Solomon islands have announced plans to open a new economic citizenship investment in the Pacific attracting HNW individuals to generate much needed revenues needed to revive its economy. The country has been recently hit by double disasters of cyclone harold and covid-19 has been hampering the relief efforts.
Solomon islands citizenship program for investors will be similar to that of Vanuatu, the neighboring country. The program is expected to launch on or after 2021 after regulations are published and approved by the parliament. This will be the third citizenship investment program in the pacific with Vanuatu and Samoa already running these schemes since 2017.
How much it will cost?
The investment amounts required for citizenship and eligibility conditions will be announced by the government soon in the following months.
The program will not open until Govt officially appoints citizenship unit, agents, due diligence firms for processing of investment applications
The Government will undertaking due diligence and innovative investment program, that has potential to bring huge new revenue to our economy. HNW individuals go through a very stringent process of background checks for citizenship.
Dual citizenshp
In 2018, Solomon islands legalized dual citizenship through an amendment bill, which provided the legal foundations to launch a citizenship investment program. It is impossible to launch a citizenship scheme for investments without legalizing dual citizenship first.
Whats special about this citizenship program?
Solomon islands may be a super interesting citizenship program for investors, because it is the only country that has visa free access to Canada besides caribbean and vanuatu programs. Since this pacific country is also part of commonwealth, you can become a commonwealth citizen though the islands citizenship program
How good is Solomon islands passport?
Solomon islands passport scored 51st best passport in the world, with visa free access to 128 world countries. These countries include EU schengen area, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, United Arab Emirates etc.
On 7 October 2016, the European Union signed a short-stay Visa Waiver Agreement with Solomon Islands in Brussels. This enables SI citizens to freely visit schengen area for 90 days in 180 day period for business, tourism and study.
Visa free access
82 countries (with just passport)
Hard visas
Visa required – 66 (hard visa)
Soft visas
- eVisa – 14
- Visa on arrival (VoA) – 27
- eVisa/Visa arrival (both) – 5
What should you know about Solomon islands?
- Solomon islands has a population of 650K and GDP of $1.5 billion (ppp), made up of 900 islands half of which are uninhabited.
- The country was previously known as British solomon islands and later renamed to just solomon islands after independence in 1978
- Europeans, spanish explorers first discovered Solomon islands in 1568 and named ‘Solomon islands’ after the wealthy biblical King Solomon mistakenly assuming the islands contained great riches.
- Tourism is not really popular in Solomon islands, but making it an exotic tourist destination. Beaches, swimming and tropical
- Solomon islands is a member of Commonwealth, United Nations, Interpol and IMF.
- Solomon islands dollar (SI$ or SBD) was introduced in 1978 replacing Australian dollar.
- Official language is English but despite this only small 2% part of population speak english.
- There are excellent flight connections from Solomon Airlines connects Honiara to Nadi in Fiji, Port Vila in Vanuatu and Brisbane in Australia
