Cabo Verde Citizenship by Investment

The official announcement by the Government of Cabo Verde on Law 33/2023 confirms that the route of acquiring nationality by investment does exist, but states no figure: the text says only that foreigners who make "significant investments in Cabo Verde" may become Cape Verdean citizens, thereby promoting the country economic development.

The announcement also states that it is the Law itself which establishes the specific procedures and requirements for each mode of acquisition.

As at the date of checking, therefore, Cabo Verde minimum investment level has not been published at the level of the government announcement, and obtaining the figure requires reading the Law as published in the Official Bulletin

Law 33/2023 of 22 August 2023 was published in the Official Bulletin on 22 August 2023, and it reconfigures deeply the conditions for attribution, acquisition, loss and reacquisition of Cape Verdean nationality.

The Law opens two new routes at once rather than one. The first is acquisition of nationality by investment. The second requires no money: a new category permits acquisition of nationality for "relevant reasons", for foreigners who have contributed exceptionally to the country.

The same Law also widens nationality of origin to the children of Cape Verdeans born abroad but registered under Cape Verdean law, and to the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Cape Verdeans of origin born abroad, by way of a declaration

The Law sets two rules on effect over time. First, it applies to persons born both before and after its entry into force, but with a cut-off: for those born before, it applies only where they had not reached majority by that date.

Second, on when effects arise: attribution of nationality takes effect from birth, while changes of nationality apply from the date of registration of the relevant acts or facts. The Government announcement is dated 26 August 2023, four days after publication in the Official Bulletin.

Law 33/2023 was published in the Official Bulletin on 22 August 2023 and introduced acquisition of nationality through investment as a new route. The Government's communiqué says the law sets specific procedures and requirements for each route, but it gives no processing time for the investment route.

Nationality once granted can still be lost. According to the same communiqué, the new law allows loss of nationality for document forgery or serious crimes such as terrorism, so the status is not beyond challenge after it is granted.

While opening further routes in, Law 33/2023 tightens the way out. Loss of nationality may now occur in cases of forgery of documents or the commission of serious crimes, terrorism for example. The Government announcement describes this as an effort to ensure that both acquisition and loss of nationality are handled by rigorous criteria.

For a sense of how far other routes in the same Law were tightened: naturalisation by marriage now requires a minimum of five years of marriage, and a foreigner in a de facto union with a Cape Verdean citizen is given the equivalent opportunity provided certain criteria are met

The article that creates the investment route says nothing whatever about dependants, so the answer has to be assembled from two other articles of the same statute, and this is a join rather than the language of one provision.

Article 14 requires only an investment of significant benefit to Cabo Verde together with an effective link to the national community, defined in paragraph 4 as reasonable command of Portuguese or Cape Verdean Creole, or the number of entries and the periods of stay in the territory.

Children come through article 11: a minor or legally incapable child of a father or mother who has acquired Cape Verdean nationality may acquire it by declaration.

A spouse cannot come along: article 10 allows only a foreigner married for at least five years to a Cape Verdean citizen, or cohabiting in a lawfully recognised de facto union for at least five years, to acquire nationality by declaration.

An unmarried partner is recognised but must cross the five-year threshold and must have the union registered.

Parents, grandparents and siblings are absent. The financial threshold is left deliberately blank: article 14(2) repeats that the minimum amount is fixed by law, and paragraph 3 says those minimums may differ by sector or by the location of the project.

One point is larger than this record. Law 37/X/2024 amended article 40 to separate the investment naturalisation route from the general commencement and suspend it pending a regulation promised by 30 June 2024.

Its recitals concede that the nationality law could not in practice be applied without that regulation, as quoted in the tax cell of this page; that regulation has not been found.

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Cabo Verde 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 Cabo Verde passport reaches 64 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.

This record has to open with something larger than tax. Law 37/X/2024 of 22 March 2024 amended article 40 of the Nationality Law 33/X/2023 to carve the investment naturalisation route out of the general commencement of the statute, and amended article 38 to promise a separate regulation for that route by 30 June 2024.

The recitals state the reason plainly, that the qualifying criteria and amounts still needed time to be defined, and that in practice, without the regulation, the nationality law would have no applicability.

On tax, both statutes are wholly silent. Law 37/X/2024 does not use the stem tributário; imposto occurs only in the phrase deveres impostos, meaning duties imposed; and fiscal occurs only as fiscalização, belonging to a separate statute on electronic monitoring printed in the same gazette issue.

The State Budget law for 2026 does not mention the word nacionalidade, so no tax benefit is attached to investment naturalisation.

No implementing regulation was found in the electronic gazette, but that is a negative search result rather than confirmation that none exists, because the gazette search box returns the same result regardless of the query.

No fee for this route is published anywhere, and that zero stands because a check in the opposite direction accompanies it.

Begin with the governing instrument itself. Law 33/X/2023 of 22 August 2023, published in Official Gazette 89 of the same date, is the law setting the conditions for acquiring, losing and recovering Cape Verdean nationality.

Its full text uses none of the words for money emolumento, taxa, custo or pagamento.

The law is wholly silent on cost.

The second step was to search the Gazette, and that came back empty too: keywords for notarial and registry fees return hundreds of gazette issues, but opening the First Series instruments among them yields commercial registration, controlled-cost housing, digital public services and the creation of notarial offices.

Not one instrument fixing a fee for acquiring nationality.

The reverse check is what gives the zero meaning: the Cape Verdean Ministry of Justice does fix fees and does publish them in the Gazette, in 2026 itself.

Order 33/2026 of 9 April, issued by the Ministry of Justice, fixes the emoluments payable for commercial registry acts carried out through the Online Business Platform, together with a time-limited exemption from emoluments during the platform's initial period of operation.

Decree-Law 36/2026 of 21 May sets the general frame for the charges due when public services are used digitally through the Single Portal. The machinery therefore still issues instruments about money, regularly and recently; it has simply issued none about money for this route.

This record has not been verified against the Ministry of Justice's own site.