Detailed answers to the questions our advisory team is most often asked. If your question is not addressed here, please request a confidential consultation.
5 questions in this section covering the most common client enquiries on getting started.
Yes, entirely. The initial consultation, usually an hour, by video or in person at our London office, is conducted by a senior advisor under strict confidentiality. No advisory fee is payable, and no engagement is created by the conversation. The call exists for us to understand your circumstances and for you to assess whether our practice is right for you. If the fit is not clear on either side, we say so.
We operate under formal non-disclosure terms as standard. Nothing shared in the initial consultation leaves the advisory team.
Programme selection depends on several interacting variables: your existing citizenship and travel profile, the practical purpose of the second citizenship (travel, residency optionality, tax planning, business access), your budget profile, and the timeline in which you need the passport in hand.
In most mandates, programme selection crystallises during the initial consultation. For families with particular requirements, US E-2 pathway, China market access, capital-return preference, the programme often selects itself. For others, the comparison comes down to pricing tier, processing speed, and passport strength.
Our practice serves ultra-high-net-worth families, single-family offices, and the professional advisers who serve them. Typical engagements involve families with significant international footprints, often with existing passports in multiple jurisdictions, who view Caribbean citizenship as a strategic component of longer-term mobility and generational planning.
We do not accept speculative, retail, or exploratory enquiries. Every engagement is expected to result in an actual programme application.
For three of the four programmes we advise on, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Grenada, no physical presence is required at any stage. Citizenship is granted in absentia; the Oath of Allegiance is administered remotely before a notary.
St. Kitts & Nevis may require a short interview with the primary applicant during due diligence for some profiles. This interview can often be conducted remotely; occasionally it is requested in person.
Yes, and the scope of eligible family inclusion is one of the more attractive features of Caribbean CBIs. Typical coverage includes spouses, dependent children (up to age 30 in several programmes), dependent parents, dependent grandparents, and in some cases unmarried dependent siblings.
Each programme has distinct rules around definitions of dependency and maximum ages. Family inclusion scope will be covered in detail during the initial consultation and confirmed in the engagement letter.
4 questions in this section covering the most common client enquiries on process & timeline.
Typical total duration is 12 to 20 weeks from signed mandate to passport in hand. The principal variables are: document preparation time (usually 4–6 weeks, family-dependent), government due diligence (8–12 weeks, programme-dependent), and post-approval investment completion (2–4 weeks).
For the fastest outcome, Dominica offers processing timelines of 2–3 months after submission. For accelerated St. Kitts & Nevis under the AAP option, approvals can be reached in approximately 60 days.
The Citizenship Investment Unit conducts comprehensive background checks through international due diligence firms. This typically includes: OFAC and sanctions screening across all major databases, criminal record verification, adverse media screening, source-of-funds verification against submitted documentation, and reputational checks through law enforcement and intelligence channels.
For St. Kitts & Nevis, a mandatory interview with the primary applicant is included. The due diligence phase is the single longest segment of the process and is largely outside the applicant's and our control once submission is made.
Rejection is rare when applications are properly prepared, which is precisely what our pre-screening process exists to ensure. We do not submit applications we are not confident will succeed.
If an application is rejected at government due diligence, the investment is not made (investments are committed only after approval in principle). Government and agent due diligence fees are typically non-refundable; the donation or real-estate commitment is protected. We retain the right to withdraw from a mandate if substantive due diligence issues emerge during our own pre-screening.
St. Kitts & Nevis offers a formal Accelerated Application Process (AAP) at a premium, reducing processing time to approximately 60 days. The other three programmes do not offer formal acceleration mechanisms, though submission timing and thorough file preparation can materially reduce time-to-approval.
4 questions in this section covering the most common client enquiries on investment & fees.
Total programme cost is the sum of: (1) the qualifying investment (donation, real estate, or bond), (2) government due diligence and processing fees, (3) licensed agent fees, and (4) our fixed advisory fee.
For a single applicant, Dominica can be completed for approximately $150,000 all-in; St. Kitts & Nevis starts around $300,000 all-in. Real-estate routes add the purchase price and associated transaction costs. Full, itemised costs are provided in the engagement letter before any commitment is made.
Fixed. Our advisory fees are quoted as flat mandate fees, determined by the complexity of the engagement, not by a percentage of the qualifying investment. This structure is deliberate: percentage-of-investment billing creates incentive to steer clients toward higher-cost programmes, which conflicts with the role of an independent advisor.
No. Donations to government economic development funds (Dominica's EDF, St. Kitts's SISC, St. Lucia's NEF, Grenada's NTF) are contributions, not investments, and are non-refundable. Real-estate investments are recoverable subject to market conditions and the mandatory five- or seven-year holding period. St. Lucia's government bond is fully refundable at five years.
Qualifying investments cannot be financed by the CIUs, the investment must be made from the applicant's own committed funds, with a fully documented source-of-funds trail. Real-estate purchases in some developments may be structured with developer-financed components, but the qualifying portion must be fully paid.
4 questions in this section covering the most common client enquiries on due diligence.
Source of funds is the documented demonstration that the investment capital originates from legitimate, legal sources, employment, business dividends, property sales, inheritance, investment returns. Establishing this trail is the single most important element of a CBI application and the area where most rejections originate.
All four Caribbean programmes operate to FATF standards on source-of-funds, and the major international due diligence firms (Thomson Reuters, Exiger, S-RM, BDO) apply enhanced scrutiny. Weak source-of-funds documentation is by far the most common cause of application delays and rejections.
Complex source-of-funds profiles are the norm for our client base, not the exception. Multiple business entities, international tax structures, historical inheritance, legitimate cryptocurrency holdings, all are capable of being documented to CIU standards, but each adds preparation time and requires careful narrative construction.
Cryptocurrency holdings specifically require thorough documentation: purchase histories, on-chain analysis where appropriate, exchange statements, and evidence that initial fiat currency used for purchases was itself legitimately sourced. We frequently assist in preparing robust crypto source-of-funds files.
Common causes of rejection include: undisclosed prior criminal convictions surfacing through independent screening, inadequate or inconsistent source-of-funds documentation, OFAC or sanctions matches, material adverse media (particularly related to regulatory actions or civil fraud proceedings), and undisclosed prior visa denials or deportations from major jurisdictions.
Almost every category of potential issue is manageable if raised during our initial pre-screening. Issues that surface during government due diligence are much harder to remediate.
Yes. All four CIUs operate to strict confidentiality standards. Grant of citizenship is not publicly gazetted in any of the four programmes we advise on (unlike some European alternatives). Our firm also operates under NDAs by default and does not discuss client matters, including the existence of engagements, with third parties.
4 questions in this section covering the most common client enquiries on after citizenship.
All four Caribbean CBI programmes permit dual citizenship without requiring renunciation of existing nationality. However, your existing country of citizenship may have its own rules on multiple nationalities, for example, some nations restrict official positions for dual citizens. This is a question for counsel in your existing country of citizenship.
Obtaining CBI citizenship does not automatically change your tax residency. Tax residency is determined by where you are physically resident and by treaty rules with your home country, not by which passports you hold. Coordination with existing tax advisers is essential.
Yes, citizenship obtained through CBI is full, hereditary citizenship. Children born to a CBI citizen (either before or after citizenship is granted) are eligible for citizenship through descent under the laws of each jurisdiction. Exact rules on registration timelines and documentation vary by programme.
Passports are typically issued with a 10-year validity for adults, shorter for minors. Renewal is straightforward and typically handled through the relevant High Commission or consulate. We offer post-engagement renewal support to former clients on a fee basis.
Caribbean CBI citizenship is full and substantive, not contingent. It can, however, be revoked in narrow circumstances: fraudulent procurement (materially false statements in the application), subsequent criminal convictions involving terrorism or serious financial crime, or breach of the oath of allegiance. These are extreme and rare circumstances.