Norway has refused entry to or deported multiple investment citizenship holders from five Caribbean nations since August, despite official denials of any policy change.
The refusals affect citizens of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and Saint Lucia who obtained nationality through citizenship by investment (CBI) programs.
When IMI contacted Norway’s immigration directorate (UDI) in August about reports of entry refusals, officials explicitly denied that any policy change existed.
“Citizens of Saint Kitts and Nevis are visa-free to Norway and the Schengen area, and there have been no recent changes to this,” Gustav Try, a UDI press advisor, confirmed. The official extended this assurance to cover all five Caribbean CBI jurisdictions.
Border officials simultaneously enforced a different policy. At least five separate refusals of entry occurred between August and November at Bergen and Oslo airports, where officers questioned travelers specifically about how they obtained their Caribbean citizenship.
The Bergen Deportation
An Indian national arriving at Bergen Airport on August 9 presented his Saint Kitts and Nevis passport for a tourist visit. Officers asked whether he held an “investment passport,” unto which he confirmed obtaining it through investment, but clarified it is not called by that term.
Police removed him from Norway that day under Immigration Act Section 17, which addresses invalid travel documents. The official decision, which IMI reviewed, declares the passport “not valid in Norway” because Norway requires personal attendance when applying for a passport.
“In Norway, personal attendance is required when applying for a passport,” the police removal order states. “If there is no personal attendance, the passport is not valid.”
This legal reasoning applies Norwegian passport application standards to foreign-issued documents. Saint Kitts and Nevis, like most nations, issues legally valid passports under its own sovereignty and procedures.
Philippe May, founder and CEO of EC Holdings, challenges this logic by pointing to established democracies with similar practices. Singapore operates very few diplomatic and consular missions in Africa, Latin America, and Europe, he notes.
Singaporeans living in countries without representation may need to travel to the nearest mission or Singapore itself to apply and complete biometrics. “I cannot imagine that Singapore obliges them to go back again to pick it up in person,” May observes, describing similar passport collection practices across “many other Southeast Asian countries.”
Pattern Emerges
Eric Major, CEO of Latitude Consultancy, confirmed three separate cases by mid-October involving clients from his firm and colleagues Rajneesh Pathak at Global North and Nuri Katz at Apex Capital Partners.
Dom Barnes, Latitude’s UK Country Manager, detailed his firm’s case: passport control at Bergen airport, no subsequent contact with Saint Kitts authorities, no legal action taken, and issues confined to Norway alone. Travelers encountered no problems entering other European Union or European Economic Area countries.
Major commented that the initial Bergen officer “must have been a rookie,” though subsequent cases demonstrated systematic implementation by multiple officials at different airports.
The Oslo Overnight Detention
Neda Azarmehr, Managing Partner of Cross Border Freedom ( CBF) reported that two of its Dominican CBI clients arriving in Oslo during November 2025 faced a more elaborate removal process. According to the firm, both had entered Norway the previous year using identical passports without incident.
Officers separated them for individual questioning, Cross Border Freedom recounted. Authorities asked how they obtained citizenship, why they did not collect passports directly from Dominica, and why they held both their original nationality documents and CBI passports.
Officers informed them of next day deportation, confiscated their Dominican passports overnight, and allowed them to stay in a hotel before returning to the airport.
A Norwegian immigration lawyer whom officials hired confirmed to the travelers that Norway had begun refusing entry to Caribbean CBI passport holders starting this summer and that no legal intervention would succeed at the border, according to CBF’s account.
Officials returned their passports only at the aircraft door moments before boarding the Istanbul-bound flight. Cross-Border Freedom later communicated with relevant Dominican representatives for clarification regarding the incidents.
Government Confirmation
Based on communication received by CBF from Dominican representatives, Norway is enforcing an unpublished operational policy that refuses entry to all Caribbean CBI passport holders regardless of program, background, nationality, or previous travel history.
Azarmehr described this as the first documented instance reported to us of a Schengen-member state systematically refusing entry to Caribbean CBI citizens.
Dominica’s government acknowledged the restriction covers all five Caribbean CBI programs and indicated the matter is under review through diplomatic channels. Azarmehr characterized this as “the first verified instance of a Schengen-member state systematically refusing entry to Caribbean CBI citizens.”
Norway has issued no public regulation, directive, or notice regarding any change to Caribbean visa-free access. UDI emphasized in its August statement that the response described “general policy” only, citing confidentiality obligations in individual cases.
IMI had contacted UDI after receiving initial reports of deportations, and officials denied that any policy restricting Caribbean CBI citizens existed.
Norway’s refusal practice does not reflect a general objection to remote passport renewal. Many countries, including the UK and the US, renew passports online and deliver them by mail, and yet, their holders enter Norway without issue. The practice appears limited to Caribbean passports issued through CBI programs.
Legal Mechanism
Norway effectively circumvents Schengen visa policy by invoking passport validity rather than visa requirements. Immigration Act Section 17(1)(a) allows police to remove any traveler lacking a “valid passport or other approved travel document.”
Border officials apply Norwegian passport issuance standards to foreign documents, declaring CBI passports invalid because applicants did not appear physically before authorities when applying. This reasoning functionally nullifies another sovereign state’s passport issuance procedures.
May suggests the enforcement mechanism faces practical challenges. He asks, “What would Norway do if such a traveler would answer, no, I did not get it by investment, I got it because my mother was a citizen from that country?”
Proving the opposite becomes Norway’s burden. “How are they going to oblige the traveler to prove that his mother was from there?” May questions, calling the task “impossible, mission impossible.”
The approach allows Norway to maintain formal compliance with Schengen visa-free lists while achieving de facto exclusion. Travelers receive no advance warning, face immediate deportation orders, and lack effective appeal mechanisms at the border.
For now, Caribbean CBI citizens remain visa-free to Norway on paper, but are barred in practice.
