Vanuatu Citizenship for an Entrepreneur from Beirut: What the Passport Changed at Banks and What It Did Not

Beirut, Moscow and Dubai

This is a composite example: the story is built from typical enquiries from entrepreneurs, and no real client is described; the names are invented. Karim is 51 and a Lebanese citizen. In the nineties he graduated from a medical institute in Moscow, then returned to Beirut and founded a medical equipment supply company.

The business grew: the company now works with clinics in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and several African countries. Since 2021 Karim and his family have lived in Dubai, where he holds a residence visa and runs a second company.

In 2019 a banking crisis began in Lebanon. Dollar deposits were frozen and can be withdrawn only in small amounts at an unfavourable rate. Most of the family’s savings remained there.

Karim had money. What he did not have was a bank willing to work with him.

Anna KovalevskayaHead of Legal

Refusals before a bank opened his documents

Over two years Karim applied to five banks in different countries. Three refused right after the application form; two requested documents and then refused too.

One refusal Karim remembered especially well. A bank manager in Hong Kong began a video call warmly, asked about the business and plans, then asked to see his passport. A minute later the conversation was politely ended, and a week later a letter arrived: the bank would not be able to open an account.

He was sure it was about his passport. That was partly true: Lebanon has been on the FATF grey list since October 2024, and many banks treat clients from such countries as high risk. But the lawyer asked to see the refusal letters and the documents Karim had sent to the banks.

The picture was wider. His applications contained only one proof of funds: a statement from a Lebanese bank showing a frozen deposit. Nothing documented how that wealth had been built over twenty years.

A passport together with a source-of-funds package

The lawyer stated the key point at once. Banks ask for all of a client’s citizenships, and the Lebanese one will stay on the form. A Vanuatu passport will not make Karim a client without a past.

What the passport will give: a second travel document, visa-free entry to Hong Kong and Singapore, where Karim visits suppliers, and a backup if problems arise with his Lebanese passport. Opening an account will depend on something else: a complete source-of-funds package, assembled the way it is assembled for programme due diligence.

Karim was silent for a moment and said that for the first time someone had explained the reason for the refusals. We agreed to do both at once: the citizenship application and a package that would later go to banks.

Lebanon allows dual citizenship, so Karim keeps his Lebanese passport.

They decided to apply for Karim alone. His spouse has long had accounts in Dubai, and their daughter studies in Moscow, at the same institute her father once graduated from. The family can be added to citizenship later with a separate application.

How we rebuilt the wealth history without Lebanese statements

The hardest part was showing money that is partly frozen. The Lebanese bank issued statements reluctantly and with delays, and for the years before the crisis part of the history could not be obtained at all.

We started with the business. The Lebanese company’s accountant gathered ten years of audited accounts. She had to work in the evenings: power cuts are frequent in Beirut, and the office archive was scanned while the generator was running. Karim found contracts with the largest clinics and customs declarations for shipments. Our representative in Beirut ordered tax certificates from Lebanon.

The Lebanese tax certificates arrived after six weeks. Our representative in Beirut went to the tax office twice: the first certificate had the wrong company registration year and had to be reissued.

Missing statements were replaced by a letter from the Lebanese bank stating the amount of the frozen deposit and how it had been built up. The bank issued the letter after five weeks and three reminders.

Karim planned to pay the donation from the Dubai company’s funds. A separate set was prepared for it: three years of accounts, dividend decisions and statements from a UAE bank.

The donation: paid only after approval

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.

After the frozen deposits, Karim did not want to hand over money in advance. The donation is paid only after approval, the fund before the Commission decides. The choice was obvious. How the two programmes compare is covered in donation or fund.

Due diligence asked two questions

Applicants from higher-risk countries are checked more closely. We knew this and attached explanations in advance: about the crisis in Lebanon, the frozen deposit and why the statements are incomplete.

Due diligence asked two questions. First: who are the end buyers of the equipment in Iraq? The lawyer sent contracts with three public and private clinics and letters confirming their licences. Second: where did the money for a flat in Dubai in 2022 come from? The answer was in the Dubai company’s statements: two years of dividends.

The Iraq question took some work. One of the clinics in Erbil had changed its name over the years, and older contracts used the old one. The accountant found the clinic’s letter about the name change, and the lawyer attached an extract from the local register. Three contracts from different years thus became the history of work with one and the same buyer.

The answers went out within a week. A month later the approval letter arrived. How due diligence works is covered in applicant due diligence.

Biometrics twenty minutes from the office

After approval Karim paid the donation from the Dubai company’s account. The USD 5,000 due diligence fee had been paid at filing, leaving 130,000. The company’s bank asked for the approval letter and the agent’s invoice and made the payment two days later.

Biometrics are given in person in one of five cities: Port Vila, Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow or Saint Petersburg. Karim lives in Dubai, so the lawyer booked him for a Tuesday morning before client meetings. It took less than an hour.

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

The first bank refused again; the second opened an account

On receiving the passport, Karim immediately applied to the bank in Singapore that had refused him two years earlier. With the Vanuatu passport and the new package.

The refusal came ten days later in a short letter with no reasons given. Karim forwarded it to the lawyer late in the evening with one question: was it all for nothing?

The bank refused again, and the lawyer did not hide that this could happen. The Singapore bank has its own policy on clients with Lebanese citizenship, and a second passport does not change it.

The second application went to a bank in Dubai, where Karim has been resident for five years. The bank received the same package: twenty years of wealth history, audited accounts, the Lebanese bank’s letter, the Dubai company’s documents and the Vanuatu passport. The bank manager asked a few questions about shipments to Iraq, and the answers were already in the folder.

The meeting at the Dubai bank lasted almost an hour. The manager leafed through the folder and checked figures in the accounts against the statements. At the page with the Lebanese bank’s letter he stopped and asked whether Karim hoped to recover the deposit. Karim replied that he was not counting on that money and was planning without it. The manager nodded and made a note.

Three weeks later the account was opened. For Karim it was his first new personal account in five years.

What the applicant gets

In this scenario the Commission approved the application, and the Vanuatu passport arrives 3-4 months after the first meeting. In a real application the decision and timelines depend on the Citizenship Commission, and each bank decides on accounts itself.

He keeps his Lebanese citizenship. He enters Lebanon on his Lebanese passport and can fly to suppliers in Hong Kong and Singapore on his Vanuatu passport.

Karim’s daughter, who studies in Moscow, asked her father whether she would ever need such a package. The lawyer replied that if she joins the citizenship, her father’s documents will already be ready and will not need gathering again.

The wealth package is now kept by Karim in two copies: on paper and in a secure folder. When in spring he decided to open an account for the Dubai company at the same bank, preparation took one day.

The frozen deposit in Lebanon remains frozen. But now it is one clear line in a document package.

A second passport gives freedom to travel. A bank account needs documents that explain the money.

Anna KovalevskayaHead of Legal

Who this path suits

This story repeats for entrepreneurs from countries that have gone through banking crises or have currency restrictions. Their money is lawful, but its history is hard to show with ordinary statements.

If banks refuse you, look first at the documents you sent them. Contracts, audited accounts, customs declarations and bank letters often replace unavailable statements.

A Vanuatu passport is useful for travel and as a backup document. It does not hide a first citizenship and does not guarantee a bank account: each bank decides under its own policy.

Similar stories: a family wealth manager and banks in Asia and crypto wealth and due diligence. 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.