Two tracks. One passport.

DSP: $130,000 non-refundable government donation. CIIP: $160,000 base investment ($110,000 government contribution + $50,000 redeemable Cocoa Sustainable Fund), with effective net cost of approximately $124,000 after four-year fund redemption (advisory fee, due diligence, and processing fees included). Additional per-person fees apply for family members. 21 CBI advisory fee: five percent of the government contribution, flat. Use the calculator on the pricing page for an exact figure based on your family size and pathway.

Yes. 21 CBI is a Bitcoin-native advisory firm. BTC, Lightning, and USDT are our payment rails for the advisory fee; credit cards and bank transfers also accepted as needed. Government contributions are processed through our licensed Vanuatu agent with full transparency on conversion. Indicate your preference for Bitcoin payment, and we provide a payment address and rate confirmation in advance of settlement.

$130,000 is the Vanuatu government contribution under the DSP (Development Support Programme) for a single applicant; the CIIP pathway starts at $110,000 and includes a $50,000 Cocoa Sustainable Fund stake. Both pathways close in thirty to sixty days from filing, accept BTC, Lightning, and USDT as payment rails (credit cards and bank transfers also accepted as needed), and route through a single screening authority (the VFIU). The 21 CBI advisory fee is a flat $6,500 on the DSP and $5,500 on the CIIP, calculated on the government contribution only and disclosed before you commit. In the 21 CBI slate, Vanuatu sits between São Tomé ($90,000, also Bitcoin-payable, longer six to eight week processing) and Türkiye ($400,000 real-estate investment with the E-2 treaty pathway). We will not file you into the wrong program to win the engagement.

DSP (Development Support Programme) is the donation pathway: $130,000, no ongoing commitment, thirty to sixty day processing. CIIP (Capital Investment Immigration Plan) is the investment pathway: $110,000 program fee + $50,000 redeemable Cocoa Sustainable Fund subscription, recoverable after four years with projected four to five percent annual returns. Projected returns are estimates and are not guaranteed. Same thirty to sixty day processing. Choose DSP for speed and finality. Choose CIIP for cost recovery over a four-year horizon.

Thirty to sixty days from filing to passport in hand. Filing itself is preceded by two to four weeks of document preparation, so plan roughly six to eleven weeks from initial engagement to passport. Filing-to-passport: two to four weeks for due diligence, one to two weeks for approval and payment, approximately one week for citizenship issuance and passport delivery.

No, unless you want to. One in-person biometric appointment is mandatory under the ICAO e-passport standard introduced May 2025; Dubai, Hong Kong, Nouméa (New Caledonia), or Port Vila are the four accredited enrolment centers. Pick any of the three overseas options and no Vanuatu travel is needed. Document submission, Oath of Allegiance, and passport delivery are handled remotely.

Yes. Spouse included in the family rate. Dependent children (typically up to age 25; full-time education until 26) and aging parents (50+) added at per-person rates. Post-approval additions: $19,250 per person on the DSP, or $14,000 per person on the CIIP.

Yes. Vanuatu permits dual citizenship. Obtaining Vanuatu citizenship does not require you to renounce your current nationality.

Passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable), police clearance, medical certificate, proof of funds, twelve months of bank statements, source-of-funds narrative, professional references, biometric data, and application forms. 21 CBI provides a complete checklist and guides you through collection. Bitcoin-funded files include on-chain source-of-funds documentation as part of the package.

At $130,000, Vanuatu is the second-lowest entry point in the 21 CBI slate (São Tomé starts at $90,000), the fastest file at thirty to sixty days from filing, and the only program in the slate that pairs Asia-Pacific visa-free reach with a fully Bitcoin-payable workflow. For Bitcoiners: zero income tax, zero capital gains, zero inheritance, zero wealth tax, and a ten-year hereditary Commonwealth passport. The trade-off is real and surfaced on this page: Schengen and UK visa-free access were revoked in December 2024, and visa-free reach is 87 destinations versus approximately 131 for El Salvador and 113 for Türkiye.

Yes. Vanuatu's International Business Company framework is designed for non-resident business owners. Establish a Vanuatu IBC for global operations with zero corporate tax on foreign-source income. Banking, company registration, and international operations are all supported. The IBC has been in force since 1993, supervised by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission.

Yes. Parents (50+) and grandparents (65+) are eligible at $19,250 per person on the DSP, or $14,000 per person on the CIIP. Same due-diligence standard as primary applicants. Citizenship granted simultaneously.

Nationals of Afghanistan are not eligible. Applicants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, or Yemen may qualify only if they have resided outside those jurisdictions for five or more continuous years. Applicants with unresolved criminal convictions, visa fraud, or sanctions designations are also ineligible. Book a confidential session for a candid review of your specific situation.

Vanuatu is the right choice if you prioritize speed (thirty to sixty days from filing), cost efficiency ($130,000 single-applicant on the DSP, $169,500 for a couple), zero-tax architecture, Asia-Pacific mobility, and Commonwealth membership. The file processes remotely; one in-person biometric appointment is required in Dubai, Hong Kong, Nouméa, or Port Vila, with no other Vanuatu visit needed. Vanuatu is less ideal if you require automatic EU access or the largest visa-free reach. We walk you through the trade-offs against your specific goals during your strategy call.

Vanuatu's Financial Intelligence Unit accepts exchange purchase records, custody statements from regulated providers, transaction-by-transaction wallet history, and on-chain proofs as the source-of-funds package. The standard is a coherent audit trail from purchase or earnings event to your current address. Exchange-to-self-custody withdrawals are documented in two halves: the exchange's CSV plus a signed-message proof that you control the destination wallet. Mining rewards, payment for services, and pre-coinbase historical purchases all qualify with the right documentation. Mixers, privacy-coin conversions, and unexplained on-chain jumps are flags. The VFIU's posture is rigorous, not adversarial; it wants the on-chain story told completely, not collapsed into a one-line summary.

Three independent screens run in parallel. First, the Vanuatu Financial Intelligence Unit reviews the source-of-funds package, criminal-record certificates, and AML/CTF compliance against the file you submit. Second, an INTERPOL coordination check runs your name and identifiers through the global police database for outstanding notices. Third, an independent UK background verification produces a compliance report against UK sanctions, adverse-media, and PEP databases. All three reports must clear before the citizenship is granted. The whole process typically completes in approximately one week from a clean file; complex source-of-funds histories add days, not months. The reports do not become public.

Vanuatu's Development Support Programme is direct citizenship, not residency followed by citizenship, so the answer is no in the program track. Separate from CBI, Vanuatu offers tourist and investor visas that allow physical presence on the islands; those run on a different framework and do not count toward the citizenship process. Most 21 CBI clients never set foot on Vanuatu before or after citizenship; the program is structured to be fully remote. If a residency-first pathway matters to you for tax-residency reasons, Argentina's rentista or São Tomé's CPLP route to Portuguese residency are the right tools.

Choose Vanuatu if speed is the priority (thirty to sixty days versus six to eight weeks), you want a zero-income-tax jurisdiction across every category, and CRS reporting is not a structural concern for your tax situation. Choose São Tomé if Non-CRS posture is the priority, your budget is under $150,000 all-in, and you value a long-horizon CPLP route to Portuguese residency for your family. Both programs are Bitcoin-payable with the same 21 CBI five-percent advisory structure; both grant permanent, hereditary citizenship; both run fully remote. Many clients file both eventually because the trade-offs do not overlap.

Vanuatu has zero direct taxes: zero personal income tax, zero capital gains tax, zero inheritance tax, zero wealth tax, zero corporate income tax. Indirect taxes apply (fifteen-percent VAT, import duties, property-related fees, stamp duty) as a normal cost of operating in the jurisdiction. Vanuatu citizenship does not eliminate tax obligations in your country of origin (US citizens remain subject to FATCA; UK residents remain subject to worldwide income tax). It enables legitimate tax-efficient planning through genuine relocation and non-resident income structuring. Consult a qualified tax advisor regarding your specific situation.

Vanuatu is a CRS participant and an OECD Global Forum member. International banks recognize Vanuatu as a legitimate jurisdiction. Banking in Vanuatu as a non-resident requires documentation and varies by bank. Most applicants use Vanuatu citizenship for residency and business structure while banking in traditional offshore or home-country institutions.

Vanuatu citizens open accounts at international banks the same way any other foreign national does: passport, proof of address, source of funds, and tax-residency declaration. Some banks have internal policies that flag any CBI passport for enhanced due diligence; that is industry-wide rather than Vanuatu-specific. The banks most likely to work cleanly with Vanuatu nationals are Asia-Pacific institutions (Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai-region) where the passport's regional footprint aligns with the bank's risk appetite. EU and US bank access is harder and typically routes through a Vanuatu-resident corporate structure rather than a personal account. We share an internal banking-options document with active clients during the process; the landscape shifts quarterly.

Vanuatu participates in the OECD Common Reporting Standard, meaning Vanuatu financial institutions automatically share account-holder data with your country of tax residence. The implications depend on your specific situation: if you are tax-resident in a CRS-participating country (most of the EU, UK, Canada, Australia), your Vanuatu account information flows back through the multilateral pipeline. CRS participation does not affect the validity, mobility, or sovereign standing of the Vanuatu passport; only the financial-reporting posture. Self-custodied Bitcoin sits outside the CRS perimeter entirely. Many Vanuatu clients pair the passport with banking in a Non-CRS jurisdiction (São Tomé, El Salvador) to manage reporting exposure. We walk through your specific situation during the strategy call.

Vanuatu is a fully sovereign UN member, Commonwealth nation, and IMF participant. The passport is recognized internationally for travel, business, banking, and residency applications. Ranked approximately #52 globally for visa-free access with 87 destinations.

Your Vanuatu passport reaches eighty-seven destinations visa-free or visa-on-arrival, weighted toward Asia-Pacific. EU and Schengen travel now requires a standard Schengen visa (fifteen to sixty days standard processing; ninety days within any 180-day period). For frequent EU access, São Tomé's CPLP pathway to Portuguese citizenship is the only EU route in our slate. For speed, cost, and tax neutrality as priorities, Vanuatu remains the cleanest option in its class.

The passport is valid for ten years from issuance; the citizenship itself does not expire. Renewal is processed in-country (Port Vila) or through Vanuatu diplomatic missions, typically at a cost of $50–$150 USD. We guide you through renewal as it approaches.

Schengen access requires a standard short-stay visa application at any EU member-state consulate, processed in approximately fifteen calendar days under the standard track. The United Kingdom requires a UK Standard Visitor visa or, when fully rolled out, the UK Electronic Travel Authorisation. The remaining eighty-seven visa-free destinations are unaffected: Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Pacific Islands Forum bloc, and a working African and Asian footprint. For Bitcoiners whose primary travel pattern is Asia-Pacific plus the Americas with occasional EU trips, the post-revocation reality is closer to "extra paperwork twice a year" than "lost market access." For Bitcoiners whose travel pattern is primarily EU-resident, Türkiye's E-2 framework or São Tomé's CPLP route to a Portuguese passport are better fits.