Vanuatu Citizenship Lawyer

You do not need a lawyer admitted in Vanuatu to obtain citizenship, because the only party allowed to lodge a Development Support Program (DSP) application is an agent the Citizenship Commission has designated. What a lawyer brings is the legal and evidential work around that filing: reading your history against the Regulation, structuring the family, building the source-of-funds case and keeping the deadlines after approval. Vanuatu Golden Passport does exactly that, as an independent team of lawyers and advisers working alongside the designated agent rather than in its place.

What most clients actually need is someone who owns the file from the first question to the passport. Below is how the work is divided, where legal judgment changes the outcome, and how to tell whether an adviser is doing the job properly.

Lawyer, Immigration Law Firm or Designated Agent: Who Does What on a DSP File

Every application passes through three sets of hands. Mixing them up is how applicants end up paying the wrong person or waiting on the wrong office.

Clause 3 of the 2019 DSP Regulation (Order No. 33) sets out the agent's position: agents are appointed by the Commission, must hold Vanuatu citizenship and must keep an office in Port Vila. On its website the Citizenship Office keeps the current roll of designated agents, plus separate pages for canceled agents and for persons it does not recognize. We are none of these things. We are an independent team of lawyers and advisers, operated by Collegium of International Lawyers LP in London, and the agent we work with on your file is named to you in writing at the outset.

Files are led by senior partners Dmytro Konovalenko and Dr. Anatoliy Yarovyi, with Tatiana Del Moral, associate partner, as the day-to-day contact; you can read about each of them on our team page.

Where Legal Judgment Changes the Outcome

Most DSP files that fail do so for reasons visible at the start. These are the questions on which a careful legal reading matters most.

Has there ever been a conviction?

Under clause 6(9), a criminal conviction stops the Commission from giving approval, and the Regulation makes no exception for minor or old offenses. What counts as a conviction, though, depends on the law of the country where the case was heard: a caution, a discharge, a quashed verdict and a record later sealed are not the same thing. We read the court papers and the police certificate together, and if there is a conviction we tell you plainly that the file should not go forward.

Where have you lived?

Clause 6(8) deals with applicants from a restricted country: approval is possible only after five years spent living outside it, combined with permanent residence somewhere else. The Regulation does not define "restricted country" or attach a list, so this point is checked case by case through the agent before anything is paid.

Who counts as family?

In the Regulation's definitions of family members, a child means a natural or adopted child below 18. A resident dependant includes a son or daughter between 18 and 25 in full-time education who either shares the applicant's home or relies on the applicant financially, and a parent above 50 who both shares the home and relies on the applicant. Because the definition uses the word "includes", borderline relatives are not automatically excluded, but they are not covered by the published text either. We take those questions to the agent in writing rather than guessing.

Does the money story hold together?

Under the FIU notice applied from 16 January 2025, each client file must hold four required documents: a copy of a passport with over six months left to run, a current police clearance, a curriculum vitae signed before a notary, and a receipt for a government payment. The CV is where many files trip: the career it describes has to explain the wealth being used, and the bank records have to match both. We draft the source-of-funds account and the CV side by side so that they tell one consistent story.

Will your home country let you keep its citizenship?

Vanuatu allows dual citizenship, but some countries withdraw their nationality from a citizen who acquires another one voluntarily, or require a permit beforehand. That question is answered under your home country's law, and we raise it before you commit money.

After Approval: Deadlines Worth a Lawyer's Attention

The period after a positive decision is short and unforgiving, which is why a Vanuatu passport lawyer is often most useful here rather than at the start.

• Notice of the decision. Clause 6(1)(e) requires the Secretary General to tell the agent the Commission's decision within 48 hours.
• Oath and fee. Section 8BA of the Citizenship Act allows three months from approval for the oath and the fee. Two more months can be obtained by writing to the Secretary General with good reason before time runs out; miss both and the approval lapses, so the whole application starts again.
• Payment. Clause 6(2) splits the prescribed government fee: one quarter is due before the Commission takes up the file, the remaining three quarters before the certificate. Clause 6(3) also permits paying everything at once.
• Certificate. Clause 6(6) sets a 90-day limit, counted from approval, for issuing the certificate of citizenship.
• Passport. Only a citizen can ask the Immigration and Passport Services for a passport, and the request is made with the certificate and an original birth certificate.

The oath is taken before a Commissioner for Oaths. A Citizenship Office notice of August 2020 allowed it by video link until further notice, and that notice has not been withdrawn; the designated agent confirms which form is accepted for your file.

When a File Stalls

Clause 6(10) gives an applicant the right to move to another agent where the file has made no progress over a reasonable period, capped at six months. That is a remedy, not a timetable: it does not mean files take six months, nor that you can switch agents at will. If a file has stopped moving, we establish where it is held, put the questions in writing and, if the conditions are met, help you document the change.

Delays often have ordinary causes: a request for further information left unanswered, a police certificate that expired, or a payment sent to the wrong account. Those are fixable without changing anyone, which is why we look at the file's history before recommending a switch.

What We Do Not Do

We work on Vanuatu citizenship only. We do not handle residence visas, work permits, company formation or crypto licenses, we do not give tax advice, and we do not hold ourselves out as a Vanuatu government office or a designated agent. Approval and its timing are for the Commission alone, so we never promise either.

Signs of a Careful Adviser

Whoever you choose, these habits are a reasonable test of whether the adviser will protect your file:

• the designated agent is named before you pay, and you are invited to check it on the official list;
• the quote separates government amounts, the due diligence fee and the professional fee;
• you are told which payments are lost on refusal: the Regulation keeps the 25% advance if the Commission says no, and it contains no provision for giving back the due diligence fee once the checks are done;
• problems in your history are raised by the adviser, not discovered by the FIU;
• timelines are described as estimates, never as guarantees.

If you would like a lawyer to look at your situation before you decide anything, ask for the free assessment. Give us a short outline of the people applying, the countries they have lived in and how the funds were earned; our written reply covers whether you qualify, what the government will charge your family, what we charge, and which documents to order first.