After a two month freeze, scrutiny of its agents and a string of cancelled passports, Vanuatu has reopened its Capital Investment Immigration Plan with higher prices and stricter oversight.
Vanuatu has reopened applications under its Capital Investment Immigration Plan, known as the CIIP, from May 26, 2025, under a Citizenship (CIIP) Amendment Order published in the official gazette. The route had been frozen since mid March while the new government reviewed how it was run. It returns with higher contributions and much closer oversight of the agents who sell it.
The reopening caps a busy few months for Vanuatu's citizenship programs, and it is worth understanding what was paused, what was not, and what has changed.
Vanuatu runs more than one citizenship by investment route. The best known is the Development Support Program, or DSP, where the applicant makes a contribution that is paid directly into a government account, starting at US$130,000 for a single applicant. The CIIP works differently. Part of the money is an investment placed in designated development funds, such as cocoa farming projects, and that investment is managed by private master agents and meant to be repaid to the government over time.
On March 17, 2025, the Citizenship Commission, the body that decides applications, suspended new CIIP applications until further notice under a Cabinet decision. Applications already lodged continued to be processed. The DSP and the smaller Vanuatu Contribution Program were not affected and stayed open throughout.
Prime Minister Jotham Napat took office in early 2025 with a 100 day plan that included reviewing the Citizenship Act and the regulations behind both the CIIP and the DSP. A new commission chairman, Charles Maniel, was appointed on March 8 and said the suspension was needed to close gaps and strengthen the program.
Events moved quickly around it. The Prime Minister ordered the cancellation of a passport issued to Lalit Modi, a former Indian cricket administrator wanted in India, saying Vanuatu would not harbour fugitives. The government cancelled several other passports it said had been obtained fraudulently and ordered an investigation into agents who had helped unsuitable people obtain citizenship. Vanuatu also appeared on a draft United States travel restriction list.
Napat then asked the commission to account for where CIIP investment money was held. The commission reported that the CIIP had attracted more than 2,000 applicants and over 10 billion vatu, around US$81 million, in investments managed by master agents. In unusually frank language, it blamed political instability, major flaws in due diligence and the uncontrolled appointment of agents for damaging the program's integrity.
These changes sit alongside reforms already in place. Since August 2024, every new citizen has had to enrol fingerprints and facial data in person for Vanuatu's biometric passport, rather than sending a photo with a paper form, and the government has said it maintains a list of nationalities that cannot apply.
The direction is clear. Vanuatu wants to keep earning from citizenship, which has been one of its largest sources of government revenue, while rebuilding trust with partners after losing visa free travel to the Schengen area and the United Kingdom. That means more checks, more paperwork and higher prices.
For applicants, a few points follow:
We help clients apply through authorised channels, work with our local team, and quote fixed fees in writing.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
A treaty signed in Canberra commits Australia to enhanced mobility arrangements for Vanuatu visitors. It does not grant visa free entry, and it still needs domestic approval in both countries before it takes effect.
Read
The International Court of Justice has answered the climate questions Vanuatu spent six years bringing before it, and all fifteen judges agreed. It is the biggest diplomatic result in the country’s history.
Read
For the first time, the European Union has moved a country off its visa free list. The reason is Vanuatu’s citizenship by investment program, and every Vanuatu passport holder is affected.
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.
