Is It Legal

Yes — Vanuatu's citizenship-by-investment programmes are legal under Vanuatu law. They rest on the Citizenship Act [CAP 112], passed by the Parliament of Vanuatu under its constitutional power to legislate on citizenship, and on regulations made under that Act which create the programmes, set the contributions and license the designated agents who lodge applications. A citizenship granted through them is a citizenship in the full legal sense.

The more useful question for most applicants is narrower: legal for whom, and with what consequences? This page takes the legal basis apart layer by layer — Vanuatu law, international law, the law of your own country and the position of foreign governments — so that you can see where the programme stands firmly and where it meets limits. The documents behind each layer are listed on the procedure sources page.

What Is the Legal Basis in Vanuatu Law?

The legal chain has three links, and each one depends on the one above it:

1. The Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu establishes citizenship as a legal status and leaves Parliament to provide by law for how it may be acquired beyond the cases the Constitution itself sets out.
2. The Citizenship Act [CAP 112], as amended, is that law. It provides for the ways citizenship can be acquired and lost, and for the Citizenship Commission, which decides applications.
3. Regulations under the Act create the investment-based routes. The Citizenship Office lists three current programmes: the Citizenship Contribution Program, the Honorary Citizenship Development Support Program and the Citizenship Real Estate Option Program, which began operating on 23 July 2021 and is limited to a Government Approved Project.

Because the programmes are created by regulation, they can also be changed or paused within the same legal framework. The Capital Investment Immigration Plan is the example: the Citizenship Commission suspended new applications under it in March 2025, and no reopening has been confirmed. The Development Support Program was not affected and remains the main route, with contributions of US$130,000 for a single applicant, US$150,000 for a couple, US$165,000 for a family of three and US$180,000 for a family of four.

Is Selling Citizenship Allowed Under International Law?

International law has long accepted that each state determines under its own law who its nationals are. There is no general rule that forbids a state from granting citizenship in return for a financial contribution, and Vanuatu is not alone in doing so.

What international law does allow is for other states to decide how much weight to give that nationality in their own systems. That is exactly what has happened with Vanuatu: no foreign government has declared Vanuatu citizenship void, but several have changed the terms on which they admit Vanuatu passport holders. Legality of the grant and acceptance of the passport abroad are separate questions.

How Have Foreign Governments Responded?

The European Union and the United Kingdom have both acted, and both acted within their own powers rather than by challenging the legality of the programme in Vanuatu.

Date	Measure	Effect for Vanuatu nationals
3 March 2022 (decision)	Council Decision (EU) 2022/366	Partial suspension of the EU visa waiver for passports issued from 25 May 2015
4 February 2023	Council Decision (EU) 2022/2198	Full suspension of the visa waiver agreement
19 July 2023	UK Immigration Rules	Visa required to visit the United Kingdom
3 February 2025	Regulation (EU) 2025/11	Permanent visa requirement for the 29 Schengen countries

The Council of the EU explained its reasoning when it decided on 12 December 2024 to end the exemption, in a published press release. The concern was the security screening of investor applicants, not the abstract right of Vanuatu to confer nationality. How that scrutiny developed is set out on the international scrutiny page.

Inside the EU, the Court of Justice took a stricter view of member states' own schemes. In Commission v Malta, C-181/23, decided on 29 April 2025, it held that Malta's investor citizenship scheme was contrary to EU law. That judgment binds EU member states, whose citizenship also confers EU citizenship; it does not apply to Vanuatu. It does explain why European institutions view investor citizenship elsewhere with caution.

Is It Legal for You to Hold Vanuatu Citizenship?

Vanuatu permits dual citizenship, so Vanuatu law does not require you to give up your existing nationality. Whether you can keep it is a question for the law of the country whose citizen you already are. The possibilities include:

• countries that allow dual nationality without conditions;
• countries that allow it only with prior permission or notification;
• countries where voluntarily acquiring another citizenship causes automatic loss of the original one;
• countries that do not recognize a second nationality for their own citizens while they are on home territory.

Holding a second citizenship lawfully can also bring duties at home — declaring it to an employer with security clearance, to a public register, or in a tax return. None of these are imposed by Vanuatu, and none can be waived by a Vanuatu agent.

Where Legality Ends and Compliance Begins

A lawful programme can still be used unlawfully. A Vanuatu citizenship obtained with false documents, concealed convictions or unexplained funds is exposed to revocation under the Citizenship Act, and using a second passport to evade sanctions, tax obligations or criminal proceedings elsewhere is unlawful wherever you are. That is why due diligence, with its fee of US$5,000, is part of the process rather than an optional extra.

The procedural safeguards that keep the programme on the right side of that line — payment only after approval, in US dollars, never in cryptocurrency; applications lodged only by licensed designated agents; decisions taken only by the Citizenship Commission — are described in more detail on the programme governance page. Seen together, the answer to "is it legal?" is clear for Vanuatu law and for international law. The remaining questions sit with your own country and with the countries you intend to visit.