Nauru Citizenship by Investment

The contribution sits in Schedule 1 of the 2024 Regulations made under the Act, not in an external price list, and that schedule was substituted in full by subordinate legislation SL 2 of 2026, in force 29 January 2026 — so these are current figures, not historical ones. The amounts fall into two groups by when they are paid: the application fee and the due diligence fee on filing, the contribution and the passport fee on approval. All amounts are in US dollars.

The line that repays closer reading than the headline figure is the sibling: each sibling of the principal applicant or of their spouse carries a contribution of 15,000 — seven and a half times the contribution for a dependant aged 16 or over, though both are simply one more person on the file. The pricing discriminates by relationship rather than by head count.

The schedule does not print a currency, but it cross-checks: the figures 5,000, 6,000 and 500 match the amounts the Program Office publishes in US dollars on its contribution page, and the notice on the special project states USD 115,000 in terms.

The contribution page announces a limited time offer: a discount of USD 25,000 on the contribution, applying from 3 February 2026 to all current or new applications filed before 31 December 2026, which brings a principal applicant to USD 90,000. The legal notice on the special project gives a start date of 29 January 2026 and ties the discount to applications accepted before the project closes — see the processing-time section below.

The two figures reconcile exactly by the discount: 115,000 less 25,000. So 90,000 is what is paid during the offer, and 115,000 is the figure in the schedule and the one that returns when the offer ends.

The outcome is citizenship of the Republic of Naoero, conferred not through one document but three, set out in Schedule 7 of the Regulations under Section 20: a grant of citizenship signed by the Minister responsible for Citizenship and stating the date of the grant.

The file includes a citizenship affirmation form carrying the words “I, [full name], affirm that I will faithfully bear true allegiance and will fulfil my duties as a lawful citizen of the Republic of Naoero”.

The form is witnessed by an Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public, Commissioner of Oaths or jurisdictional equivalent, and children under 18 are not required to affirm. The file also includes a certificate of citizenship.

Travel documents issue under the Passports Act 2011, a separate statute. What the reader needs first, though, is that the outcome is conditional and revocable on an unusually broad list.

Section 23 allows citizenship to be cancelled for fraud, bribery, misrepresentation, the provision of false or inaccurate information, or concealment of any material fact.

After the grant it may also be cancelled where the person engages in terrorism or terrorist and proliferation financing, or is convicted under the Anti-Money Laundering and Targeted Financial Sanctions Act 2023.

The same applies where the person is convicted under the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime Act 2004, or is convicted of a sexual offence involving a child.

The remaining grounds are: becoming a citizen of a country listed as high risk under a UN Security Council resolution; the holder, or an entity of which they are a shareholder or beneficial owner, being designated for targeted financial sanctions by the Security Council or its committees; and such other circumstances as Cabinet may prescribe.

Against that, Section 24 erects two shields for dependants: a dependent spouse granted citizenship shall not be deprived of it on remarrying a non-Naoero after divorce or on the death of the Principal Applicant, and a dependant shall not be deprived of or forfeit citizenship as a result of such a remarriage by a widow or widower.

Both subsections were amended by Act 21 of 2026, in force 12 May 2026. Section 25 closes the circle: a person who has renounced or had citizenship cancelled is no longer eligible to obtain or retain a travel document, and any document already issued is seized or cancelled immediately.

The Program Office publishes a single figure for the whole journey: typically three to four months from submission to approval of citizenship.

The word typically is a qualifier rather than a commitment, so the figure should not be read as a service standard.

Three to four months is an aggregate estimate. The USD 25,000 discount, by contrast, has a hard cut-off, and the two are easily conflated: the contribution page applies the offer to applications filed before 31 December 2026, while the legal notice on the special project uses the word accepted, before the project closes.

Under the Regulations an application is accepted only when the forms, documents, fees and undertakings are complete. Anyone planning backwards should therefore aim for a complete application accepted before that date, not merely a filing in time. Nothing requires the citizenship decision itself to issue within 2026.

On the start date, the contribution page gives 3 February 2026 and says the offer covers applications already under assessment as well as new ones; the legal notice has the special project commencing on 29 January 2026.

The programme’s instruments impose no presence obligation in Naoero: no provision requires an applicant or a new citizen to live in, stay in or visit Naoero.

And the direction of the obligation is inverted: instead of requiring presence, the Regulations require disclosure of where the applicant has been. The applicant must supply a police certificate from the country of residence where they have resided for more than six months within the last ten years.

The applicant must also provide evidence from their country of citizenship and from every other country in which they have resided for six months or longer within the past ten years, and must file a complete list of all residential addresses for the previous ten years, which Schedule 6 of the Regulations states expressly must be without gaps in time.

The file must further set out any current residency permits or visas held, together with any refusals, cancellations or unlawful presence in respect of visas or residence permits. In short: this route does not ask where you will live, it asks where you have lived, and it asks in detail.

The statutory definition of a dependant in Section 3 of the Act is unusually wide.

In the consolidated text, as substituted by Act 50 of 2025 with effect from 23 December 2025, a dependent means the spouse of the principal applicant from a monogamous relationship, and a child including an adopted child of the principal applicant or of the spouse.

It also means a parent of the principal applicant or of the spouse, a grandparent of the principal applicant or of the spouse, and a sibling of the principal applicant or of the spouse or de facto partner.

That definition sets no age limit and no financial dependency test for any of those classes. A de facto partner appears only in the sibling limb and not in the spouse limb, so an unmarried partner cannot enter as a spouse.

The age of 16 is a procedural threshold rather than an entitlement one: background and criminal record checks apply to everyone aged 16 and over. Where custody or guardianship of a child under 18 has been granted by a court or other relevant authority, that document must accompany the application. If a parent or legal guardian with sole or joint custody of a dependant child under 18 is not included in the application, that parent or guardian must submit their consent for the principal applicant to apply.

Fees and contributions for dependants filed with the main application are in the table in the capital threshold section, in US dollars.

Adding a person after the principal applicant has obtained citizenship carries a quite different contribution, under Schedule 3 of the Regulations:

The table shows the contribution only. Each person added still pays the application fee of 5,000, the due diligence fee of 6,000 if aged 16 or over, and the passport fee of 500 — so a nil contribution does not mean a nil cost.

One internal inconsistency belongs in the record: a grandchild has its own line in Schedule 3 of the Regulations but does not appear in the definition of dependant in Section 3 of the Act, so which route a grandchild takes is not stated.

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Nauru 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 Nauru passport reaches 62 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 programme carries no tax regime of its own, and the points at which its instruments touch tax are all conditions attached to the application rather than benefits.

Schedule 5 of the Regulations requires the agent agreement to contain prohibitions on promoting citizenship as a tax-planning tool. Schedule 6 requires the applicant to disclose a tax registration number and registered tax address, to declare investigations by tax authorities, to state full compliance with global tax obligations, and to consent to the Program Office sharing data with tax authorities.

The body of the Act itself contains no provision on tax; every point above sits in the schedules to the Regulations.

The second tier is a join made here, not language from the programme statute:

Section 7 of the Employment and Services Tax Act 2014 treats a citizen of Naoero as a resident individual except where that person has a permanent home outside the Republic — a Naoero government employee posted abroad remains a resident — but Sections 11 and 12 tax only income from sources in the Republic, so residence determines the rate rather than opening up taxation of worldwide income.

Beyond the application fee, the due diligence fee and the passport fee, the Program Office publishes a separate charge for which Schedule 1 of the Regulations gives no figure: the bank due diligence fee and transaction charge. The Regulations allow such charges to be published on the website.

It is charged per file in bands, not per head:

Because it is banded, the marginal cost runs against intuition: a second and third dependant add nothing to this charge, a fourth adds USD 500, and a fifth and beyond add nothing again. A family of four — the principal applicant and three dependants — pays 1,700; a family of five pays 2,200, and so does a family of six.

The passport fee works the opposite way, strictly per head at USD 500 per passport, so the two methods of counting must be kept apart when totalling.

One silence is worth recording because it touches the applicant’s risk: the contribution page does not say which amounts are refundable if an application is refused, nor where the money is held while it is under assessment.