Vanuatu 2026: The Year in Figures

Over eleven years Vanuatu's citizenship programme has grown from a local experiment into a structural source of revenue for an entire state. Yet no market participant publishes coherent statistics on it: agents repeat each other's figures, and Vanuatu's state bodies issue financial reports but no breakdown of the number of passports granted.

We have brought together what can be verified: the reporting of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, the annual reports of the Citizenship Commission, budget documents and European Commission material. Where there are no official figures, our estimate is shown — always marked separately, with a dashed outline on the charts and in words in the text. Below is what is happening to the programme in money, in people and in the strictness of the checks.

In short: what the figures show

• The programme brings Vanuatu around VT 11-14 billion a year — roughly USD 90-115 million.
• In total, around 17,000 passports have been issued by investment since 2015.
• Annual flow holds in a corridor of roughly 1,600-2,500 approvals, and 2025 was stronger than 2024.
• The end of visa-free travel to the European Union in December 2024 did not cause demand to collapse.
• The refusal rate is rising: from three-tenths of a per cent in 2021 to about two per cent now.
• Since November 2025 Vanuatu has issued a biometric passport valid for ten years.

How much the programme brings the state

This is the only indicator Vanuatu publishes regularly and in a clear form. The country's Reserve Bank includes revenue from the citizenship programmes in its quarterly economic reviews, so the trend can be followed year by year without speculation.

State revenue from the citizenship programmes, in billions of vatu. Data up to and including 2025 come from the reporting of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. The 2026 figure covers only the first half and is shown with a dashed outline: the year is not over and the final figure will be higher. For reference, the VT 13.8 billion of 2024 is about USD 115 million at the exchange rate of the period.

The peak came in 2024: VT 13.8 billion, about USD 115 million. In 2025 collections fell to roughly VT 11.2 billion — down by a fifth. The reason was not falling demand: during this period the fee structure changed, and part of the payments shifted into the next reporting period because of the move to biometrics.

To understand the scale for the country: the whole Citizenship Commission is budgeted for 2026 at around VT 82 million. In other words, the body that runs the programme costs the state about half a per cent of what the programme brings in. For Vanuatu this is not side income but a pillar of the budget — and that is the main argument that the programme will not be closed.

Want to know what it would cost you specifically? Calculate the estimate

How many passports have been issued

This is where official data runs out. The Citizenship Commission published statistics up to and including 2023; after that there is no breakdown. We have reconstructed the picture from programme revenue and from our own practice with it.

We keep a year-by-year chart with official and estimated values in the article on how to obtain Vanuatu citizenship. Below is the same data in table form.

Cumulatively since 2015 that comes to around 17,000 passports. The anchor point here is official: Vanuatu's passport office reported 10,524 passports issued over 2015-2021, and the annual increments are added to that.

An important caveat that is rarely spelled out: the official statistics of past years count applications by person, not by family. So the figure of 1,091 for 2023 means people, not households, and comparing it with agents' claims of "thousands of families" is meaningless.

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Refusals: the checks are getting stricter

For a long time Vanuatu was criticised for having almost no refusals. There were grounds for this: according to the European Commission, by the end of 2020 the country's authorities had rejected exactly one application. The picture is now different.

The share of rejected applications in the total filed. For 2021-2023 it is calculated from the Citizenship Commission's official statistics: 4 refusals out of 1,072 applications, 5 out of 872 and 22 out of 1,113. For 2024-2026 there are no official data, and the BRIDGES estimate from our practice with the programme is shown. The absolute numbers are small, but the direction is steady: the checks become stricter year by year.

In absolute numbers it is still not much: 22 refusals out of 1,113 applications in 2023. But two years earlier there were four and five. A multiple increase over a short period is not statistical noise but a change of approach.

What has changed in practice. Vanuatu's financial intelligence unit checks the applicant before the case reaches the Commission, not after. Evidence of the origin of funds is requested across the whole chain, not as a single certificate. Follow-up requests have appeared on episodes in people's backgrounds that used to pass without questions. We covered this mechanism in detail in the article on due diligence for Vanuatu citizenship.

The conclusion for an applicant is simple: filing a pack "as it is" no longer works. The case has to be prepared, and weak points closed with documents in advance. What exactly leads to rejection is covered in a separate analysis, reasons for refusal of Vanuatu citizenship.

Who applies

The breakdown by applicants' citizenship is published not by Vanuatu but by the European Commission, in the material it used to justify ending visa-free travel. For 2023 the picture is as follows.

For the earlier period, 2015-2021, the distribution is similar: China by a wide margin, followed by Nigeria, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Russia and Lebanon. In other words, demand comes mainly from countries where the passport serves mobility and a back-up plan, not tourist travel.

For a Russian applicant this means two things. First, they are not exotic for the Commission: such cases go through regularly and the mechanics are well established. Second, it is precisely for this category that the source-of-funds check is the most meticulous. What that changes in practice is described in the article on Vanuatu citizenship for Russian citizens.

What changed in 2026

Three changes that are visible in the data and in the work.

• Biometrics. Since November 2025 a biometric passport valid for ten years has been issued. Giving biometric data is mandatory for every applicant regardless of age, and enrolment points operate in Dubai, Hong Kong and Nouméa among other places.
• Timeline. The realistic timeline is now two to three months from filing to passport with a complete set of documents. Promises of "one month, turnkey" have nothing to do with 2026 practice.
• Checks. The financial intelligence unit reviews the case before the Commission, and a weak point in the source of funds stops the case right there.

We keep the full list of changes with dates in a separate article, what changed in Vanuatu's citizenship programme by 2026.

What this means for an investor

The data add up to four practical conclusions.

• The programme is durable. State revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, administrative costs in single millions. Vanuatu has no economic reason to wind the programme down.
• The window of strictness has already opened. Each year's checks are tougher than the last. A case that passes today may need twice as much evidence a year from now.
• Speed remains the main advantage. Two to three months is faster than any Caribbean programme and incomparably faster than the European routes.
• Europe is reached through residence. The Vanuatu passport opens the way to European residence programmes, above all the Greek one through property and the Hungarian grounds.

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The outlook to 2028

What we expect, based on the trend in the data and on practice.

• Annual flow will stay in the corridor of 1,500-2,500 approvals. The data give no sign of sharp swings either way.
• The refusal rate will rise to three to four per cent — a consequence of biometrics and a full source-of-funds check, not of a change in policy.
• The cost of entry will rise. The contribution and fees have gone up several times in recent years, and there are no grounds for a reversal.
• Document requirements will become more detailed, and preparing a case will take longer than the review itself.

The practical meaning of the outlook: the earlier a correctly prepared case is filed, the cheaper and faster it goes through. Waiting for conditions under this programme to improve has never once been justified historically.