Saint Kitts: the oldest CBI programme tightens its checks

The citizenship by investment programme of Saint Christopher and Nevis is the oldest of its kind. It is administered by the Citizenship by Investment Unit, the CIU, which itself publishes its fee schedule and processing times. This is a difference in approach from several competing programmes, whose amounts circulate mainly through authorised firms.

The main route today is the Sustainable Island State Contribution, a non-refundable contribution paid to the state. It replaced the earlier schemes based on a diversification fund.

The fee schedule published by the CIU and consulted on 26 September 2026 distinguishes between the core family and additional dependants.

• Main applicant alone, or a family of up to four people: from $250,000¹;
• each additional dependant under eighteen: $25,000²;
• each additional dependant aged eighteen or over: $50,000³.

The structure of the fee schedule deserves careful reading: the entry threshold is the same for a single person and for a family of four. In other words, a couple with two children pays the same contribution as a single person. Beyond the fourth member, the marginal cost depends on age.

Due diligence fees are charged separately, and they are not token amounts. They come to $10,000⁴ for the main applicant and $7,500⁵ for each dependant aged sixteen or over.

The fact that due diligence is charged per head, and from age sixteen, says something about the scheme: the checks do not cover the investor alone but every adult and older teenager in the application. For a large family, these fees can represent a significant fraction of the total budget.

The CIU announces a decision between from 120 days⁶ and up to 180 days⁷ from acknowledgement of receipt of the application. Three outcomes are provided for: approval in principle, refusal, or justified deferral.

This third branch is the one an applicant must build into their timetable. A deferral for good cause is not a refusal, but it opens a period whose length is not limited by the text consulted. Building a project — schooling, sale of a business, relocation — on the assumption of a decision at the end of the announced period amounts to betting on the first branch.

An application cannot be filed directly: it goes through an authorised agent. Three precautions emerge from the fee schedule itself.

1. Add up the cost of the application before filing it: contribution, due diligence fees per person concerned, agent's fees and government fees all add up, and only the first two items appear in the public fee schedule;
2. prepare the documents for each adult and each dependant aged sixteen or over, since each of them is subject to a paid check;
3. allow some slack in the timetable beyond the announced period, as the possibility of a justified deferral is written into the procedure.

The page consulted does not mention an effective date for the amounts. We therefore cannot say from when this fee schedule applies, nor whether an application filed earlier is subject to different amounts: this point must be confirmed with the CIU or an authorised agent before any commitment.

Government fees and agent's fees do not appear in the public fee schedule consulted; they come on top of the amounts above and vary from one intermediary to another. We do not quantify them here.

Finally, the visa-free access attached to the passport depends on bilateral agreements that may change independently of the programme itself. A mobility ranking observed today is no guarantee for the lifetime of a naturalisation.