Caribbean golden passports face phase-out as EU sets 12 November deadline

The European Union has given Antigua and Barbuda and four other Eastern Caribbean countries until 12 November to commit to shutting down their citizenship-by-investment programmes by 1 June 2028. Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, said this month that his country would very likely agree to phase out the scheme.

Key facts

• Deadline: 12 November to agree to close the schemes; target phase-out date of 1 June 2028
• Countries affected: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia
• Programme cost: investments start at $200,000
• What buyers get: citizenship and a passport, not temporary residency
• Antigua revenue: about $58 million collected in 2025; $44.4 million budgeted for 2026

What is happening?

The EU sent letters to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia in June, asking them to phase out their investor-citizenship schemes by June 2028. The five countries now have until 12 November to agree to that timetable.

Browne said Antigua would very likely commit to ending its programme. No formal agreement has been announced, and the source does not say what the other four countries plan to do.

Why is the EU pressing for this?

The EU says these programmes create security risks by letting foreigners with few ties to a country obtain citizenship and visa-free entry to the Schengen area — the key selling point for passport buyers. Countries that keep running the schemes risk losing that visa-free access.

Under a revised EU visa-suspension mechanism, operating an investor-citizenship programme can by itself provide grounds for suspending visa-free access, although any suspension is not automatic. The EU withdrew Vanuatu's visa-free access in 2024 over concerns about its investor-citizenship scheme.

How do the passport programmes work?

The schemes require investments starting at $200,000, typically as contributions to state funds or investments in approved projects. In return, foreign applicants receive citizenship and a passport rather than temporary residency, and they have generally not been required to live in the Caribbean.

Applicants have included nationals of China, Russia and Middle Eastern countries who would normally need visas to enter the EU. Demand from Americans has grown since 2020, according to Kristin Surak, a London School of Economics professor who researches investment migration.

What this means for travellers

Nothing about ordinary travel rules has changed yet: no suspension of visa-free Schengen access has been announced, and it is not automatic. However, travellers who hold or are considering one of these passports could see their visa-free entry to the Schengen area affected if a suspension is later imposed.

Anyone weighing these schemes should note that the five countries have been asked to close them by 1 June 2028 and that countries keeping them risk losing European visa-free access.

Why the stakes are high in the region

Citizenship sales are the Antiguan government's largest source of non-tax revenue, according to C. Justin Robinson, director of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus. The government collected about $58 million from the programme in 2025 and budgeted $44.4 million for 2026 — roughly 7% to 11% of recurrent revenue. Robinson estimated that ending the programme would erase more than half of the country's projected primary surplus this year.

In St Kitts and Nevis and Dominica, where such inflows have at times exceeded 10% of GDP, a suspension could pose what Robinson called an "existential fiscal question". A 2025 International Monetary Fund paper found that 2023 citizenship-by-investment inflows equalled about a fifth of the combined GDP of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, and estimated that passport-linked investment represented between 100% and 170% of all officially recorded foreign direct investment across the five countries with such schemes.

The 12 November deadline is the next date to watch for an announcement on whether Antigua and Barbuda and its neighbours formally agree to the June 2028 phase-out.