The European Union is signalling a tougher position on citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes, a shift that places Saint Lucia and its Eastern Caribbean counterparts under closer scrutiny and raises fresh questions about the future of visa-free travel to the Schengen area.
The warning is outlined in the Eighth Report under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, published on December 19, which reviews developments in 2024 and major changes in 2025. Prepared under Article 8 of the EU’s Visa Regulation, the report notes that while visa liberalisation supports tourism and people-to-people ties, weak safeguards can create “significant migration and security challenges,” with citizenship-by-investment programmes at the centre of those concerns.
According to the Commission, visa-free countries that operate investor citizenship schemes “pose inherent security risks by potentially allowing third-country nationals who would otherwise be subject to visa requirements to bypass standard security checks and gain access to the Schengen area through the acquisition of citizenship”.
The report goes further, describing such programmes as carrying “serious risks in terms of illegal migration, security threats, and tax evasion”, particularly where vetting is weak, applicants lack a genuine link to the country granting citizenship, or where identity changes are permitted during or after the process.
Under the EU’s revised Visa Suspension Mechanism, the operation of an investor citizenship scheme is now identified, in itself, as a potential basis for suspending a country’s visa-free status. This represents a significant increase in the stakes for participating states.
While the report also references similar concerns in parts of the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership, including Serbia and Georgia, it places particular emphasis on the Eastern Caribbean, where such programmes have operated for decades and on a much larger scale.
EU estimates suggest that around 107,000 passports have been issued through CBI programmes in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. Despite stricter rules imposed under pressure, demand remains strong, with 13,113 applications recorded in 2023 and 10,573 in 2024.
The Commission flags short processing times and low rejection rates as ongoing concerns. In 2024, rejection rates stood at 1.7 per cent in Antigua and Barbuda, 5.3 per cent in Saint Lucia, and 6.5 per cent in Dominica, figures the EU says raise questions about the depth and consistency of due-diligence checks.
In response to earlier warnings from Brussels, the five Eastern Caribbean countries have taken steps to modify their programmes, including harmonising the minimum investment threshold at US$200,000, strengthening security screening and establishing shared standards for information-sharing and transparency. However, the Commission concludes that these measures have not fully addressed its concerns.
“The operation of investor citizenship schemes by visa-free countries poses a non-negligible security risk for the Schengen area,” the report states, adding that such programmes “will be further examined under the revised Visa Suspension Mechanism legal framework”.
For Saint Lucia, the EU’s position comes amid growing international pressure on CBI programmes more broadly. The United States has also moved to tighten its approach, expanding travel restrictions on countries it believes present heightened security or migration risks. These developments have further sharpened global scrutiny of investor citizenship.
CBI will remain a thorn particularly on the poor man’s back. The money obtained from the program is just being spent without tangible returns and therefore doomed to fail. Therefore when the money is gone, which it will, we will be empty handed with accumulated debt, have lost our passport and disturbed our sovereignty, with the poor man’s buying poor significantly reduced, due to added competition with more affluent CBI citizens. Our passports have already lost is value for peanuts.
100%correct,no accountability,reputation destroyed, there is no vetting system in place.