Vanuatu passports for a family of six: handled end to end, biometrics in Moscow

A family of six who live in Moscow

The client’s name is changed and we do not disclose his company. Sergey is 41, a Russian citizen working with large investors at one of Russia’s big companies. His wife Nadezhda is 38; the children are 12, 9, 7 and 5.

Darya, the eldest, is in year six and plays tennis; Miron is nine, Liza seven, and the youngest, Timofey, five. The family lives in Moscow: school, clubs and doctors are all here, and they were not planning to move.

Sergey treated a second passport as a working tool: he travels a lot, meetings are set three days ahead, and a visa for every trip is a risk in his schedule. Plus a plan for the family’s future, where the children study and work where they choose.

The conversation with us happened by chance: he was looking for another company he had heard of and reached our lawyer instead. For the first ten minutes Sergey asked questions the way he does at work: timing, cost, who exactly does what, and what happens if it falls through. The lawyer answered with figures and dates, and half an hour later the conversation had moved from the programme to the children and the school timetable.

By the time he spoke to us he had chosen the programme and nearly chosen a company. He had not looked into the paperwork, and there was no reason to: how many forms and letters a family of six needs is something clients usually learn from us. What he cared about was what we do ourselves, the price for six people, and not taking the children to another country.

Sergey came to us with the programme already decided. What he was still choosing was a company that would handle it end to end.

Anna KovalevskayaHead of Legal

Work handled end to end and biometrics in Moscow

The difference was not the programme price: the Vanuatu donation is the same at any company, because it goes to the state. The difference was how much work the company takes on and where the family has to appear in person.

First, the documents. Six main application forms, passport forms for each person, reference letters, source-of-funds declarations and consents are prepared by our team. We do not rush them: every form is checked twice, because redoing paperwork after filing costs more than an extra day of checking. The client signs what is ready.

Second, biometrics. They are given in person at one of the centres - Port Vila, Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow, Saint Petersburg. The family had been offered Dubai, which meant flying six people with four children. We arranged Moscow, where the family lives. The oath itself is taken online, by video.

Third, the calendar. The lawyer gave exact dates for document gathering, filing, biometrics and the online oath, with a margin around the children’s school holidays. Sergey checked them against his own calendar during the meeting.

A fourth point came up by itself. Sergey asked who would be in touch with him: a manager passing questions to a lawyer, or the lawyer. We said the lawyer would run the family’s case while a coordinator handled bookings, couriers and deadlines. For someone whose day is planned in half-hour blocks, that mattered more than a discount.

The contract was signed the next day. According to Sergey, what decided it was that nothing was asked of him beyond the underlying documents and his signatures, and that the family did not have to travel anywhere.

The donation for six people

The donation is calculated from the total number of people in the application. Four people cost USD 185,000 including the due diligence fee, and each person beyond four adds USD 26,500 under our estimate. For six people that came to 238,000.

The coconut oil fund covers a family of up to four, so for this composition the donation applied. It is paid after approval, which suited Sergey: the money stayed at work until the Commission decided.

How the two programmes work and how the donation differs from the fund is set out in donation or fund.

What we prepared for the client

This is the part of the work that proposals rarely show. For six people we prepared the full pack: main application forms, passport forms, reference letters, source-of-funds declarations, consents, powers of attorney and an inventory for each family member.

All we needed from the client were the underlying documents and answers to the lawyer’s questions. The children’s details came from birth certificates and travel passports; his work and income history came from the statements he sent once.

The forms were completed in English, with names spelled as in the current passports, so that the surname and given names match letter for letter across all six documents. In families with children, a single letter out of place is the commonest reason for redoing paperwork.

The reference letters were a separate piece of work. They are written in English, with the referee’s details, in a set form. We drafted the texts, agreed them with both referees and passed them over ready to sign, so that all those people had to do was check the facts about the client.

Police certificates are required from the age of 18, so none were needed for the children. The family obtained medical certificates at one clinic in a single visit: the lawyer booked all six for the same morning.

The four children’s documents were gathered in parallel: birth certificates, travel passports, letters from school and nursery, both parents’ consents, photographs to specification. We ordered the apostilles and certified translations, so the family never visited a ministry or a translator.

Only the main applicant went through due diligence. The questions followed his income and investment transactions, and they were answered with documents we had gathered in advance: income letters, statements, confirmation of transactions.

Six people in one morning in Moscow

Biometrics were arranged in Moscow, where the family lives. They arrived as the centre opened, and the children were booked in sequence starting with the youngest so that Timofey would not wait longest.

The whole family was done in one morning. The children treated it like a clinic visit: place your fingers, look at the camera, sign where the grown-ups sign.

Nadezhda came with the younger two; Sergey brought the elder two straight from after-school sport. The hardest part was explaining to seven-year-old Liza why she was being photographed without a smile: a document needs a calm face, and she had been getting ready to beam at the camera.

No flight to Dubai was needed: the family lives in Moscow and reached the centre in forty minutes. That saved several days, six air tickets and a school week for the two eldest.

The passports came by courier. Everyone kept their Russian citizenship: Russia allows a second one, and Vanuatu citizenship is notified to the Interior Ministry within 60 days, or within 30 days of returning if it was acquired abroad. For children the parents file the notice.

Greek property that earns from the first month

The family began the second stage as soon as the passports arrived. Since 2022 Greece has not accepted Golden Visa applications from Russian citizens, so the application is filed as Vanuatu citizens. Children under 21 join their parents’ application, so all six will hold residence permits.

Sergey set a condition we are used to: the property has to work. He is buying it and wants it let from the first month rather than standing empty until next summer.

This is where our tenant base helped. In Greek university towns we work with students who take housing for the academic year with an option to extend: steady demand, a long lease, no gap between seasons.

We explained the programme rule at once: the property a residence permit rests on cannot be let through short-term rental platforms, and the fine is EUR 50,000. Long-term letting under an ordinary lease does not affect the programme, and that is exactly what the client needs.

The shortlist currently holds three properties outside Attica, Thessaloniki and the large islands, where the threshold is EUR 400,000 with at least 120 square metres of main living space. The threshold must be met with one property, so two flats at 200,000 each are not an option. How the zones and thresholds work is set out in Golden Visa zones.

For every property we calculate not just the price but what it can realistically be let for: average rents in the district, demand from students and lecturers, off-season utility costs and the manager’s commission. Sergey reads those numbers the way he reads his work ones: what interests him is the yearly result, not the price per square metre.

The family already knows the cost markers for the Greek stage: purchase tax of 3.09 per cent of the price, residence fees counted per person, and an annual property ownership tax charged on properties held on 1 January.

Where the process stands now

Six Vanuatu passports have been issued. The Greek side is in progress: choosing the property, then the legal and technical checks, the deal and the residence application for the whole family.

Greek timing depends on the region: outside Attica a review usually takes 6-12 months, in Attica 12-24. During the review the family will hold the blue certificate: it confirms lawful stay in Greece but gives no Schengen travel.

What Sergey counts as the result of the first stage is not the passports but how much of his own time they took: a few meetings, one clinic visit and one morning for biometrics.

He has recommended us to colleagues three times already and set up several meetings for us with investors he knows. For us a recommendation like that is worth more than any review on a website.

Two of those meetings have already taken place, and one of them is now at the costing stage for a family with three children. We take it calmly: someone who recommends us to colleagues risks nothing only if he is happy with the result himself.

Next for the family comes Greek residence, and with it a school in Europe as a future option for the children and freedom of travel in Schengen once the cards arrive.

The programme donation is the same everywhere. What a client chooses is speed and how much of the work the company takes on.

Anna KovalevskayaHead of Legal

Who this route suits

Large families: the donation is counted by the number of people in the application, so six people in one application cost less than six separate applicants.

Busy clients: our team prepares the applications, letters and declarations for the whole family, and the client signs what is ready.

Families with small children: biometrics can be arranged in Moscow or Saint Petersburg and the whole family fitted into one morning.

Anyone buying Greek property for income: long-term letting does not affect the programme, and we match tenants from our own base.

Similar stories: seven people and three generations in one application and a flat in Patras let long term. Programme terms are on the Vanuatu citizenship page.