vanuatu passport cost
Vanuatu passport cost: the official fee table, and what it no longer buys
Vanuatu is one of the few programmes that publishes its prices plainly: 130,000 US dollars for a single applicant, 150,000 for a married couple, 180,000 for a couple with two children, plus a 5,000 dollar financial intelligence due diligence fee. The harder question is what the passport does. Visa-free access to the Schengen area was fully suspended in February 2023 and then permanently removed by regulation, which changes the case for buying one substantially.
The official fee table, which is public
Unusually for this market, Vanuatu publishes its government-mandated fees directly. For the standard route the citizenship fee is 130,000 US dollars for a single applicant, 150,000 for a married couple, 165,000 for a married couple with one child, and 180,000 for a married couple with two children. Each additional applicant is 10,000 dollars. A Financial Intelligence Unit due diligence fee of 5,000 dollars applies.
The payment structure matters as much as the totals. There are two separate charges: an application fee of 5,000 vatu per application, paid when the application is lodged and payable for every applicant regardless of age, and the citizenship fee above, which is paid only after the Commission has approved the application. So the sum at risk before any decision is small, which is the opposite of programmes charging six figures up front.
A separate route, Form D, is priced differently: an application fee of 250 US dollars and a citizenship fee of 260,000 dollars covering the applicant, spouse and one child under 18. Additional children under 18 cost 19,250 dollars each, and a dependant aged 18 to 21 costs 44,250 dollars. Confirm which form your application falls under before comparing any advisor quote, because the two structures are not interchangeable.
What the price no longer buys
Vanuatu was marketed for years on visa-free access to the Schengen area. That access is gone, and it is worth being precise about how thoroughly, because a great deal of promotional material has not been updated.
The European Union partially suspended the visa waiver in 2022, then suspended it in full from 4 February 2023, saying Vanuatu had failed to engage meaningfully and that the circumstances prompting the suspension persisted. The EU's stated concern was that investor citizenship schemes circumvent the Union's short-stay visa procedure and its assessment of security and migratory risk. In December 2024 the European Parliament and Council went further and adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/11, which amends Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 by moving Vanuatu from Part 1 of Annex II to Part 1 of Annex I.
That transfer is the substantive point. Annex II is the visa-free list and Annex I is the visa-required list, so this is not a suspension that lapses on a timetable. It is a permanent reintroduction of the visa requirement that would take a fresh legislative act to undo. Vanuatu's own Department of Immigration and Passport Services has published the suspension notice, so this is not disputed.
The honest case for Vanuatu after that
The programme did not stop working; the thing most buyers were told they were buying stopped working. Those are different claims and it is worth separating them.
What remains genuine: the pricing is low against Caribbean donation routes, the family increments are modest, the fee schedule is published rather than negotiated, and most of the money is only payable after approval. For an applicant whose actual need is a second nationality as a document of last resort, or travel across parts of Asia and the Pacific, that is a real product at a real price.
What does not survive: buying Vanuatu for European mobility. If Schengen access is your reason, this programme cannot deliver it and no advisor can restore it. The other consideration is reputational, and it compounds. A passport whose visa waiver was withdrawn by the EU on security grounds tends to attract additional scrutiny at account opening, and banking acceptance is harder to research than a visa-free count because no one publishes it.
The costs that sit outside the government table
The published fees are the government's, not your total. Applications must go through a designated agent, and agent and legal fees are commercially negotiated rather than published. Around those sit document legalisation and apostilles, certified translations, police certificates, courier costs, bank transfer charges, passport issuance, and any enhanced due diligence triggered by your profile or source of funds.
Ask for a quote that lists the government fees at their published amounts and states the professional fees separately. Any quote that presents a single bundled number is hiding which part is fixed by the state and which part is the advisor's margin, and the government figures above let you check that arithmetic yourself.
One practical caution the Vanuatu government itself publishes: fake sites impersonating the official programme are common, and it advises checking that official Vanuatu government domains end in .gov.vu. Verify the fee schedule at source before paying anyone, and treat a materially different figure from an agent as a reason to stop rather than negotiate.
Common questions
How much does a Vanuatu passport cost?
The Vanuatu Citizenship Office publishes a citizenship fee of 130,000 US dollars for a single applicant, 150,000 for a married couple, 165,000 for a couple with one child, and 180,000 for a couple with two children, with each additional applicant at 10,000 dollars. A 5,000 dollar Financial Intelligence Unit due diligence fee applies. Agent, legal, translation and document costs are separate and are not published.
When do you pay for Vanuatu citizenship?
In two stages, which is one of the programme's genuine advantages. An application fee of 5,000 vatu per application is payable when the application is lodged, for every applicant regardless of age. The much larger citizenship fee is payable only after the Citizenship Commission has approved the application, so the amount at risk before a decision is small compared with programmes that require six figures up front.
Does a Vanuatu passport still give visa-free access to Europe?
No. The EU fully suspended the visa waiver from 4 February 2023, and in December 2024 adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/11, which moved Vanuatu from Annex II to Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806. Annex I is the visa-required list, so this is a permanent reintroduction of the visa requirement rather than a suspension that expires. Any marketing still promising Schengen access on a Vanuatu passport is out of date.
Why did the EU remove Vanuatu's visa-free access?
The EU's published reasoning was that Vanuatu's investor citizenship schemes constitute a circumvention of the Union's short-stay visa procedure and of the security and migratory risk assessment that procedure performs, creating increased risk to member states' internal security and public policy. It began with a partial suspension in 2022, moved to full suspension after Vanuatu did not engage meaningfully during an enhanced dialogue, and ended in permanent transfer to the visa-required annex.
Is Vanuatu still the cheapest citizenship by investment?
For a single applicant it remains among the lowest published headline figures, and its family increments are modest compared with several Caribbean routes. But cheapest and best value are different questions once the passport's utility has changed. Price a programme against what you actually need it to do, and if that need involves European travel, Vanuatu's low cost is not relevant to it.
How fast is Vanuatu citizenship by investment?
Vanuatu has long been marketed as one of the faster routes, and the two-stage fee structure supports a relatively quick process. Actual timing still depends on the completeness of your documents, the depth of due diligence your profile triggers, source-of-funds review, and how your designated agent handles the file. Treat any specific week count in marketing material as a target rather than a commitment.
Official sources to verify
- Fees and ChargesVanuatu Citizenship Office
- Department of Immigration and Passport ServicesVanuatu Department of Immigration and Passport Services
- Regulation (EU) 2025/11 amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 as regards VanuatuEuropean Parliament and Council of the European Union (EUR-Lex)
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