Vanuatu’s citizenship by investment (CBI) programs delivered VT11.4 billion (US$95.5 million) to the treasury in the first six months of 2026,
That tops every other revenue line the ministry identified, running roughly 37% ahead of value-added tax (VAT). Citizenship supplied approximately 39% of the VT29 billion the government collected excluding donor funds, according to a mid-year statement from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (MoFEM).
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Johnny Koanapo reported a net operating surplus of VT9.3 billion (US$77.9 million) for the period, with no new bond issuance.
The statement, carried by the Vanuatu Daily Post on July 25, puts treasury bill repayments at VT933.1 million and external debt repayments at VT916.6 million. Expenses reached VT20.1 billion, which the ministry says runs 14.5% below its January to June forecast.
“Our books are in order, our obligations are being met, and we are doing this without turning to the bond market,” Koanapo said.
Citizenship out-earns every tax line
Half-year collections stand at 55% of the revised 2026 annual target of VT53.9 billion (US$451 million), and 8.9% above the budget forecast for the period. Total revenue grew 5.7% against the same six months of 2025.
The share has climbed for two straight years
Citizenship receipts accounted for 21.8% of government revenue across the first nine months of 2024 and 30.4% over the same period in 2025. Six months into 2026, the share sits close to 39%.
Vanuatu collected VT11.73 billion from the programs across nine months of 2025. Matching almost all of that in half the time puts the current year on a trajectory that would clear every annual figure on record.
Annualized, 2026 would break the 2020 record
Doubling the half-year figure gives VT22.8 billion, or approximately US$191 million. The previous high, set in 2020, was US$132.6 million, a year in which CBI supplied 42% of all government income.
Budget documents for 2026 assumed approximately VT15 billion in citizenship revenue across the full year, according to analysis published by the Vanuatu Daily Post in January. Receipts had passed 76% of that assumption by June.
The IMF has questioned what the numbers measure
Fund staff cautioned in the 2025 Article IV report that the surge recorded across the first half of 2025 likely reflected changes to the program. Among those changes was the use of invoicing through the government’s financial management system. Whether actual receipts matched those invoices remained to be verified, the report noted.
The Fund has published no follow-up resolving the point. Executive Directors named the sustainability of the citizenship program a domestic vulnerability and pressed the authorities to strengthen its governance and transparency.
Since then the Council of Ministers has considered the Commission of Inquiry report on the Citizenship Commission, directing agencies on February 6 to act on the recommendations in Part 1. Opposition figures have pressed for full publication since the report reached the Justice Minister in mid-2025.
Receipts rise as mobility falls
Brussels stripped Vanuatu of visa-free Schengen access in December 2024, the first removal of a third country from the EU’s visa-exempt list. Britain had imposed a visa requirement in July 2023, and the June 2026 Nakamal Agreement with Australia produced an undefined mobility commitment rather than a waiver.
Revenue has moved in the opposite direction from passport utility across that entire period. Vanuatu’s minimum contribution remains US$130,000 for a single applicant, and its three programs process applications within weeks.
“Vanuatu has nothing left for Brussels to take away“
Manpreet Kataria, CEO of Alpha Immigration Associates, reads the half-year as evidence that demand relocated rather than disappeared. The country lost its EU waiver in 2024 and “still just had its best half-year ever,” he said, which tells him “the demand didn’t die because of limited travel but shifted.”
Kataria draws the contrast with the Caribbean, where the European Commission has asked five states to phase out their programs by June 1, 2028 or risk Schengen suspension. Those five still have something to lose. “Vanuatu has nothing left for Brussels to take away,” he said.
Instability has clients wanting a second passport “in weeks as their Plan B,” in his account, and the programs that deliver on that clock take the business. “Nobody wants to wait 8-12 months to get a passport in hand,” he said. “Speed wins.”
A note on the published figures
Local reporting of the MoFEM statement rendered the ministry’s totals in millions rather than billions, giving citizenship revenue as VT11.4 million and total revenue as VT29 million. The Department of Finance and Treasury puts recurrent revenue at VT27.03 billion for the first half of 2025 in its published fiscal indicators, which places the 2026 figures at billion scale.
Two inconsistencies survive within the released numbers. Revenue less expenses yields VT8.9 billion against a reported surplus of VT9.3 billion. Listed components also sum to more than the stated total, which suggests the European Development Fund line falls outside the “excluding donor funds” figure.
MoFEM has not published the underlying monthly report. Its department’s public fiscal indicators still show June 2025 as the most recent reporting period.
