Dominica CBI: Govt increases minimum investment under EDF

In a landmark move, the Government of Dominica increased the minimum investment threshold to qualify for Citizenship by Investment Programme.  

Citizenship by Investment Unit noted that the “Citizenship by Investment Regulations (the 2024 regulations) were gazetted on 28 June 2024 and came into effect immediately”. 

The major change involves the Economic Diversification Fund, where the new investment amount has been set to USD 200,000 a whopping USD 100,000 increase from the previous required investment.  

Amendments to the EDF 

As part of the new requirements, single applicant now needs to invest USD 200,000 to qualify for citizenship. While, main applicant with up to three qualifying dependants will now have to contribute a minimum of USD 250,000 under the EDF.

While with each additional dependant under the age of eighteen, a cost of USD 25,000 shall be paid.  

The CBIU also said that with any additional dependant eighteen years of age or older, the applicant must pay USD 40,000.  

The additional fee of USD 1,000 per application for professing, USD 7,500 for due diligence (main applicant), due diligence for each dependant aged 16 years or above USD 4,000 also applies.  Besides this, another fee such as certification of naturalisation fee of USD 500 per person still applies. 

 “The 2024 Regulations repeal the existing regulations and amendments. The 2024 Regulations set out the minimum investment amounts, define key terms, specify the eligibility criteria for main applicants and their dependants, detail instances where citizenship applications can be denied or citizenship revoked and detail the roles and responsibilities of Authorised Agents and Licenced Promoters,” the CBIU further noted. 

Historic MOU Paves the Way Forward 

The amendments come after OECS countries came on board to set a minimum investment threshold on their respective CBI Programmes to tackle cost-cutting.  The historic Memorandum of Understanding was signed in March this year. 

One significant provision of the MOU was raising the minimum investment threshold to USD 200,000. The CBI offering jurisdictions also collaborated to share the information of applicants, establish regional competent authority to set standards with other arrangements.  

The MOU was signed virtually earlier this year by the Heads of Governments of Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada. However, Saint Lucia joined the pact in May, during the CIS 24 in Grenada. 

Mode of Payment 

In the new legislation, the Citizenship by Investment Unit once again made it clear that the applicant is responsible for paying the full minimum EDF contribution under the laws and regulations.  

The Unit maintained that the payments must be made via bank transfer and any applicable bank charges may also be paid to ensure that the Dominica government receives the full EDF contribution amount.