Dominica citizenship by investment runs on two qualifying routes, and both carry the same headline minimum of US$200,000. The difference is what sits on top of it. On the direct monetary investment route the US$200,000 is the investment, and the additional government charges are small. On the Approved Project route the US$200,000 buys real estate and the government then charges a separate US$75,000 for a single applicant, or US$100,000 for a main applicant with up to three dependants. Every application is filed by an Authorised Agent, every applicant is interviewed, and the regulations give the Citizenship by Investment Unit three months from submission to answer approved in principle, delayed for cause, or denied.
Every figure on this page is taken from the Commonwealth of Dominica Citizenship by Investment Regulations 2024, Statutory Rules and Orders No. 8 of 2024, gazetted 28 June 2024 and made by the Minister under section 20 of the Citizenship Act, Chap 1:10. The instrument was first retrieved from the Government of Dominica’s own law repository on 23 August 2026 and read again in full on 30 September 2026. Where a figure is not in that instrument, it is not on this page.
The two qualifying routes
The regulations recognize a direct monetary investment paid to the Government, and an investment in a project that Cabinet has designated an Approved Project. Real estate is one form of Approved Project, and the regulations define real estate widely enough to include a parcel of land with a building on it, fractional ownership in land, and shares in a land development.
Direct monetary investment
The minimum is US$200,000 for a main applicant applying alone, and US$250,000 for a main applicant with up to three qualifying dependants. Each additional dependant under eighteen adds US$25,000, and each additional dependant aged eighteen or over adds US$40,000.
On top of the investment the regulations set the following charges, payable on submission:
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Due diligence background check, main applicant | US$7,500 |
| Due diligence background check, each dependant | US$4,000 |
| Interview fee, per interview | US$1,000 |
| Processing fee, per application | US$1,000 |
| Certificate of naturalisation, per person | US$500 |
Approved Project, including real estate
The minimum investment is US$200,000 for each main applicant. Where two or more applicants invest in the same Approved Project together, each of them must contribute that minimum in their own right. The government fees on this route are charged separately, on approval in principle:
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Government fee, main applicant alone | US$75,000 |
| Government fee, main applicant with up to three dependants | US$100,000 |
| Each additional dependant under eighteen | US$25,000 |
| Each additional qualified dependant eighteen or over | US$40,000 |
| Due diligence background check, main applicant | US$7,500 |
| Due diligence background check, each dependant sixteen or over | US$4,000 |
| Interview fee, per interview | US$1,000 |
| Processing fee, per application | US$1,000 |
| Certificate of naturalisation, per person | US$500 |
A family of four on the direct route therefore starts at US$250,000 plus the charges in the first table. The same family through an Approved Project starts at US$200,000 of property plus US$100,000 of government fees, before the charges are added. The property is an asset and the contribution is not, which is the trade the two routes actually offer.
Enhanced due diligence, and what it costs
Where the main applicant or any dependant is a citizen of a country or region that the Minister has specified by notice in the Gazette, the Financial Intelligence Unit must run an enhanced due diligence check. The fees then replace the ordinary due diligence and interview fees: US$25,000 for the main applicant, US$15,000 for the spouse, US$15,000 for each dependant aged sixteen or over, and US$10,000 for each dependant aged twelve to fifteen. Under the enhanced process, checks reach dependants from age twelve rather than sixteen, and the main applicant plus every dependant aged sixteen or over must attend an interview.
Which countries are specified is set by ministerial notice in the Gazette. We did not retrieve a current notice, so this page names no country.
The holding period on property
Real estate that has qualified an applicant for citizenship cannot be resold until at least three years have passed from the grant of citizenship. A separate and longer rule governs whether the same property can qualify somebody else: five years must have passed from that grant before it is eligible for use in a further application. Selling in breach of either rule carries revocation of citizenship, possible disqualification from the program, and nullification of the sale, or damages payable to the Government where the transaction cannot be undone.
Those two periods are frequently quoted as one. They are not the same period, and a buyer planning an exit needs the five-year figure rather than the three-year one, because a purchaser who wants the property to carry citizenship value is the purchaser who pays for it.
Who can be included
A main applicant has to be eighteen or older. The regulations define a dependant as the spouse; a child under eighteen of the main applicant or the spouse; a child between eighteen and thirty in attendance at a recognized institution of higher learning and fully supported; an unmarried daughter under twenty-five living with and fully supported; a child aged eighteen or over who is physically or mentally challenged and fully supported; and parents or grandparents of the main applicant or the spouse above the age of sixty-five who are substantially supported.
The support element is not decoration. For every dependant over eighteen other than the spouse, the main applicant has to swear an affidavit of support, and a dependant between eighteen and thirty relying on study has to produce transcripts or a stamped letter from the institution confirming current enrollment.
The document set and how it has to be prepared
Applications are submitted only through an Authorised Agent, in English, on the prescribed forms, with originals or notarially certified copies. Documents in another language need an authenticated translation, and translations of a birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate or passport biodata page must be certified by the government authority, embassy or consulate of the country the document came from.
Where a notary certifies a copy, that certification itself has to be authenticated: by apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention for member states, or by proof of the expiry date of the notary’s commission for the United States, Canada and other non-member states. The fingerprint and photograph verification form and the waiver of residence requirements form each need a fingerprinting officer, justice of the peace, notary or commissioner of oaths to complete, sign and stamp them. The medical form needs a registered medical practitioner.
This is where most avoidable delay is created. A file is only accepted and processed once every form is complete, signed and dated and all fees are shown as paid, so a single unstamped form does not slow the file down, it keeps it out of the queue entirely.
How long a decision takes
Within three months of submission the Unit notifies the Authorised Agent that the application is approved in principle, delayed for cause and still being processed, or denied. Approval in principle is not citizenship. Within thirty days of that notification the main applicant has to show that title has transferred, or that the investment sits in the designated escrow account, or that the direct monetary investment has been paid to the Government, and that all prescribed fees are settled.
Money moves before that. An application is considered only once all monies are held in an irrevocable escrow account with an Authorised Agent, a registered trust company, or an entity in the trust or custodial business, and only once the Approved Project has been deemed to have commenced.
What actually sinks a file
The regulations list the grounds that block approval, and they are wider than a criminal record. An applicant is refused where he has a criminal record other than a minor offense; is under a criminal investigation he knew or should have known about and did not disclose; has been denied citizenship anywhere; has been denied a visa to the European Union or the United Kingdom; has been denied a visa to any country with which Dominica has visa-free travel and has not since obtained a visa or residence permit for it; is judged a potential security risk to Dominica or to any other country; has given materially false information; or has been involved in activity likely to bring Dominica into disrepute.
Two of those deserve attention before an application is drafted. A refused Schengen or UK visa years ago is a disclosable fact, not a forgotten one. And a false statement or a concealed material fact allows deprivation of citizenship after the grant, with the passport recalled and prosecution available under the Perjury Act, and the regulations state plainly that nothing paid is refunded on deprivation.
There are two further standing conditions after the grant. For five years the holder must not change or seek to change his name other than by marriage, and a person sentenced anywhere to twelve months or more of imprisonment after naturalisation is deprived of citizenship.
Dominica beside Türkiye, row by row
Dominica has the lowest published entry figure for full citizenship among the programs open in 2026 (Vanuatu’s lower figure buys honorary citizenship), and Türkiye is the route for a buyer who wants the whole minimum to stay in an asset. The Dominica column is S.R.O. No. 8 of 2024; the Türkiye column is Article 20 of the Turkish Implementing Regulation.
| Point of comparison | Dominica | Türkiye |
|---|---|---|
| What the investment buys | A certificate of naturalisation, approved by the Minister | Turkish nationality, conferred by Presidential decision (Law No. 5901, Art. 12(b)) |
| Minimum by route | US$200,000 direct monetary investment (US$250,000 with up to three dependants); or US$200,000 in an Approved Project plus a US$75,000 government fee (US$100,000 with up to three dependants) | USD 400,000 of real estate, twice the Dominica figure; USD 500,000 through a lira deposit, fixed capital, state bonds, fund units or a private pension; or 50 people employed |
| What the money becomes | A payment to the Government, or property held for the lock | An asset in the investor’s own name: the property, the deposit, the bonds, the fund units, the pension or the company |
| Holding period | Real estate three years from the grant, five before it can qualify another applicant | A three-year no-sale annotation on property; three years for deposit, bonds, funds and pension; none for fixed capital or employment |
| Family in the same file | Spouse; children under 18; children 18 to 30 in higher education; unmarried daughters under 25; disabled adult children; parents or grandparents above 65, each supported | One application for the spouse and for children who are minors or who depend on the applicant, with no second investment |
| Decision time | An answer within three months of submission, then 30 days to complete | Three to six months by the official framework; about three to four on a file assembled correctly from the start |
| Interview | Every applicant, virtually or in person | None; one short biometric visit |
Dominica is the lower figure and the wider family; Türkiye is the higher figure on a route where the whole minimum is the price of property the buyer owns, with no interview. Our Turkish citizenship by investment page walks through the seven Turkish routes, and the citizenship by investment country comparison puts Dominica beside every other open program.
Dominica compared with St Kitts and Nevis
These are the two Caribbean programs we have sourced from primary legislation, so this is the only comparison on this page that rests on documents rather than on marketing.
Dominica is cheaper at entry. Its contribution route starts at US$200,000 against US$250,000 for the Sustainable Island State Contribution in St Kitts and Nevis, and its property minimum is US$200,000 against US$325,000. Dominica also states a shorter decision window, three months against 120 to 180 days.
Dominica charges more in government fees on the property route. St Kitts and Nevis charges post-approval application fees of US$25,000 for the main applicant, US$15,000 for a spouse and US$10,000 for each child under eighteen on its real estate and public benefit options, which comes to US$60,000 for a family of four. Dominica charges US$100,000 for the same family, US$40,000 more. That is the one line where Dominica is the dearer of the two, and it does not decide the total: the St Kitts and Nevis property floor is US$125,000 higher, so a family of four buying property still starts cheaper in Dominica once the price and the fee are counted together.
Dominica holds property for three years before resale; St Kitts and Nevis holds it for seven. Dominica extends dependency to grandparents above sixty-five and to an unmarried daughter under twenty-five; St Kitts and Nevis does not have those categories in its regulations. St Kitts and Nevis has publicly announced a move away from contribution-based routes toward residency and participation. We retrieved no equivalent announcement from Dominica, which is not the same as saying none exists.
What is not compared here is the thing buyers ask about first, which is travel. Neither government publishes a maintained visa-free list we could verify, and Dominica’s own promotional rules prohibit licensed agents from referencing visa-free travel to named countries. A number in that slot would be a number we invented.
What this page deliberately leaves out
Four things a buyer will find on agency sites are absent here because no official source published them in a form we could retrieve on 23 August 2026: a visa-free country count, the current list of Approved Projects, the list of countries specified for enhanced due diligence, and approval statistics. Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment Unit website returned an automated challenge to every request we made, so nothing on this page rests on it, and everything rests on the gazetted regulations instead.
Schedule 2 of the regulations sets promotional rules for the Authorised Agents, Licenced Promoters and Approved Developers who market the program. Among other things it prohibits referencing visa-free travel to specific countries, claiming a lower cost than the prescribed minimum, publishing images of the passport or certificate of naturalisation, using sale-of-passport language, and comparing the program with others beyond precise fact. We are not a licensed agent or promoter of the Dominica program, and this page holds to those limits regardless, because the material they exclude is material we cannot verify.
How Serka works on a Dominica file
We are an independent law firm, not an agent of the Dominica program. The regulations require every application to be submitted by an Authorised Agent, and we do not hold that license. What we do is the legal work on the file before it reaches one: reading the client’s actual history against the eight grounds of denial, building the source of funds record so it survives a due diligence firm rather than merely satisfying a checklist, checking that every certification, apostille and translation meets the form the regulations demand, and preparing the client for a mandatory interview that most applicants are told about too late.
We also read the exit. The three-year and five-year property rules decide what a Dominica property is worth to the next buyer, and that belongs in the analysis before the purchase, not after it.
Send us your nationality, your family composition, and any visa refusal or investigation in your history: those three facts decide whether a Dominica file is worth opening at all, and whether the same money goes further on Türkiye’s routes, where a property file stands or falls on the deed’s mortgages and annotations and on the valuation under the circular of 28 September 2026. Serka Law Firm reads every message and answers on WhatsApp at +90 530 127 59 35 or from info@serkalaw.com.
Sources
- Commonwealth of Dominica Citizenship by Investment Regulations 2024, Statutory Rules and Orders No. 8 of 2024, gazetted 28 June 2024, made under section 20 of the Citizenship Act Chap 1:10. Government of Dominica law repository. First retrieved 23 August 2026; the whole text read again on 30 September 2026. Every Dominica figure on this page comes from this instrument.
- Saint Christopher and Nevis Citizenship by Substantial Investment Regulations 2024, S.R.O. No. 20 of 2024, and the amending S.R.O. No. 43 of 2024, used only for the comparison section. Sources are listed on our St Kitts and Nevis page.
Every other program is set against Dominica on the citizenship by investment country comparison, and the Turkish routes on Turkish citizenship by investment.