Vanuatu Passport Benefits

The main Vanuatu passport and citizenship benefits are a second nationality held next to the one you already have, a passport book valid for ten years that gets you into between 85 and 88 destinations with no visa obtained beforehand, room for your spouse, children and older parents in a single file, and no obligation to move to Vanuatu. Foreign investors acquire it through the Development Support Program (DSP), priced from a regulatory minimum of US$130,000 for one person. Each gain carries a condition, and the heaviest concerns Europe: Schengen countries and Britain now require visas from Vanuatu citizens.

Below, each benefit is tied to the rule that creates it: Chapter 3 of the Constitution, the Citizenship Act [Cap 112], the DSP Regulation (Order No. 33 of 2019, as changed in 2020 by Order No. 39) or the passport rules. Where a popular promise has no such basis, we point that out.

Vanuatu Citizenship Benefits in One Table

A Second Nationality You Do Not Have to Trade

Until 2014 Vanuatu law did not recognize a second nationality. Amendments to Chapter 3 of the Constitution, passed in 2013 and effective the following year, changed that, as the Citizenship Office's own legislative framework page records.

One of those changes was the formal recognition of dual citizenship. A DSP file includes no renunciation and no statement about the passport you already carry, so the grant adds a nationality instead of replacing one.

The citizenship has no expiry date and no renewal cycle. What runs out is the passport book: the Passport Office explains that a machine-readable passport cannot be extended in the same book, so you simply apply for a fresh one. A grant can be withdrawn only on the grounds set out on the Office's revocation page: fraud in obtaining it, a grant that conflicted with the Citizenship Act or the Constitution, or a holder's later breach of the limits the Act sets. The Office has said that nearly 30 unlawful grants have been revoked, which is the best argument for a clean, fully evidenced file.

Travel: Strong in Asia and the Pacific, Weak in Europe

Henley & Partners' October 2026 index credits the passport with 85 destinations (52 visa-free, 27 with a visa on arrival, 6 through an electronic travel authority) and places it 60th. Lists built from airline data on Wikipedia come to roughly 88, so a fair statement is 85 to 88 depending on the index.

For a traveler whose routes run through Asia, the Pacific, Russia, Africa and the Caribbean, that is a useful document; the stay allowed in each country is set out in our full list of visa-free countries for the Vanuatu passport.

Europe is the gap. On 4 February 2023 the EU stopped exempting any Vanuatu national from the Schengen visa, and Regulation (EU) 2025/11 turned that suspension into a permanent listing, in force since 3 February 2025. British visitor visas have been compulsory for Vanuatu citizens since 19 July 2023. China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US also ask for a visa, and talk of a Chinese visa waiver has not become a confirmed rule. If easy trips to Europe are the goal, this passport is the wrong purchase.

Two practical points are often missed. Passports produced from July 2019 onward carry ten years of validity, even though an older FAQ on the government site still says five, and validity for children has not been published, so the Passport Office confirms it case by case. Each family member also needs a separate book, because a child can no longer be added to a parent's machine-readable passport.

One File for the Family

The DSP Regulation allows the main applicant to bring these relatives into the same application:

• a husband or wife;
• children younger than 18, whether natural or adopted;
• children between 18 and 25 studying full time, provided they share the applicant's home or rely on the applicant financially;
• parents of either spouse who are older than 50, provided they share the household and rely on the applicant financially.

Brothers and sisters are not among the categories the published definitions name, so they ordinarily file separately. For each child or resident dependant beyond the listed family sizes, the prescribed government fee goes up by US$10,000 (clause 7(1)(e) and (f)).

The family benefit also reaches forward. Under clause 8(5), a baby born to a parent who already holds DSP citizenship is a Vanuatu citizen, with a VT 10,000 passport fee set by the Regulation. Clause 8 also covers a later application for the spouse and children of an existing program citizen: an administration charge of US$5,000, topped up, where the first grant followed the 2018 cut in fees, by the gap to today's prescribed amounts. Other relatives added later are charged the US$10,000 rate. We check how this works for a particular family with the designated agent ahead of any payment.

No Relocation, but Not Entirely Remote

The DSP imposes no minimum stay before or after the grant, and holding the citizenship later is not tied to days spent in the country. There is no language requirement either: the Citizenship Office's written Bislama test concerns naturalization (Form A) and marriage (Form B) cases only.

Still, the process is not entirely remote. You swear allegiance before a Commissioner for Oaths. A Citizenship Office notice of August 2020 allowed it by video link until further notice, that notice has not been withdrawn, and the designated agent confirms which form is accepted for your file. Biometric data for the passport is captured in person.

After approval, section 8BA of the Act gives three months to pay the remaining fee and take the oath, and the Secretary General can add two more if you ask in writing with good reason. Miss that window and the approval expires, so the oath belongs in the plan from day one.

A Published Price Structure and Staged Payment

Clause 4 sets a floor for each family size: US$130,000 for one person and US$150,000 for husband and wife, rising to US$165,000 and US$180,000 when one or two children join them. Each figure contains a prescribed government fee fixed by clause 7(1). Separate charges sit outside it: US$5,000 to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for its checks, VT 5,000 per application and VT 10,000 per certificate.

Staged payment helps, but only so far. Twenty-five percent of the prescribed government fee must reach the program's account before the Commission reviews the file, and a refusal does not bring it back. The rest is settled ahead of the certificate, unless you prefer to pay in full at the start. Every government payment is made in US dollars to the DSP account with the National Bank of Vanuatu, and a notice from the Citizenship Office rules out Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Tax: A Benefit for Residents, Not Passport Holders

The Vanuatu Foreign Investment Promotion Agency presents the country as a low-tax jurisdiction: there is no personal income tax on salaries, although rental income from property in Vanuatu is taxed. That helps someone who genuinely becomes tax resident in Vanuatu; holding its passport does not make you one. Most countries tax people where they live, and US citizens owe US tax on worldwide income regardless of their address.

Vanuatu also committed in 2016 to the OECD's Common Reporting Standard and has exchanged account data since 2018, so its passport offers no secrecy from tax authorities. How income tax and Vanuatu citizenship interact is covered separately, but we do not give tax advice; get it in your country of residence before you apply.

Claims You Will See, and What the Record Shows

Putting the Benefits to Work for Your Family

Which of these advantages counts depends on where your family travels, which nationalities each person holds and who belongs on the file. The free assessment answers exactly that, and if the passport will not do what you need, you hear it from us before spending anything. When it fits, we fully assist you in obtaining Vanuatu citizenship: the route and family plan; police certificates, apostilled and translated records and proof of where the money came from; lodging through a government-designated agent, which Vanuatu law makes compulsory; the FIU checks and the Commission's decision; US-dollar payments through official channels; and the oath, the certificate and every passport application.