Nigerians with Caribbean passports face double setback under US travel restrictions

Nigerians who hold second citizenship from Caribbean countries operating citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes may have been hit with a double whammy.

This follows the United States’ decision to impose partial travel restrictions on several countries, including Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica.

The two Caribbean nations, both popular among wealthy Nigerians for offering CBI without long-term residency requirements, were added to Washington’s updated list of countries facing partial entry restrictions on Tuesday.

Nigeria was also named among the affected states.

This means some Nigerians could now face limitations regardless of whether they travel on Nigerian or Caribbean passports.

The White House cited a CBI pattern as justification for adding Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica to the list.

Nigeria made the cut owing to “screening and vetting difficulties” and US visa overstay reports.

CBIs allow foreigners to acquire passports in exchange for financial contributions.

To obtain a passport from Antigua and Barbuda, foreigners need to make a non‑refundable contribution to the National Development Fund (NDF) of at least $230,000, according to the country’s CBI unit.

The same minimum contribution applies to family applications, making it one of the cheapest Caribbean routes to citizenship.

Investment options are also spread across real estate, business contributions, and the University of the West Indies Fund (UWI).

Antigua and Barbuda citizens get visa-free access to 151 countries.

The same routes apply to obtaining a Dominican passport, allowing investors to contribute to a government fund or participating in a real estate project. These investments typically start at $200,000.

The Dominica passport allows holders to travel to 145 countries without a visa.

These passports have appealed to high-net-worth Nigerians seeking to ease international travel, otherwise constrained by the domestic passport, which offered visa-free access to just 45 countries as of March.

In 2023, the United Kingdom government announced a suspension of the visa-waiver agreement for all Dominican nationals, including to visit, citing an abuse of the passport acquisition process.

Later that year, the European Union (EU) said it would review its visa-mechanism in countries that offered CIB schemes to nations with a corruption perception and poor human rights records.

The EU raised concerns around the nationalities of the highest applicants, saying they came from China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, and Libya. (The Cable)