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St Kitts and Nevis · Travel · · 5 minute readFrom May 1, 2025, holders of ordinary St Kitts and Nevis passports need a visa to enter Turkey. The decision gives no reason, but it lands as scrutiny of citizenship by investment grows.
On May 1, 2025, Turkey's Official Gazette, the publication in which Turkish laws and presidential decisions take legal effect, carried Presidential Decision No. 9782 in issue 32887. It suspends, with effect from the same day, the parts of a 2012 bilateral agreement that let citizens of St Kitts and Nevis enter Turkey without a visa. The suspension applies only to ordinary passports. Holders of diplomatic, official and service passports keep their exemption for visits of up to 90 days.
For anyone who holds St Kitts and Nevis citizenship, or is weighing an application, the practical effect is simple: a trip to Turkey now needs a visa arranged before travel. The wider question is what the decision says about how secure a citizenship by investment passport's travel access really is.
Turkey and St Kitts and Nevis signed a mutual visa exemption agreement on April 19, 2012. Turkey's Council of Ministers, the cabinet at the time, approved it on June 25, 2012, and since then citizens of the federation could visit Turkey without a visa. Turkish news agency ANKA reported that the President suspended the agreement for ordinary passport holders under Article 3 of Presidential Decree No. 9, the instrument that gives the presidency power over international agreements of this kind.
The decision itself gives no reason, and as of publication neither government has issued a public explanation. Travellers should check with the nearest Turkish embassy or consulate whether they can use Turkey's online eVisa system or must apply in person, before booking.
On its own, losing visa free entry to Turkey is a modest change. The St Kitts and Nevis passport still opens the Schengen area, the United Kingdom and many other destinations without a visa. What deserves attention is the pattern. Visa free access is granted country by country, and each agreement can be withdrawn by one side, often overnight.
St Kitts and Nevis has seen this before. On November 22, 2014, Canada imposed a visa requirement on its citizens with immediate effect, citing concerns about how passports were issued under the citizenship by investment program and about identity management. That requirement remains in place.
The timing also matters. On March 19, 2025, the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee voted 41 to 10, with 21 abstentions, to support changes to EU visa rules that would let the EU suspend visa free travel for countries that sell citizenship without a genuine link to the country. The proposal still has to pass the full Parliament and be agreed with member states, but governments around the world are clearly looking harder at investor passports. Turkey itself sells citizenship, through property and other investments from US$400,000, and is seeking easier visa terms with the EU, which gives it its own reasons to tighten entry for passports seen as higher risk.
For existing citizens, nothing changes except travel to Turkey. Citizenship, the right to live in the federation and the right to pass citizenship to children are unaffected. Most investor citizens also keep their original nationality, and if that passport gives easier entry to Turkey, they can simply travel on it.
For applicants, the decision is a reminder to judge a second passport on its whole value rather than a headline count of visa free destinations. Those counts move, and a passport bought mainly for travel is the most exposed to changes like this one. The stronger reasons for a Caribbean citizenship tend to be longer term: a Plan B for the family, a citizenship that lasts for life and passes to children, and options for residence and travel that do not depend on a single government.
St Kitts and Nevis still runs the longest established citizenship by investment program in the world, dating from 1984, and its government has been tightening due diligence, the background checks on every applicant, in response to international concerns. If Turkey, or another specific country, matters to your plans, check how the passport is treated there today and ask how secure that access looks. We help clients compare programs on those terms, apply through authorised agents, work with our local team in each country, and quote our fees in writing before any work begins.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
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ReadThis is a big decision, and there is a lot of information to take in. That is why we start with a free 15 minute call: we look at your situation and your goals, then tell you which programs genuinely fit you, and which do not. We never push one program over another. If staying where you are is your best move, we will tell you that and sell you nothing.
