Vanuatu’s citizenship-by-investment (CBI) program has changed significantly over the past year.
After the European Union (EU) stripped the Pacific nation of visa-free Schengen access — the Council fully suspended the waiver agreement in November 2022, effective February 2023, and the EU made the visa requirement permanent through Regulation (EU) 2025/11 in February 2025 — Vanuatu moved to tighten a program the Council had faulted for an “extremely low rejection rate,” the absence of physical presence requirements and inadequate due diligence.
Today, Vanuatu is working to eliminate security risks in an aim to regain its European visa privileges. The program continues to compete on speed and price against a Caribbean sector that has grown more slowly and become more expensive, even as Vanuatu layers on new vetting requirements.
Updated Application Process and Stricter Vetting
Following a strict transitional window, Vanuatu’s updated operational framework officially took effect in May this year, two months after the enabling amendments were gazetted on March 19, 2026, as Orders 39 and 40 of 2026. This milestone ended remote passport processing through unauthorized proxy agents.
Under the new rules, every application is routed directly through a centralized pipeline under the control of the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission.
Record-Breaking Financial Performance
Despite these strict new security protocols and the ongoing loss of visa-free access to Europe, the CBI program posted strong revenue growth.
According to a mid-year statement from Vanuatu’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, reported by Deputy Prime Minister Johnny Koanapo in local media, the program generated roughly US$95.5 million (VT11.4 billion) in the first six months of 2026 alone. This single revenue stream accounted for 39% of all government revenue, excluding donor funds, outperforming every domestic tax line and running roughly 37% ahead of value-added tax.
Industry practitioners attribute the resilience to a shift in who is buying rather than to sustained European demand. Professionals say that the demand has relocated rather than disappeared, with people seeking a second passport and prioritizing speed versus access.
Vanuatu still offers visa-free entry to many countries, and its processing takes weeks rather than months across the Caribbean, where a US$200,000 price floor, mandatory interviews, biometrics, and a 30-day residency requirement now apply, professionals said.
The figures carry an important caveat. The International Monetary Fund has cautioned that an earlier surge “likely reflected changes to the program,” specifically the routing of invoices through the government’s financial management system, and said whether actual receipts matched those invoices “remained to be verified.”
How many investors?
The government has not published application or approval counts for 2025 or 2026, and the most recent detailed disclosure remains a one-off release of historical figures covering the programs through August 2020: 1,182 main applicants under the Development Support Program in 2019, falling to 376 in the first seven and a half months of 2020, with 329 under the Contribution Program over the same 2020 period. Without comparable current figures, it is not possible to say whether more people are buying Vanuatu citizenship or whether the same or fewer are paying more.
Australia and the Nakamal Agreement
Australia and Vanuatu signed the Nakamal Agreement on June 29, 2026, in Canberra, where Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Jotham Napat committed to security, policing and economic cooperation. Its mobility provision is narrower than it first appears: Article 6 commits Australia only to “enhanced mobility arrangements for Vanuatu visitors,” subject to annual review, and in the same article requires that “Vanuatu shall develop effective mechanisms to differentiate citizenship by investment from other forms of citizenship” — language that walls CBI passport holders off from whatever benefits follow. Australia separately excluded Vanuatu from the 2026-27 Pacific Engagement Visa intake beginning July 1, 2026, without publicly stating a reason; Vanuatu’s government says it has not been told why.
