BRUSSELS, CMC – The European Commission has adopted its eighth report under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, covering developments in visa policy alignment, migration, security, and citizenship across several countries, including those in the Eastern Caribbean that operate citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes.
The report includes specific recommendations for each country.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis are the Eastern Caribbean countries with CBI programs that grant foreign investors citizenship of these islands in return for making a substantial investment in their socio-economic development.
In its report, the EU notes that investor citizenship schemes operated by visa-free countries pose “security risks, as they may allow third-country nationals who would normally require a visa to bypass standard checks and obtain Schengen access through purchased citizenship”.
It said that schemes in the five Eastern Caribbean states “continue to raise concerns due to high volumes, short processing times and low rejection rates, despite some steps taken to strengthen due diligence and information-sharing”.
The Commission acknowledged that all five countries run distinct investor citizenship schemes, which generally involve foreign nationals making direct contributions to the state budget or investing in significant infrastructure, utility, or real estate projects in exchange for citizenship.
It said that in August this year, the five Caribbean countries jointly notified the Commission of the establishment of a regional regulator for the operation of investor citizenship schemes.
“The five Caribbean countries described the key provisions of the legislation as follows: funding of the schemes regulator, enforcement mechanisms for compliance, collection of biometrics of new applicants, residency requirement for approved applicants, and financial support for CARICOM JRCC.”
The Commission said that since the publication of the Seventh VSM Report, the total number of applications for investor citizenship schemes across the five countries has remained substantial, with 10,573 foreign nationals benefitting last year.
It said that in St. Kitts and Nevis, the volume of applications went from 1,987 in 2023 to 223 in 2024, and in Grenada, from 2,297 to 420. Application numbers remained
Relatively stable in Dominica and St. Lucia, while Antigua and Barbuda recorded a notable increase, from 685 in 2023 to 1,733 last year.
“To date, an estimated 107,625 passports have been issued across the five Eastern Caribbean investor citizenship schemes operating in the countries. At the same time, in 2024 rejection rates remained low: 1.7 per cent in Antigua and Barbuda, 5.3 per cent in St. Lucia, and 6.5 per cent in Dominica.
“These figures, considered alongside the short statutory processing times, raise concerns about the adequacy of the security and due diligence procedures applied,” the Commission said.
It said that last year, among the four Eastern Caribbean countries that reported data on the main nationalities of successful applicants, namely St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda, the majority of applicants continued to originate from countries that are subject to visa requirements for entry into the EU.
“Notably, successful applicants included 531 nationals of Syria, 365 of Iraq, and 333 of China,” the Commission said, noting that in Grenada, which also reported partial data, the leading applicant nationalities in 2024 were China (96 applicants) and Nigeria (82 applicants).
The Commission says it will continue monitoring the fulfilment of the visa liberalisation requirements and recommendations by partner countries and will continue to report to the European Parliament and the Council once a year.
The EU currently has a visa-free regime with 64 non-EU countries and territories. Under this visa-free regime, non-EU citizens can enter the Schengen area for 90 days, within 180 days, without a visa.
In June 2025, the European Council and the Parliament agreed on a stronger, more flexible visa suspension mechanism following a Commission proposal.
“This will allow the EU to better address challenges linked to visa-free schemes, with new grounds to suspend visa-free regimes, lower thresholds to trigger the suspension mechanism, as well as a swifter and more flexible procedure. The revised suspension mechanism will enter into force on 30 December 2025,” it added.
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