Citizenship by investment (CBI) programs that once let you finish without a single trip are adding steps you must complete in person. Most of the in-person steps that apply today can be completed at a consulate or an approved center abroad.
A 30-day physical presence rule now written into law across the five Eastern Caribbean programs has not started in any of them. Antigua and Barbuda’s five-day rule is the clearest case where you must travel to the country itself.
Egypt, Jordan, and Cambodia are not covered here, because IMI could not confirm their in-person steps from official sources.
The Caribbean 30-Day Rule Has Not Started
Five governments signed the agreement creating the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority (ECCIRA) on September 18, 2025. They are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia.
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has said that all five countries had enacted the agreement into national law.
Dominica’s budget address in August sets out what that law asks of new citizens. They must be physically present in Dominica for at least 30 days during the first five years after they receive citizenship.
The rule does not apply until the regulator begins work. ECCIRA starts 30 days after the fifth participating state deposits its instrument of ratification.
Grenada set August 31 as the start date for its own 30-day rule, then deferred it on August 21. Its Investment Migration Agency said the rule will not apply until the regional regulator begins work and the five states agree on a start date.
Saint Lucia’s Act No. 22 of 2025 requires that applicants and qualifying dependents meet “prescribed requirements for residency and genuine link.” Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2026, which amended the program’s regulations, adds a biometric duty and sets no day count.
In a year-end 2025 update, the Saint Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Unit described a “mandatory genuine-link requirement” that includes “structured physical presence and residency.” The unit’s FAQ says “There are no mandatory residency requirements to maintain your citizenship.”
Dominica’s budget address says the government “intends to ensure” the 30-day rule is fully implemented, without giving a start date.
Patrick Peters of Client Referrals reads the same gap. The Caribbean Five “have not yet implemented the residency requirement,” he points out, and “we don’t know exactly how or when it will be implemented.” He draws a practical conclusion from the uncertainty: “the earlier you lock in your citizenship, the less likely you are to suffer from future restrictive changes.”
Nuri Katz, President of Apex Capital Partners, gives the same answer on timing. “When this will be instituted, we’re still not sure,” he acknowledges.
“It depends on when the regional regulator will be created. And that we don’t know yet.”
In Antigua and Barbuda, Prime Minister Gaston Browne presented a 2026 bill raising the country’s requirement from five days to 30. He told Parliament the 30-day rule had already been implemented administratively.
The Citizenship by Investment Unit’s website gives the five-day figure.
What You Must Do in Person Today
Saint Kitts and Nevis requires that citizens who acquired citizenship through its program complete biometric enrollment by the end of July 2027. From August 2027, the unit will deactivate passports that have not been enrolled, according to its announcement.
Enrollment is open at the Citizenship Unit office in Saint Kitts and at consular offices and approved service providers worldwide, so the step does not force a trip to the Federation.
Saint Lucia added its biometric duty through Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2026, published in the gazette of March 23, 2026. “A successful applicant shall provide his or her biometric data,” the regulation reads, without naming a location.
Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia all make interviews part of the process. Antigua and Barbuda says that “an interview may be required.”
Grenada and Saint Lucia began their interview processes for applications from September 4, 2023. In Grenada, the interview is “an automated system spoken in their native tongue,” reached through an emailed link.
Saint Lucia’s FAQ lets a successful applicant sign the oath of allegiance before an attorney-at-law, a consular officer, an honorary consul, or a notary.
Under Vanuatu’s Citizenship Act, any person “authorised to administer oaths under the law” can administer the oath of allegiance. A secretary of a Local Government Council or a District Commissioner can do the same.
The Act names no location for the oath, and neither does the 2013 amendment that created the investment route.
The Citizenship Office told all Development Support Program (DSP) agents and the Vanuatu Contribution Program (VCP) that it would use video conferencing for oath taking until further notice. That notice remains published.
The office’s application guide says completion of the oath “can only be made in Vanuatu’s court.” Those numbered steps cover citizenship by naturalization, entitlement, marriage to a citizen, and regain.
Outside the Caribbean, Turkey lets a lawyer with power of attorney file the residence permit application on your behalf. The Presidency of Migration Management says so in its residence permit FAQ.
Where You Must Travel to the Country
Antigua and Barbuda requires that citizens spend at least five days in the country during the five calendar years after they obtain citizenship. The Citizenship by Investment Unit warns that citizens who miss the requirement may lose their citizenship without repayment of their investment.
Renewal of the five-year Antiguan passport depends on the same five days.
Peters considers that requirement a feature rather than a cost. Antigua and Barbuda has maintained a physical presence requirement “since the inception of its program,” he notes, “which is actually a positive aspect of the program, not a drawback as some suggest.”
Some form of physical presence “is not new, it makes sense,” he argues, and he expects a wider rule to work in three directions at once: “good for the credibility of the program, good for its applicants to solidify the security of their status and documents, good for the host nation’s tourism industry.”
Malta’s former program required a trip as well. Applicants and dependents aged 18 or over had to “visit the Agency’s offices in Malta to take the oath of allegiance,” according to the Community Malta Agency’s handbook.
That framework was repealed after the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in April 2025, according to the Community Malta Agency.
Katz reaches further back for a precedent. A visit to the country of your new citizenship “is not anything new,” he argues.
Montenegro’s program required one before it stopped taking new applications on December 31, 2022. Apex Capital Partners was one of its three licensed agents and filed 287 of the 1,113 applications.
Under that program, “you have to come visit the country to deliver biometrics and pick up your passport,” Katz notes.
IMI’s reporting on that process describes a trip to Podgorica to collect the decision granting citizenship. The applicant then applied for the passport in person at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and returned the next day to collect it.
“In other countries that are considering these programs, the same will be true,” he expects.
Travel to the country of citizenship will become standard, Katz argues, and “there’s no doubt about that. That’s going to happen.”
Dominica has announced a visit requirement without publishing rules for it. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said on June 10 that “you will have to come to Dominica to receive and renew your passport as a citizen.”
His office promised “requirements for successful applicants to visit Dominica in person and spend time in the country,” with details to come in the budget. The August budget address does not mention passports.
Two Programs With Remote Steps
Nauru’s published process includes no required trip. The Naoero Program Office conducts interviews “virtually or in person” and accepts an oath taken “by audio-visual link” or before a notary in another country.
The United Kingdom began requiring visas from Nauru nationals in December 2025. In a statement to Parliament, the UK government said citizenship by investment “allows individuals access to a new identity with minimal ties to the issuing jurisdiction.”
São Tomé and Príncipe removed an in-person step in 2026. Until April 9, applicants gave fingerprints and signatures in person, in São Tomé or at embassies in Lisbon or Brussels, IMI reported.
A legislative amendment now lets the country issue the national identity card remotely, through video verification with its Civil Registry and Notary Office.
Before You Apply
Ask any Caribbean program which start date it expects for the 30-day rule. Then confirm whether your application date falls under it.
If you acquired citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis through its program, book biometric enrollment before the end of July 2027.
Antigua and Barbuda’s government says the European Commission asked all five Caribbean states to phase out their programs by June 1, 2028. The 30-day rule does not begin until ECCIRA does, and Grenada’s agency said in August that the five states had yet to agree on that date.
Peters places the whole question in a longer arc. The discussion about showing up, he argues, “is all part of the evolution of specific programs and our industry as a whole,” the case he made in an earlier IMI piece on Caribbean visa-free access.
