Vanuatu’s Ministry of Finance and Treasury reported a record in Citizenship by Investment (CBI) revenues. The first half-year ending June 30, 2020, yielded over $62 million. This is roughly a 30+ percent growth from under $40 million received from January through June.

Ronald Warsal, Chairman of the Vanuatu National Citizenship Commission, commented to Vanuatu Daily Post that by August 14, 2020, the joint 2020 revenue from the country’s two programmes went up to $84.6 million. That’s already 80% of last year’s total.

At this pace, Vanuatu will finish the year with $137 million of CBI income. Vanuatu’s Citizenship Commission doesn’t share details on the number of applications. However, given the average trend, we can conjecture that the country has approved over 700 candidates this year.

The Vanuatu government implies there may be alternative citizenship routes in the future, aside from direct contribution. A property purchase scenario is the first that comes to mind.

For the record, Vanuatu’s borders have been barred since March. The country is entirely COVID-free and the authorities would like to keep it that way. Apparently, COVID plays no role in fast and efficient processing of CBI applications and Vanuatu remains a solid, cost-effective plan B for HNWIs across the globe.

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