Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment

Four investment routes at five levels, the business route having two, in US dollars:

The National Development Fund is a non-profit fund subject to parliamentary oversight by way of a six-monthly report presented to Parliament in sufficient detail to allow for transparency and accountability, and audited by an internationally recognised accounting firm.

It is established under section 42(2) of the Finance Administration Act 2006 for the purpose of funding government sponsored projects, including public-private partnerships and approved charitable investments.

Once the file is complete a certificate of registration of Citizenship is issued for both the primary applicant and their family members, and is submitted to the passport office with the passport application; the authorised agent or representative then forwards the passports and the citizenship certificate to the applicant

The money moves in three stages rather than one. On submission the applicant pays the full due diligence fees plus 10 per cent of the government processing fee, and both are non-refundable. On receipt of the letter of approval the applicant pays the balance of the processing fees, the passport fees and the contribution.

The fees go directly to the Unit, while the contribution must be made to the Government Special Fund within 30 days. That thirty-day clock therefore runs from the letter of approval, not from the filing of the application.

The file does not travel straight from applicant to Unit. The guidance page recommends starting with an authorised representative, who engages a licensed agent based in Antigua and Barbuda; the agent reviews the file and submits it in person along with the payments due.

The agent is also the point of contact with the Unit throughout the assessment and is the one advised of the outcome. The Unit may ask for additional information or call an interview.

Five of the Unit's pages read on 27 September 2026, covering how to apply, questions and answers, fees, the fund and dependants, publish no processing time.

The only obligation requiring a physical presence is the oath or affirmation of allegiance, and it can be discharged in two ways.

The first is to take it on the first occasion of visiting Antigua and Barbuda. The second is to attend an Embassy, High Commission or Consular Office of Antigua and Barbuda to fulfil the requirement — so setting foot on the territory is not strictly necessary.

On the NDF route the primary applicant may include within the same application a spouse, dependent children and dependent parents over 55 years of age with no additional contribution to the fund, although government and due diligence fees remain payable for each individual

Spouse; a child aged 0 to 30 financially dependent on the principal applicant; a child 18 or older who is physically or mentally handicapped, living with and fully supported by the main applicant; a parent or grandparent aged 55 or older who is financially dependent; an unmarried sibling.

Dependants may also be added later: a future spouse of the main applicant, a future spouse of a dependent child where that dependant is no older than 35 at the time of application, and a future child of a dependent child.

Adding later carries its own price. The dependants page sets these charges, and the fee schedule arranges them into an addition table. Amounts are in US dollars:

Standard due diligence and passport fees still apply on top.

The programme defines a child as a biological or legally adopted child of the main applicant, or of the main applicant and their spouse.

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Antigua and Barbuda passport, so the figure in this cell is the figure for that passport itself.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Antigua and Barbuda passport reaches 159 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The founding statute of the programme, the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship By Investment Act 2013, runs to more than twenty-seven thousand characters and contains not one instance of the word tax; its three uses of resident concern the residence of an agent or the class of real estate project.

The frequently asked questions page of the Citizenship by Investment Unit itself carries only five questions — name change, visa on arrival, the restricted countries list, passport ranking and Canadian police certificates — and none concerns tax; nor does the page setting out the four investment options.

The programme says nothing about tax. On this country personal income tax, two distinct measurements must be stated and must not be collapsed into one tidy sentence.

First: the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2016, No. 8 of 2016, assented to on 23 June 2016 and published in the Official Gazette Vol. XXXVI No. 37 of the same date, amends the Personal Income Tax Act 2005, No. 1 of 2005, in a narrowing direction.

Section 3 substitutes a personal allowance of $21,000.00 for the 2016 income year, exactly half the $42,000 that applied in 2014 and 2015. Section 4 converts every deduction and periodic payment deadline into a single date, not later than 15 August 2016, and section 5 sets the filing deadline at not later than 30 September 2016.

The Act passed the House on 10 June 2016 and the Senate on 20 June 2016. But that text does not use the word abolish — it halves the allowance and fixes terminal deadlines rather than declaring repeal in terms.

Second: the list of twenty-eight taxes the Inland Revenue Department publishes as being under its administration contains no entry called personal income tax.

The list includes ABST, business tax, corporation tax, land value appreciation tax, offshore banking tax, property tax, non-citizens undeveloped land tax, telecoms tax, stamp duties, withholding tax and others.

Placed side by side, what can be said is this: the list of taxes the revenue authority publishes as administered contains no personal income tax, and Act No. 8 of 2016 brought personal income tax filing obligations to an end after the August and September 2016 dates.

What cannot be said is that Antigua and Barbuda has no personal income tax as a matter of constitutional fact — and one counter-measurement keeps that in view:

The alphabetical index of statutes on the national legislation portal still lists the Personal Income Tax Act 2005 together with amendments of 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Searching an index of statute titles alone does not establish repeal.

One obligation survives regardless of personal income tax, and it is worth stating: the Inland Revenue Department maintains sections on FATCA, the Common Reporting Standard and exchange of information on request, along with two guidance notes on beneficial ownership compliance issued in November 2022 and December 2024.

It describes itself as the revenue collection agency of the Government, administering the Tax Administration and Procedures Act No. 12 of 2018, within the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance.

On the programme investment levels, for context, the four options in USD:

Read this cell within its scope: the programme sources cover eligibility, investment levels and procedure and say nothing whatever about tax.

The revenue sources cover the list of administered taxes and the 2016 ending of personal income tax filing, but say nothing about how property tax applies to a purchaser under this route, nothing about how the non-citizens undeveloped land tax applies to a new citizen, and nothing about obligations in the country of origin

The main fees by applicant category, in US dollars; the family processing fee covers a family of up to 4 persons:

The University of the West Indies Fund option is priced differently from the other three. Its US$260,000 contribution is inclusive of processing fees, and the schedule adds only US$10,000 for each additional dependant.

The schedule prints an Eastern Caribbean dollar equivalent beside each US dollar amount, and states that the fees are subject to change.

One line of the schedule needs careful reading. Under the business investment option, the due diligence fee for a spouse is printed as US$75,000, while the other three options and the summary table all print US$5,000.