Vanuatu passports for a family: how the applicant’s mother joined the application

A family from Nizhny Novgorod and a mother left on her own

This is a composite example: the story is built from typical family enquiries, and no real client is described; the names are invented. Kirill is 38, Marina 36, their daughter Varya 4, Galina 63. All are Russian citizens.

Kirill supplies industrial equipment and has moved part of his contracts into a Dubai company. Marina works remotely in marketing. Their daughter started nursery in Dubai last year.

The move to Dubai took two years and happened in stages. First Kirill went for a week a month, then he rented an office, then a flat, then brought Marina and daughter over. Galina remained the last open question, and it was the one that pulled every family conversation towards itself.

Galina taught mathematics at school for twenty-eight years and is now retired. Since her husband died, her son has supported her financially and visited every month. She has almost no savings; the flat in Nizhny Novgorod is everything she owns.

Her son and Marina had been urging her to move in with them even before the passport story. She refused on two grounds: in Nizhny Novgorod there is her husband’s grave and her school friends, while in Dubai she knows nobody and speaks no English. They settled on a middle course: she spends winters with her son and returns home for the summer.

Kirill put his question precisely: not “get a passport” but “arrange things so mum is with us and does not depend on visa centres”.

He had read up on the options and arrived with two ideas: a long guest visa or UAE residence for a parent. The lawyer went through both and named their drawbacks: they need renewing, they depend on the son’s status, and each renewal means Galina gathering documents again. A second passport removes that dependency.

In stories like this the point is not the passport but that an older person stops assembling documents every time she wants to see her granddaughter.

Darya MelnikSenior Investment Programs Advisor

Who can be included in the application with you

A Vanuatu citizenship application covers a spouse, children and parents over 50. In some cases other relatives dependent on Kirill are included too.

The mother is 63, so she qualifies by age. Varya qualifies as well, but they decided to leave her out: she will acquire citizenship by descent later, and Kirill wanted to settle Galina’s case first.

Marina’s parents were not part of this application: they live their own life in Krasnodar, do not need passports yet, and the family decided not to include people who had not asked. The lawyer said they could be added later in a separate application and named the figure so the decision would not be made blind.

The donation is calculated from the total number of people in the application. Kirill, Marina and Galina make three, and for them the donation is USD 170,000 including the due diligence fee. The coconut oil fund costs 165,000 for a family of up to four, but it is paid at filing.

The family chose the donation: paying after approval meant not pulling money out of the company before the Commission decided. How the two programmes work is set out in donation or fund.

What documents the applicant’s mother needed

A parent needs few documents, but gathering them is harder for an older person than it sounds. A passport, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and her husband’s death certificate, a police certificate, a medical certificate, photographs to specification, proof of address.

The 1963 birth certificate turned out to be handwritten and issued in her maiden name. The lawyer asked the registry office for a modern reissue, and the chain of surnames was evidenced by documents: birth, marriage, the husband’s death.

While the reissued certificate was awaited, the lawyer asked the mother to check her travel passport’s expiry. It ran out in eight months, so it was replaced in advance: had it expired mid-application, the documents would have had to be redone with the new details.

They also gathered proof that the mother is dependent on her son: a pension statement, two years of monthly transfers from him and his letter confirming that he supports her.

The photographs for her forms had to be retaken. The first time the studio near her home used a blue background and a tilted head, whereas a white background and a straight gaze are required. The lawyer sent the studio a sheet of specifications, and the second attempt worked on the first shot.

Kirill ordered her police certificate online; the medical certificate came from her local clinic. All Russian documents were apostilled and translated into English by a certified translator.

Only the son went through due diligence

This was the point that removed half the family’s worry. Only the main applicant goes through due diligence, so Galina needed no interviews and no explanations about money.

The questions concerned the son’s business: contracts with two equipment suppliers, the move of part of the revenue into the Dubai company, a large payment from a client in Kazakhstan. The lawyer assembled contracts, delivery records, statements and a bank letter.

Due diligence also asked about an old USD 30,000 transfer from a partner in Turkey. The supply contract was found in his 2022 email, the delivery record and the payment order in the accounts. The lawyer sent them with a short covering letter in English, and no follow-up came.

One question touched the transfers to Galina. Due diligence asked what these regular payments to an individual were. The answer was simple: the son supports Galina, and the same evidence had already been filed as proof of dependency.

Approval for all three came a month later.

While due diligence ran, the family got on with life: Kirill flew to a trade fair in Dusseldorf, Marina took their daughter Varya to nursery, Galina went to stay with a friend at her dacha. The lawyer sent short weekly messages even when there was no news - in applications like this, silence worries people more than questions do.

How biometrics were arranged without a long trip

Biometrics are given in person, at one of the centres: Port Vila, Dubai, Hong Kong, Moscow, Saint Petersburg. For this family it was a separate question: after knee surgery the mother does not travel well on long flights.

They chose Saint Petersburg. Kirill flew in from Dubai with Marina, and Galina came by train from Nizhny Novgorod in the same compartment as her son. The whole procedure took half an hour.

The officer spoke slowly and demonstrated each step: place your fingers, look at the camera, sign. Afterwards the mother said the passport office in the nineties had been harder.

Before the trip the lawyer sent the family a note: what time to arrive, which documents to bring, which of them must be originals, and how the appointment itself runs. The mother printed it and took it along, though by her own account she never looked at it.

The passports arrived two weeks after biometrics. All three notified the Russian Interior Ministry about their Vanuatu citizenship: the deadline is 60 days, or 30 days after returning if the citizenship was acquired abroad. They kept their Russian citizenship: Russia allows a second one.

What the passport changed for the applicant’s mother

The main change is practical. Vanuatu citizens enter the Emirates without a visa, so her trips to her son no longer start at a visa centre with income statements.

A Vanuatu passport does not give the right to live in the Emirates permanently: a long stay requires local status, which is a separate route her son is arranging through his company. For now she comes for a few months a year.

A second passport does not affect her Russian pension: the pension is granted and paid under Russian law, and Vanuatu citizenship has no bearing on it.

The family discussed the medical side in advance too. Health insurance in the Emirates is arranged separately, and for an older person it is priced individually. The lawyer asked a broker to prepare a quote before her first long stay.

Money came up as well. They did not open a separate Emirates bank account for her: her travel costs go on her son’s card and her Russian pension arrives in her old account. The lawyer explained that a second passport does not by itself open a bank account and that every country and every bank decides this by its own rules.

How it ended for the family

In this scenario the Vanuatu Commission approved all three and the passports were issued. In a real application the decision and the timing rest with the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission.

The lawyer also asked for three copies of every passport, kept in different places: one with the mother, one with her son, one in an email. Older people do not lose documents more often than anyone else, but replacing them is harder, so it is better to have the copies already to hand.

The mother did not sell the flat in Nizhny Novgorod: she returns there in summer when Dubai is too hot, and her doctors are there.

Varya will acquire Vanuatu citizenship separately, by descent from Vanuatu citizens, once her parents gather the documents. The fees for that are lower than adding a person to an application.

The mother spent her first full winter in Dubai: three months instead of the usual three weeks. Her granddaughter taught her to video-call her friends in Nizhny Novgorod, and her son rented her a flat in the same building - neither side wanted to live together around the clock, and that is part of the story too.

In the autumn the mother flew to Dubai for the first time without a visa centre, met at the airport with her granddaughter in her arms. According to her son, that was the moment the whole story made sense.

In a year the family plan to apply for long-stay status in the Emirates, and they will bring ready passports with them.

Parents over 50 join the application. The donation is counted by the total number of people, and only the main applicant goes through due diligence.

Darya MelnikSenior Investment Programs Advisor

Who this route suits

Anyone moving abroad who does not want to leave their parents at a visa desk: parents over 50 join the application alongside a spouse and children.

Anyone counting the money: the donation rises by the number of people in the application, so a family of three pays less than three separate applicants.

Anyone whose older relatives travel badly: biometrics can be given in Moscow or Saint Petersburg, not only in Port Vila.

Similar stories: citizenship for a child born after the passports and a family of four. Programme terms are on the Vanuatu citizenship page.

Composite example: the story is built from typical enquiries and no real clients are described. Figures as of September 2026. The decision rests with the Vanuatu Citizenship Commission.