St. Lucia

St Lucia is an independent Commonwealth State, having gained independence from the UK on 22 February 1979, a day celebrated each year with a public holiday.

The country is located in the Eastern Caribbean and has a beautiful mountain terrain, including Mount Gimie and the Pitons, which are the island’s most famous landmarks.

St Lucia is a United Nations, OECS, and CARICOM member. The regional currency is the East Caribbean Dollar (XCD), which is pegged to the US Dollar.

An educated workforce and improvements in roads, communications, water supply, sewerage and port facilities have attracted significant foreign investment in the tourism and offshore banking industries. Tourism remains the country’s main source of jobs and income and accounts for 65% of the GDP.

The St Lucia Citizenship-by-Investment Programme requires an applicant to make a significant financial investment into the country in return for citizenship for the applicant and his/her family.

To qualify for citizenship, the main applicant must be over 18 years of age, meet the due diligence requirements and select one of the following four options:

• A non-refundable donation to the National Economic Fund starting from USD 100,000
• Purchase of non-interest bearing Government Bonds from USD 250,000
• Purchase of qualifying real-estate of a least USD 300,000 in a Government approved project
• An investment in an approved enterprise project for a minimum amount of USD 3.5 million and the creation of no less than three permanent jobs

The National Economic Fund (NEF) is a special fund established under Section 33 of the Citizenship-by-Investment Act for the sole purpose of receiving contributions for funding government sponsored projects.

The primary applicant may include his or her spouse, children under 21 and adult children between 21 and 30 years of age who are fully supported by the applicant. In addition, parents or grandparents may be included who are above 55 years of age and living with, and fully supported by the primary applicant.

Applicants could also choose to purchase real estate with a minimum value of USD 200,000 from an approved real estate project. The real estate cannot be disposed of within a seven-year period or before the proposed real estate project has been substantially completed.

The Government has announced a COVID-19 Relief Bond option that is available until December 31, 2020. The cost for a family up to four is USD 250,000. However, a single applicant is required to hold the bond for five years, a married couple for six years and a family of four is seven years. This hold period can be reduced for a family up to four to only five years if they purchase USD 300,000 of bonds. There is also a non-refundable administrative fee of USD 30,000. Regular due diligence and passport fees also apply.

The process will take three to four months from submission of  the application to issuance of the passport, assuming the application has no areas of concern.