The 2026 Cost Index of Citizenship by Investment

I have brought together the confirmed official minimums for nine programmes: the contribution plus every published state fee. This is not a "from" figure; it is what goes to the treasury and the relevant bodies. Below, separately, is what comes on top and why it cannot be expressed as one figure for everyone.

In short: what the index shows

• The most affordable programmes are São Tomé and Príncipe and Nauru: USD 95,000 and about USD 103,000.
• Vanuatu costs about USD 136,000, against a headline contribution of USD 130,000.
• The Caribbean segment starts at USD 210,000 with Dominica.
• The gap between the most affordable and the most expensive programme is almost threefold.
• For a family of four the order of the programmes changes: for some, the contribution does not rise with the family.

A single applicant

The confirmed official minimum: the contribution plus the published state fees for 2026.

Amounts in US dollars. For Vanuatu the fees include the financial intelligence unit's due diligence, registration of a new citizen and issue of the passport at the official tariff. For Nauru they include the application fee, due diligence, the bank check and the passport.

A family of four

Here the order of the programmes changes, and that is the main practical conclusion of the index.

Composition: a married couple and two children under 11. For São Tomé the contribution for a family of up to four rises by only five thousand; for Antigua and Saint Kitts it does not rise at all — only the fees increase. For Vanuatu the contribution depends on the composition: USD 130,000 for one person, USD 180,000 for a family of four.

The cost of one passport within a family falls two to three times compared with a single application. So comparing programmes on the "from" figure is meaningless if you are not applying alone.

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What comes on top of the minimum

Here I deliberately do not give a single figure, and I will explain why. These items have no published tariff: they depend on the country of your documents, the bank and the complexity of the case. Anyone who quotes them as one sum for everyone is guessing.

The rule I give everyone: ask for an estimate for your family split into two parts — official payments at the tariff, and everything else. If the second part is not shown separately, you will not be able to compare offers with one another.

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Why cheaper programmes carry a higher mark-up

A pattern visible in the table that confuses people: the lower the contribution, the larger the share of the total taken by fees. Nauru's contribution is USD 90,000 and its fees almost USD 13,000 — fourteen per cent on top. Saint Kitts has a contribution of USD 250,000 and fees of USD 10,000 — only four per cent.

The reason is that fees barely depend on the size of the contribution. Due diligence costs the same for someone contributing USD 90,000 as for someone contributing a quarter of a million: it is the person who is checked, not the payment. The same applies to issuing the passport, registration and the bank check.

The practical conclusion: on cheaper programmes the estimate needs particularly close reading, because the gap between "from USD 90,000" and the real figure is relatively larger there. On expensive programmes the fees are lost in the overall total.

What happens to the money if you are refused

A question worth asking before filing, not after. The answer depends on how the sequence of payments is structured in the specific programme.

The key detail: in most programmes the main contribution is paid after preliminary approval, not on filing. São Tomé allows 90 days after approval; in Vanuatu part is paid on filing and the balance afterwards. So on a refusal you lose the due diligence fees, not the whole sum.

That fundamentally changes the cost of a mistake: the risk at filing is measured in thousands, not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. But that is exactly why a case cannot be prepared on the principle of "file and see" — the due diligence money cannot be recovered, and a refusal is recorded and will be asked about on the next application form.

Vanuatu →São Tomé and Príncipe →Nauru →Dominica →Grenada →Antigua and Barbuda →Saint Lucia →Saint Kitts and Nevis →

How to read someone else's estimate: six checks

If you have already been given a calculation, run it through this list.

• Is the estimate split in two? Official payments at the tariff separately, everything else separately. If it is all in one "turnkey" line, the offer cannot be compared with another.
• Is the family composition stated? An estimate without a composition is not an estimate. The difference between a single applicant and a family of four can reach fifty thousand dollars.
• Is there due diligence for each person? In most programmes the check is paid for each family member above a certain age, not for the application as a whole.
• Are bank charges included? Around five per cent of the transfer amount is thousands of dollars, and estimates usually forget it.
• Is the date the tariff was current given? Fees are revised, and a year-old calculation may not match the body's current invoice.
• Are they prepared to fix the sum with an invoice? An oral estimate commits nobody and usually grows.

The first five points can be checked yourself in ten minutes against the state bodies' tariff pages. The sixth is checked with a single question.

Where the cost is heading

Over the past five years every programme in the segment has become more expensive, and none has become cheaper. In 2023-2024 the Caribbean states agreed a common minimum threshold of USD 200,000, raising contributions where they had been lower. Vanuatu has raised its entry twice. Nauru launched its programme at the end of 2024 at USD 90,000 and has already announced that this offer is time-limited.

We expect the trend to continue: the market has narrowed to ten programmes, demand has been redistributed to fewer options, and external pressure is pushing countries to raise the bar, not lower it. The analysis of the market as a whole is in the map of the citizenship-by-investment market.

What it costs to add a parent or an adult child

The most underrated part of an estimate. Contributions for children under 18 are usually modest, but adult dependants and parents are calculated differently, and the spread between programmes is widest here.

Amounts in US dollars, excluding due diligence for each person added. The difference is fundamental: in São Tomé a parent costs five thousand, in Grenada fifty. If the application is for a large family, this parameter changes the choice of programme more than the size of the main contribution does.

A second practical point: almost everywhere, adding a relative after the passport has been issued costs more than including them in the original application, and restarts the check.

How to use this

• Compare programmes on the confirmed minimum for your family, not on the entry contribution.
• Ask for an estimate split into official payments and everything else.
• Check the first part against the state bodies' tariff pages — they are public.
• Remember the timelines: a difference of a few months is often more expensive than a difference in price. The comparison is in the speed index.