closely with the Government Citizenship-by-Investment Unit to ensure smooth processing of each application and to maximize the efficiency of the process.

The various benefits of having a Antigua & Barbuda passport include visa-free travel to approximately 140 countries, tax free status, tax-free trade with Canada, duty-free trade within the Caribbean and more.

Yes, you can stay or visit Schengen countries including Switzerland for upto 90 days in 180 period (sliding window)

Canada & USA – visa required

No interview is required with the government; however, stringent due diligence is carried out by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda on citizenship applicants. In some rare cases, the Government may request an interview and this could take place at an Embassy or high Commission or in Antigua.

You must apply for Antigua CIP through authorized agent. Antigua CIP unit does not accept the applications directly. We work with many government authorized agents in the island for CIP. You have to pay 10% of Government fee as initial deposit to start the process.

The passport is valid for 5 years and renewable thereafter.

No, you just have to pay $300 passport fee and show your “Certificate of naturalization” as proof of citizenship.

To reserve the property, a 10% deposit has to be paid.Upon making the citizenship application, 10% of the government application fees are payable and once the application has been approved in principle by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda Citizenship Investment Unit, the balance of the property price along with the balance of the government application fees, become payable.

Yes, you can reside in Antigua & Barbuda at any time for any length of time, once you are granted citizenship (you must retain ownership of your approved property investment for a minimum of five years). In Antigua there is no worldwide income tax and personal taxes from money made in Antigua is quite low.

Antigua has no capital gains, gifts, wealth, estate, personal income and inheritance taxes and income generated outside of the country is not taxed.

Yes, there is a 5-day residency requirement in the first five years to maintain your citizenship. This can be fulfilled at any time in the first 5 years.

In the event that an application is rejected, 10% of the government application fees and all of the government due diligence fees will be lost. These are the fees payable upon submission of the application to the Citizenship Investment Unit. Legal fees to your Licensed Agent who will submit the application, may be lost depending on the individual agent’s criteria.

Due diligence fee ($7500)

Government fee ($30,000)

Passport fee ($300)

Agent fee (mentioned in the quote)

No. The Antiguan passport under CIP does not afford automatic voting rights and persons would need to qualify as outlined in the Representation of the People Act.

Yes, only if the baby born after the date of issue of “Certificate of naturalization”.

Children above 12 years must go through due diligence and background checks. Dependent children under 11 requires no due diligence but requires a sworn affidavit from parents and there is no due diligence fee to be paid.