Vanuatu Citizenship Processing Time

There is no official processing time for Vanuatu's Development Support Program (DSP), and no law obliges the Citizenship Commission to decide a DSP application within a set period. Offers of "Vanuatu citizenship in 60 days" therefore describe a hoped-for result, not a rule anyone can enforce. What the law does fix is a handful of short time limits around the decision: 96 hours for the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) check once it has the documents, 48 hours to notify the agent, 3 months after approval for the oath and the balance, and 90 days from approval for the certificate.

Between those limits, the pace is set by the quality of your file and by how much the due diligence firm needs to verify. The decision itself, the step most people ask about, has no deadline at all.

Fixed Time Limits and Whom Each One Binds

Most published timelines mix legal limits with guesses. Separating them is the first step to a realistic plan. These are the only time limits we find in the Citizenship Act and the DSP Regulation:

Notice what is missing: there is no time limit for the decision itself. The Citizenship Act does contain a 3-month decision period, in section 13C(3), yet it governs the Capital Investment Immigration Plan alone, not the DSP. (New CIIP files were suspended in March 2025. Trade reports speak of a relaunch in May 2025 with amended rules, but no official notice has set out the current terms, so its status is something we check at the assessment.) Pages that cite a "legal maximum" of three months for the DSP are applying the wrong section.

The 96-hour figure also needs care. It runs from when the FIU has the documents it needs, and it does not cover the time spent collecting them, answering follow-up questions or waiting for the international due diligence firm to clear a complex profile.

Where the "60 Days" Figure Comes From

No Vanuatu source supports the claim that the DSP delivers citizenship in 30 to 60 days. Similar figures, from 30 to 90 days, circulate widely in marketing material. They usually come from adding up the short legal limits above and the best cases an agent has seen, while leaving out document preparation and the interval between Commission meetings.

A file can move quickly. But the fact that one file once took a certain number of days says nothing about yours. A promise of a fixed date assumes control over the FIU, the international firm and the Commission, and no adviser or agent has that control.

The Sequence, Phase by Phase

1. Preparing the file

This phase belongs to you and to us, and it is usually the longest one you can influence. Police certificates must be ordered from the issuing authorities, documents apostilled or legalized, translations certified, and a notarized CV drafted. The FIU notice of January 2025 lists the documents every file must contain, including a passport copy with more than six months of validity left, so an expiring passport has to be renewed first. How long all this takes depends on the countries involved, not on Vanuatu.

2. Lodging and due diligence

The designated agent lodges the file and passes it to the FIU, which works with an international firm. A single applicant with one country of residence and salaried income is quicker to verify than a family of five with business interests in several jurisdictions. Each written question from the checkers pauses the file until it is answered.

3. Part-payment and the decision

Clause 6(2) of the Regulation makes a quarter of the government fee payable before the Commission may look at the file, and clause 6(4) says that money is kept if the answer is no. The file then passes through the Citizenship Office and the Internal Screening Committee to the Commission, whose meeting schedule is not published.

4. After approval

From this point the clock is mostly yours: 3 months in which to pay what remains of the fee and to swear the oath in front of a Commissioner for Oaths. If the deadline passes without an extension, the approval expires and a fresh application is needed. Applicants who arrange their funds and travel while the decision is still pending usually finish this phase without strain.

5. The passport

Once the certificate exists, you apply for the passport as a citizen, through a different office, and enroll your biometrics in person. For a complete application, the official passport FAQ gives maximum waits of 21 days (normal), 14 days (express) and 3 days (urgent).

What Adds Weeks to a Vanuatu File

When a timetable slips, the cause is rarely on the government side alone. These are the delays we see most often and plan around from the start:

• Police certificates from several countries. Every issuing authority sets its own pace, and a certificate that lapses before lodging means starting that request over.
• Passports close to expiry. Anything under six months of validity has to be replaced before the FIU will accept it.
• Gaps in the source of funds. A deposit with no contract or statement behind it leads to questions, and each answer takes time to source.
• Inconsistent names and dates. Transliteration differences between passports, birth records and translations are a common reason for documents to be returned.
• A missing notarized CV, or one that does not match the dates in other documents.
• A late part-payment. Until the first quarter of the fee reaches the DSP's account with the National Bank of Vanuatu, in US dollars, the file waits.
• Travel not planned. Passport biometrics are recorded in person. The oath before a Commissioner for Oaths may or may not mean a trip: video link has been allowed since an August 2020 Citizenship Office notice that is still in force, and the designated agent tells you which form applies to your file. Leaving these arrangements until after approval eats into the 3-month window.

What You Can Influence, and What You Cannot

There is no official fast-track service or priority fee for the DSP. Paying more does not buy an earlier decision. Anyone who says otherwise is describing a service the government does not offer.

Timing for Families

The checks cover each family member, so a larger family usually means more documents and more for the due diligence firm to clear. Dependants aged 18 to 25 need proof of full-time studies and support; parents over 50 need proof that they share the applicant's home and rely on the applicant financially. Each of these adds paperwork rather than a separate procedure. Clause 8(5) of the Regulation makes a child born after the grant a citizen automatically, so only a passport is needed. A spouse or children added after the grant go through a later application under clause 8, which has its own fees and its own timetable.

If the File Stalls

Clause 6(10) of the Regulation lets a file move to a different agent when the current one has left it without progress for a reasonable time, at most six months. This is a safeguard against inaction, not a route to a quicker decision. In practice, a stalled file is better handled with help from a Vanuatu citizenship lawyer who finds out where it sits: with the FIU, at the Citizenship Office, or waiting for the Commission. Part of our role is to keep track of that and to answer any request on your side the same week it arrives.

For the official description of the steps, see the Citizenship Office's application process page, which also states the 3-month window after approval.

If you would like a timetable built around your own documents and family, request our free assessment. We will point out which stages look slowest for your family and what can be started today, without promising a date that no one can guarantee.