Nigerians who hold second citizenship from Caribbean countries operating citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes may have been hit with a double whammy.
This follows the United States’ decision to impose partial
travel restrictions on several countries, including Antigua and Barbuda and
Dominica.
The two Caribbean nations, both popular among wealthy
Nigerians for offering CBI without long-term residency requirements, were added
to Washington’s updated list of countries facing partial entry restrictions on
Tuesday.
Nigeria was also named among the affected states.
This means some Nigerians could now face limitations
regardless of whether they travel on Nigerian or Caribbean passports.
The White House cited a CBI pattern as justification for
adding Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica to the list.
Nigeria made the cut owing to “screening and vetting
difficulties” and US visa overstay reports.
CBIs allow foreigners to acquire passports in exchange for
financial contributions.
To obtain a passport from Antigua and Barbuda, foreigners
need to make a non‑refundable contribution to the National Development
Fund (NDF) of at least $230,000, according to the country’s CBI unit.
The same minimum contribution applies to family
applications, making it one of the cheapest Caribbean routes to citizenship.
Investment options are also spread across real estate,
business contributions, and the University of the West Indies Fund (UWI).
Antigua and Barbuda citizens get visa-free access to 151
countries.
The same routes apply to obtaining a Dominican passport,
allowing investors to contribute to a government fund or participating in a
real estate project. These investments typically start at $200,000.
The Dominica passport allows holders to travel to 145
countries without a visa.
These passports have appealed to high-net-worth Nigerians seeking to ease international travel, otherwise constrained by the domestic passport, which offered visa-free access to just 45 countries as of March.
In 2023, the United Kingdom government announced a
suspension of the visa-waiver agreement for all Dominican nationals, including
to visit, citing an abuse of the passport acquisition process.
Later that year, the European Union (EU) said it would
review its visa-mechanism in countries that offered CIB schemes to nations with
a corruption perception and poor human rights records.
The EU raised concerns around the nationalities of the
highest applicants, saying they came from China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq,
Yemen, Nigeria, and Libya.
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