Grenada: the only Caribbean passport opening the US E-2 visa

The United States issues a visa to nationals of states with which it has concluded a treaty of commerce and navigation, when those persons invest in a US business that they run.

Grenada is one of these states. None of the other four Caribbean citizenship programmes gives access to this scheme, and France is not one of them either.

This is precisely what makes Grenadian nationality relevant to a French national: it opens an access that their original nationality does not give them.

This treaty basis is also more solid than a unilateral visa exemption: it results from a treaty, not from a decision that one state can suspend alone, as shown by the case of Vanuatu, whose passport fell to about 95¹ destinations.

It should be noted that other states bound to the United States by this type of treaty exist, including in Europe, and that a Caribbean nationality is not the only route. It is simply the fastest to acquire for those who do not hold any of these nationalities by descent.

This is not a passive investment. The applicant must invest substantial capital in a real, non-marginal US business and actually run it.

The visa allows the holder to live in the United States and run that business there, and it is renewable as long as the business continues. It does not lead to permanent residence.

We publish neither the required investment amount, nor timeframes, nor renewal conditions: they are a matter of US law and we have not been able to verify them in an up-to-date official source. They must be established with a US attorney.

Some US authorities also require the nationality of the treaty country to have been held for a certain period, or even residence there, before examining the application. This must be checked beforehand.

The order of steps is therefore the reverse of the chronological order: the US business project must be examined first, since everything else depends on it.

A distinction must be drawn with other routes into the United States. The treaty investor visa is not the investment programme leading to permanent residence, whose amounts and logic are different. It does not lead to a green card, and its validity remains tied to the business.

This difference is decisive for a family project: a child who comes of age loses the benefit of the status derived from their parents, which means planning for their own situation well before that point.

The contribution to the National Transformation Fund is $235,000² for a single applicant. The real estate option is from $270,000³.

These amounts are in line with the Caribbean average: about $200,000⁴ in Dominica, $230,000⁵ in Antigua and Barbuda, from $250,000⁶ in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The total cost of a project, however, combines the Grenadian contribution, due diligence and agent fees, the US investment and legal fees on both sides. Reasoning on the Caribbean threshold alone greatly underestimates the operation.

The Grenadian passport also gives visa-free access to about 148⁷ destinations, which brings no mobility gain to a French national.

• US access is Grenada's only objective differentiator among Caribbean programmes.
• It rests on a bilateral treaty, which is more solid than a unilateral exemption.
• It requires a genuine US business project, run by the applicant.
• The US project should be examined before starting the Grenadian procedure.
• Nationality does not move tax residency: Grenada taxes its residents on local income.

One last point is worth making: settling in the United States brings US tax law into play, which taxes residents on their worldwide income and from which exit is itself costly. The Grenadian route therefore opens access to a demanding tax jurisdiction, which must be weighed against the reasons for pursuing it.