St Kitts PM says CBI may be a blacklisting parameter, no list named

Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew said at his most recent Roundtable that he is “picking up” that having a citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programme “can be one of the parameters to blacklist a country”, the government’s information service reported on 6 November 2026.

The item says that possibility warrants greater attention than the risk to visa-free travel. It names no list and gives no decision or deadline.

What the Prime Minister said

The St Kitts and Nevis Information Service published the remarks on 6 November under a dateline of 5 November. They came from that Roundtable, where he answered questions from the media.

He said he had received information suggesting that operating a CBI programme could be considered in decisions about financial blacklisting, and that such a blacklisting would be “even worse than the visa”.

Asked how the country would respond, he said the government is still gathering information: “A statement will go out once we gather it.”

He said the decision on how to respond would be guided by what best protects the Federation’s interests. He also said that, “whatever the decision is”, Saint Kitts and Nevis “is already on a path to live without CBI”, and that the government has worked since 2022 to reduce its dependence on CBI revenue.

What the item does not say

• No list is named, so which list or body the Prime Minister means is not stated.
• The item gives no decision, deadline or figure, and cites no letter or regulation for the blacklisting point.
• The item does not say the programme is suspended or will close, and beyond the visa-suspension rules it describes, it does not set out what the “European concerns” are.

The item keeps two things apart: the published visa-suspension rules of the European Union (EU), which it says “govern travel access”, and the financial point, which rests on information the Prime Minister said he had received.

What EU texts say

Regulation (EU) 2025/2441, in force since 30 December 2025, sets out the grounds on which the EU may act to suspend a third country’s exemption from the visa requirement.

One ground, in Article 8a(1)(e), is the operation by a third country listed in Annex II of an investor citizenship scheme under which citizenship is granted in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments, without a genuine link to that country. Saint Kitts and Nevis is on the Annex II list in Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 as consolidated to 30 December 2025.

The 2025 regulation deals with exemption from the visa requirement. Its recitals name money laundering and corruption among the security risks of such schemes, and its text contains no financial list.

Of the EU texts read here, the Commission’s report of 23 January 2019 on investor schemes (COM(2019) 12 final) is the only one that uses the words “high risk” about these schemes. It also says the implementation of such schemes will be taken into account when assessing third countries for a visa-free regime.

On money laundering, the report says the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive designates as high risk, and requires enhanced customer due diligence for, third-country nationals who apply for residence rights or citizenship in a Member State in exchange for capital transfers, the purchase of property or government bonds, or investment in corporate entities in that Member State.

What Antigua and Barbuda has said

Antigua and Barbuda’s government said on 7 July 2026 that a Commission letter of 25 June 2026 asked it to close its programme by 1 June 2028, and that Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia received similar correspondence (earlier article).

Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, said on 31 October, as Antigua News Room reported, that the senders of that letter “wanted a commitment by November 12th” (earlier article). The date is Antigua and Barbuda’s account and is not attributed to Saint Kitts and Nevis in anything read.

What it means for a Vietnamese investor or family

• The item reports no change to the programme, for a Vietnamese applicant as for any other.
• On 8 November the Citizenship Unit’s contribution page listed a minimum contribution of US$250,000 for a main applicant or a family of up to four, with due-diligence fees charged separately.
• The six Citizenship Unit pages read that day carried no notice on EU rules or on blacklisting.

What this article has not established

Which list or criteria the Prime Minister has in mind, whether any list uses a CBI programme as a criterion, and what information he received are not established. No document read states what a financial blacklisting would mean for holders of a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport.

The Roundtable recording or a transcript was not found; the item is the government’s release of his remarks. The Commission’s money-laundering high-risk list and the Financial Action Task Force’s lists were not read. No Saint Kitts and Nevis government statement on a Commission letter was found in the item, the six Citizenship Unit pages or the information service’s home page.

The information service’s home page, read at 14:04 on 8 November, showed no later item on the point.