Vanuatu offers one of the exciting possibilities to become a citizen by investment. It is one time opportunity for international investors. The Vanuatu citizenship by investment program has put certain country nationals in restricted blacklist, and therefore cannot apply for the passport.
The Vanuatu DSP program is not open for nationals from these 5 countries, unless they have permanent residence outside those countries and have lived abroad for more than 5 years. For example those with permanent residence status in Europe, USA, UK, UAE etc.
Blacklist
- Yemen
- Syria
- Iraq
- Iran
- North Korea.
- Russia
- Belarus
Some countries are considered based on individual case by case.
Applications are turned down if the applicant or family members are from restricted countries.
The Vanuatu passport and citizenship certificate is issued to those who pass the FIU due diligence checks with interpol. police and source of funds.
All applicants and their family members must provide a police certificate of clean record along with other certified documents.
The full list of restricted countries for all CBI programs is available here
FIU Due diligence
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is Vanuatu’s national agency, operating within PM office responsible for verifying financial information of applicants to counter money laundering, terrorism financing and suspected proceeds of crime.
The FIU was established in 2020, regulates all financial institutions in Vanuatu as required by the AML&CT
FIU also monitors of all successful applicants in the Program with screening of checks and provides reports to Vanuatu citizenship commission (VCC) for adverse reports.VCC recommends the applicant to Prime Ministers office, for honorary citizenship
FIU checks for for criminal conviction, FIU utilises several globally reputable screening databases in its due diligence process including checking INTERPOL database or past criminal conviction records, global blacklisting, sanctions, financial disqualification, corporate solvency, terrorism, individual bankruptcy and political-affluent persons.
Upon confirmation from the FIU that the person has no criminal record, the TWG submits the name of the person to the Citizenship Commission for due diligence checking.Next, the Commission submits the name of the person to the Prime Minister who then advises the President on the name of the person to be conferred Citizenship under the VERP.
The Vanuatu Citizenship Office is responsible for administering Development Support (DSP) and Citizenship Contribution Program (VCP). The Vanuatu Immigration and Passport Office is responsible for issuing passports.
