Vanuatu Citizenship for a Moscow Furniture Importer: Singapore and Hong Kong Without Visas or a 14-Day Limit

Furniture from Asia for showrooms in Moscow and Kazan

Oksana is 44 and a Russian citizen. Twelve years ago she founded a company in Moscow that imports furniture and finishing materials from factories in Asia. Today the company has two showrooms, in Moscow and in Kazan.

The business rests on her personal control. She chooses the factories, approves the samples and inspects large batches on site. Rattan and woven furniture come from Cebu in the Philippines. Ceramic tiles and lamps she orders at the spring and autumn fairs in Hong Kong. Containers are consolidated at a freight forwarder’s warehouse in Singapore.

Russian passport holders can visit the Philippines visa-free for up to 30 days, and Oksana flies to the Cebu factory having bought a ticket the day before. The difficulties start at two other points.

The factories were open, while the two main hubs of her supply chain were blocked by a visa and a short stay limit.

Sofia MendesInvestment Programs Expert

Singapore with a visa and Hong Kong for 14 days

At the first meeting the lawyer asked Oksana to open last year’s calendar and list every trip to Asia. There were nine.

Four visits to the Singapore warehouse, each preceded by a visa through an authorised agency with fixed travel dates. If the date moved, the visa had to be applied for again. And flying out urgently, as on that Friday, was impossible.

Hong Kong is a different story. No visa is needed, but the visa-free stay is only 14 days. The spring fair season and supplier meetings take Oksana about three weeks. Every spring she had to leave Hong Kong for a couple of days in the middle of the season and come back to start a new stay.

Oksana said she had got used to the exits, but the Singapore container had cost her more than all the year’s visas. The lawyer agreed: the real price of visas is not the waiting but the trips that never happened in time.

A second passport for two points on the map

The lawyer explained straight away what would change and what would not. A Vanuatu passport gives visa-free entry to Singapore for up to 30 days. In Hong Kong it allows stays of up to 90 days, so the whole fair season fits into a single entry.

Nothing changes for the Philippines: it is visa-free already. For the Milan furniture fair Oksana will still travel on a Schengen visa.

The lawyer also checked the key question. Russia allows a second citizenship, so Oksana keeps her Russian citizenship. The Interior Ministry must be notified of the second citizenship within 60 days, and the lawyer will prepare the notification in advance.

Donation over the fund: decided in one call

For a single applicant the donation costs USD 135,000 including the due diligence fee. The coconut oil fund costs 165,000, with 50,000 returned after five years.

Oksana did not think long. Her spare money constantly works in the company: a batch of furniture from Asia is paid for three or four months before it sells. Keeping 165,000 in a fund for five years to get 50,000 back did not make sense for her.

She chose the donation. One more advantage for a business owner: it is paid only after approval, so the money keeps working until the Commission decides. How the two programmes compare is covered in donation or fund.

Company turnover and the owner’s personal money

The source-of-funds check looks at Oksana’s own income, not at the company’s turnover. Hundreds of millions of roubles a year passed through the company’s accounts, but that was money belonging to factories, forwarders and customers.

The lawyer asked the company’s chief accountant to put together a separate package: dividend decisions for five years, income statements, personal tax returns and statements for the personal account where that money arrived.

A transfer that looked odd

While checking the statements, our specialist noticed several large transfers from the company account to Oksana’s personal account. They were not dividends, and due diligence might have asked about them.

The accountant found the answer in half an hour. In 2020 Oksana had lent the company her personal savings to pay for the first container from the Philippines. The transfers were repayments of that loan. We attached the loan agreement and repayment schedule, and the question was settled before filing.

The Russian documents were apostilled and received certified English translations. Our representative in Moscow obtained the police certificate under a power of attorney. How money is checked is covered in applicant due diligence.

The chief accountant worried about taxes

When the chief accountant learned why she was collecting dividend documents, she asked for a separate call with the lawyer. One question worried her: would the company now have to pay taxes differently if its owner got another country’s passport?

The lawyer answered calmly, point by point. Tax residence depends on where a person lives, not on how many passports they hold. Oksana lives in Moscow, the company is registered in Russia, and none of that changes.

Vanuatu does not tax personal income and does not require living on the islands. The company’s reporting, dividends and personal tax returns stay the same as before. The only addition is the notification of the second citizenship to the Interior Ministry.

The accountant noted all this in her working file and never raised the question again. How a second citizenship relates to taxes is covered in Vanuatu citizenship and taxes.

Forms signed between exhibition halls in Milan

The package was ready to file in early April. Those were exactly the days Oksana was leaving for a week at the Milan furniture fair, on her valid Schengen visa.

The lawyer did not wait for her return. We sent the forms and declarations by courier to her hotel in Milan, with coloured tabs on every page needing a signature. The day before, the lawyer spent half an hour on video going through every page with her so nothing would need clarifying in Milan.

Oksana signed everything in the morning before the fair opened, over a coffee in the hotel lobby. The courier collected the package the same day. She had done the programme’s medical check before leaving, at a clinic in Moscow.

While the fair was still on, the application had already gone to the licensed agent in Port Vila.

A due diligence question about suppliers and sanctions

Two weeks after filing, due diligence asked one question. Oksana’s company trades with Asia: who are its main suppliers, and are the company, its owner or its partners on any sanctions lists?

The question is common for Russian entrepreneurs, and we had the answer ready. Before filing, the lawyer had checked the company and Oksana against public sanctions lists. The accountant exported a three-year supplier list with amounts. We attached contracts with the three largest factories in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia and customs declarations for the latest containers.

The reply went out three days later. There were no further questions.

The approval arrived as a container was unloaded

Oksana barely noticed the month of waiting. After Milan she was launching a new collection at the Kazan showroom and receiving two containers from Malaysia.

Once a week the lawyer sent her a three-line update: where the application is, what is done, whether anything is needed from her. Apart from the answer about suppliers, nothing was.

The approval letter arrived while a container of woven chairs was being unloaded at the warehouse outside Moscow. Oksana photographed the first box and sent it to the lawyer with a single word: finally.

The bank stopped the transfer to Vanuatu

After approval Oksana sent the donation from her account. The next day the bank called: the USD 130,000 transfer to Vanuatu was on hold pending clarification. The USD 5,000 due diligence fee had already been paid at filing.

For a bank that is an understandable reaction. A large amount, a country the client had never sent money to, and a recipient the bank knew nothing about.

The lawyer had warned Oksana about this and kept the documents ready. The approval letter, the licensed agent’s invoice with bank details and a short note about the programme went to the bank within the hour. A day later the transfer went through.

We now advise clients to visit their bank with the approval letter before making the transfer. That way the money is not held for a single day.

Biometrics in Hong Kong between two fair days

Biometrics remained. They are given in person in one of five cities: Port Vila, Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow or Saint Petersburg.

Moscow would have been simplest. But the lawyer noticed the autumn fair season in Hong Kong in Oksana’s calendar, a trip she was making anyway. Biometrics were scheduled there: Russian passport holders can enter Hong Kong visa-free, and four fair days fit within the 14 allowed.

On the morning of the second fair day Oksana gave her biometrics: passport check, fingerprints, photo, signature. It all took less than an hour. By lunchtime she was back in the lighting hall.

Under the plan the passport arrives by courier in Moscow 1-3 weeks after biometrics. All stages are covered in Vanuatu citizenship timeline.

What the applicant gets

Under this scenario Oksana has a Vanuatu passport 3-4 months after the first meeting. The outcome is described as expected: the decision rests with the Citizenship Commission.

Her Russian passport remains her main one: she lives and works on it, leaves and returns to Russia on it, and flies to Cebu and Milan on it. The Vanuatu passport will be her document for Singapore and Hong Kong.

To fly urgently to the Singapore warehouse, buying a ticket will be enough. If the forwarder calls on a Friday evening again, by Saturday she can be standing next to the container.

When the forwarder heard the news, he suggested inspecting large containers together, on site, before they ship to Russia. Before, Oksana could not promise such a schedule; now she can.

She will spend the whole spring fair season in Hong Kong on a single entry. No more leaving in the middle of the season to start a new stay.

She will notify the Interior Ministry of the second citizenship within 60 days; the notification is already prepared. The lawyer explained the two-passport rule separately: enter and leave each country on the same passport, and buy the ticket on that passport. She flies out of and back to Moscow on her Russian passport.

Now the Singapore warehouse and the Hong Kong fairs are as accessible to Oksana as the factory in Cebu.

Sofia MendesInvestment Programs Expert

Who this path suits

This story repeats for entrepreneurs who trade with Asia and visit suppliers themselves. They do not need to relocate; they need to be able to fly to a warehouse or factory on the day the business needs it.

A Vanuatu passport is especially useful when most trips are already open on your own passport, while one or two key hubs are blocked by a visa or a short stay limit.

Before starting, check two things: whether your country allows a second citizenship, and whether you can clearly show personal income separately from company turnover.

Similar stories: a couple on a catamaran and visas in Asia and a Vanuatu passport with four hours of personal time. Full programme terms are on the Vanuatu citizenship page.

Composite example: this story is based on typical enquiries; no real clients are described. Figures as of September 2026. The decision on citizenship is made by the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission.