Citizenship by investment in Antigua and Barbuda.

Four. A National Development Fund (NDF) contribution from 230,000 USD; the University of the West Indies (UWI) Fund at 260,000 USD, available only where six or more people apply together; approved real estate from 300,000 USD with a five-year holding period; and a business investment of 1,500,000 USD alone, or 400,000 USD as your share of a joint investment totalling 5,000,000 USD. On top of the NDF, real estate and business routes sit government processing fees of 10,000 USD for one applicant or 20,000 USD for a family of up to four, plus 10,000 USD for each dependant from the fifth.

No - but you do have to go there. The CIU requires at least five days in the country during the five calendar years after you obtain citizenship, and states that a citizen who does not spend them may be deprived of citizenship, with no refund of the investment. The requirement appears three times in the authority's own material: on the Citizenship page, in the signed declaration at section D4 of Form AB1, and on the passport page, which makes renewal conditional on those five days. The Act as originally passed in 2013 said 35 days; five days is what the CIU applies today.

On Form AB10 you supply any two of: entry and exit stamps in your Antigua and Barbuda passport, a hotel invoice, a boarding pass, or confirmation from a property management company. You also show that the investment was held for the whole five years - a title certificate, a land registry extract or a share register, depending on the route. Renewal itself costs 1,000 USD for an adult and 500 USD for a person under 18.

Your spouse; children aged 0-30 who are financially dependent on you, with no upper age limit where a child of 18 or over has a physical or mental disability, lives with you and is fully supported by you; parents and grandparents - yours or your spouse's - from 55 and financially dependent on you; and unmarried siblings of yours or your spouse's. Future family members can be added later for a fee: a future spouse of the main applicant costs 50,000 USD. One caution on later additions - the Schedule of Fees page prices the addition of a child aged 6-17 at 25,000 USD while the Dependants page on the same site says 20,000 USD. We have that confirmed in writing before you plan around either figure.

No. Regulation 4(1) is explicit: an application may be submitted only by an agent who holds an agent's licence. That is not a sales device - there is no direct channel to the Unit for anyone. Our role is to build the file and to manage the licensed agent who files it.

The CIU publishes no processing time and no service standard, so we will not quote you one as though it came from the Unit. What is published is the payment order: at submission, due diligence in full and 10% of the processing fee, both non-refundable; after the letter of approval, 30 days to pay the balance, the passport fees and the full investment.

The CIU does not publish a number. Its FAQ points to a ranking produced by a private consultancy, and its Passport & Visa Requirements page lists reciprocal arrangements rather than a total. Any firm quoting you a precise count is quoting a commercial index, not the government of Antigua and Barbuda. We check the specific countries that matter to you against current official notices instead.

No government source we could reach states the position either way. The CIU, the Department of Immigration and the Passport Office are all silent on whether a citizen may hold another citizenship or must renounce one, and the texts of the Citizenship Act, Cap. 22 and the Constitution were not accessible on the national legislation portal when we checked. In practice the more important question is what your present country allows - we check both sides before you file.

A passport issued under the programme is valid for five years, against ten years for an ordinary adult passport issued by the Department of Immigration. Renewal turns on the five days and on proof that the investment was held. Citizenship is granted by registration under the 2013 Act, and it carries no automatic right to vote - that follows the Representation of the People Act.

A great deal, and not all of it in force. Since 1 July 2024 a common minimum investment of 200,000 USD applies across the five Eastern Caribbean programmes, and discounting below it has been declared unlawful. On 24 September 2025 the OECS announced regional standards: a regulator called ECCIRA, mandatory biometrics for new applicants and for approved citizens at passport renewal, annual public compliance reports, regional registers - and stronger residency and genuine-link requirements. The ECCIRA Bill published in October 2025 would make interviews compulsory and set fines up to 250,000 USD, but it commences on a day the minister appoints by order in the Gazette, and we have found no confirmation that the day has come. Plan on the five-day rule being tightened rather than relaxed.