Grenada: visa-free access to China with the passport

A passport ranking counts the number of destinations accessible without a prior visa. The Grenadian passport opens about 148¹, a level comparable to that of its Caribbean competitors.

This total says nothing about the real usefulness for a given holder. What counts is the number of destinations the second passport opens that the first one does not.

For a French national, this gap is practically zero: the French passport opens more destinations than any of the Caribbean programmes.

The rare exceptions are therefore valuable, and they stem from particular bilateral relations rather than from the general strength of the document.

We do not publish the list of destinations opened by each passport or identify the exceptions: mobility indices are published by a private publisher and we do not cite them as an official source for the details of access.

A second criterion, absent from these indices, deserves consideration: the administrative burden associated with the document. Some passports require frequent renewals or consular appearances, or run into enhanced checks at boarding.

This friction appears in no ranking and yet weighs on everyday use. It explains why a second passport is often held without ever being used, its holder continuing to travel on the first.

Grenada is one of the states linked to the United States by a treaty of commerce and navigation, which allows its nationals to apply for the US visa for treaty investors.

None of the four other Caribbean programmes gives this access, and France is not among these states either. It is the only objective reason to choose Grenada over Dominica at about $200,000² or Antigua and Barbuda at $230,000³.

This visa requires a substantial investment in a genuine US business, run by the applicant. It is not a passive investment, and it does not lead to permanent residence.

It also rests on a bilateral treaty, which is more solid than a unilateral visa exemption — as shown by the case of Vanuatu, whose passport fell to about 95⁴ destinations after its European exemption was suspended.

The Grenadian contribution amounts to $235,000⁵ via the fund route, or from $270,000⁶ via the real estate route.

Nationality does not change tax residency. Grenada taxes its residents on locally sourced income, and tax residency is acquired there beyond 183 days⁷ of presence.

A resident’s foreign-source income is not taxed, but benefiting from this requires actually living there, which the programme does not require.

Settling in the United States, moreover, brings US tax law into play: it taxes residents on their worldwide income, and leaving it is itself costly.

The Grenadian route therefore opens access to a demanding tax jurisdiction — which must be weighed against the reasons for taking it.

• The value of a second passport is measured relative to your own, not in absolute terms.
• For a French national, this gap is practically zero with the Caribbean programmes.
• The Grenadian differentiator is access to the US treaty investor visa.
• This visa requires a genuine business plan, to be examined before starting the Caribbean procedure.
• Nationality does not move tax residency, however strong the passport.

One last point should be made about these mobility indices: they aggregate forms of access of very different kinds — full exemption, visa on arrival, electronic authorisation — whose real convenience varies widely. Two passports with the same total do not necessarily offer the same travel experience, which is another reason not to rely on them alone.