Saint Lucia citizenship by investment runs on five qualifying routes, and the cheapest of them is a US$240,000 contribution to the National Economic Fund covering an applicant with up to three qualifying dependants. Property costs more and is locked: US$300,000 in an approved real estate project, or US$500,000 in an approved built real estate project, and on both the asset cannot be sold or transferred for at least five years after citizenship is granted. Government bonds sit at US$300,000 held for five years without interest. Since 1 January 2026 the Act has required the applicant and every qualifying dependant to satisfy prescribed residency and genuine link requirements, and the Board may approve no more than 1,500 applications in a year. The Unit’s own published answer on timing is roughly ninety days from the moment your agent is told the file has been accepted for processing.
Every figure below comes from Saint Lucia’s own gazetted legislation or from the Citizenship by Investment Unit’s official site, retrieved on 23 August 2026; the 2025 Act, the 2026 Regulations and the Unit’s answer on timing were read again in full on 30 September 2026. The governing instruments are the Citizenship by Investment Act Cap. 1.20 as amended by Act No. 22 of 2025, and the Citizenship by Investment Regulations Cap. 1.20 as amended, most recently by Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2026, gazetted 23 March 2026. Where a figure is not in one of those sources, it is not on this page.
The qualifying routes and what each costs
Saint Lucia National Economic Fund
A non-refundable contribution. The amounts were set by Statutory Instrument No. 106 of 2024, deemed in force from 1 July 2024.
| Contribution | Amount |
|---|---|
| Applicant applying with up to three qualifying dependants | US$240,000 |
| Each additional qualifying dependant under 18 | US$10,000 |
| Each additional qualifying dependant above 18 | US$20,000 |
| New-born child of a citizen, twelve months of age or below | US$5,000 |
| Spouse of a citizen | US$35,000 |
| Qualifying dependant of a citizen other than a spouse | US$25,000 |
Two mechanics inside the fund route are worth knowing before you choose it. Regulation 9(2), as replaced in 2024, directs the Board to pay US$200,000 of the minimum qualifying investment into the National Economic Fund. The 2026 amendment then rewrote the same subregulation so that the Board retains twenty-five per cent of each contribution for the marketing and promotion of the program.
Approved real estate project
The minimum investment is US$300,000, plus administration fees charged separately. Those fees were re-set by the 2026 instrument.
| Non-refundable administration fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Applicant applying alone | US$30,000 |
| Applicant applying with spouse alone | US$45,000 |
| Each additional qualifying dependant under 18 | US$5,000 |
| Each additional qualifying dependant 18 and older | US$10,000 |
| Applicant with spouse and more than four dependants | US$10,000 for each additional dependant of any age |
Regulation 10(8) of the principal Regulations is the lock: an investment in an approved real estate project made as a qualifying investment shall not be sold or transferred for a period of at least five years after the granting of citizenship. Note also that the 2026 instrument closed the developer pipeline on this route, providing that an application for approval of a real estate project must not be made after 1 December 2025. That governs which projects can newly enter the approved list, not existing ones.
Approved built real estate project
This route is new. Regulation 10A and Schedule 3 were inserted by Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2026, and Schedule 3 defines a built real estate project as an apartment or a villa. The minimum investment is US$500,000 for the applicant and qualifying dependants, and the non-refundable administration fee is US$30,000 for the applicant.
Three obligations travel with it. The investment shall not be sold or transferred for at least five years after the granting of citizenship. Within ninety days of receiving the certificate of registration the citizen must take the steps needed to obtain title documents, including registering the interest at the Registry or completing the transfer or issue of shares. Beneficial ownership through a company is permitted only where the company has issued the authorized shares to the applicant, is incorporated or registered and maintained under the laws of Saint Lucia, and submits evidence of its beneficial ownership certified by the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Properties.
Government bonds
Schedule 2 paragraph 4(a), as replaced by Statutory Instrument No. 222 of 2022, sets the minimum at US$300,000 for the applicant and any number of qualifying dependants, with a bond holding period of five years. Regulation 12(2) adds that the bonds must be registered and remain in the name of the applicant, must remain in a five year holding bond from the date of first issue, and do not attract interest for the duration of the bond. The Unit’s published investment options page states a non-refundable administration fee of US$50,000 on this route.
Approved enterprise project
Schedule 2 paragraph 3, as replaced in 2026, sets three options. Option 1 is US$3,500,000 by a single applicant, plus no fewer than three permanent jobs. Option 2 is a joint investment totalling US$6,000,000 with each applicant contributing a minimum of US$1,000,000, plus no fewer than six permanent jobs. Option 3, for a Cabinet-approved enterprise project such as housing, a cruise port, a bridge, a road, a highway, a marina or a social development project, is US$250,000 for the applicant and qualifying dependants.
Administration fees on the enterprise route were set by Statutory Instrument No. 162 of 2023. For Options 1 and 2 they are US$50,000 for an applicant applying alone, US$25,000 for each qualifying dependant under 18 and US$35,000 for each aged 18 and over. For Option 3 they run US$15,000 for an applicant alone, US$20,000 with one dependant, US$25,000 with two, and US$30,000 with three or more.
The fees every route pays
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Due diligence and background check, applicant | US$8,000 |
| Due diligence and background check, each qualifying dependant over 16 | US$5,000 |
| Non-refundable processing fee, applicant | US$2,000 |
| Non-refundable processing fee, each qualifying dependant | US$1,000 |
| Due diligence on a change of name, applicant | US$10,000 |
| Due diligence on a change of name, each qualifying dependant over 16 | US$7,500 |
| Review of a denied application | US$3,000 |
The change of name figures are not a curiosity. Section 36A, inserted by Act No. 22 of 2025, prohibits a citizen from changing his or her name within five years of the certificate of registration, with narrow exceptions for marriage, divorce, adoption or legitimisation evidenced by a court order or certificate, for inclusion in a witness protection or anti-trafficking program, and for a clerical or transliteration correction. Outside those exceptions the restriction is absolute for five years.
Who can be included
Act No. 22 of 2025 replaced the definition of qualifying dependant. It now means a spouse of the applicant; a child of the applicant or of the spouse aged twenty-one or below; a child of the applicant or of the spouse no more than thirty years of age and fully supported by the applicant; a parent of the applicant or of the spouse above fifty-five years of age and fully supported by the applicant; and an unmarried sister or brother of the applicant below eighteen years of age who has the consent of a parent or guardian. It also includes an individual of any age who is physically or mentally challenged and fully supported by the applicant.
Where a dependant is included on the physically or mentally challenged ground, the application must carry a certified court order or other legally recognized document attesting to the incapacity, a medical certificate supporting it, documentary evidence of financial dependence, and proof of residence, cohabitation or direct care by the applicant.
What the file has to carry
Section 30(4) of the Act, as amended in 2025, requires the application to be made in the prescribed form, dated and signed, accompanied by all requisite documentation and information, by the prescribed non-refundable processing fees, and by four evidential items: a health certificate issued by a medical practitioner for each applicant and qualifying dependant, a police certificate from the applicant’s country of residence, a banker’s reference, and the details and evidence of the proposed qualifying investment.
Section 36(1A) adds a sworn affidavit declaring the prescribed financial resources, together with supporting documents demonstrating the declared resources and the source of funds. The 2026 Regulations fix that prescribed figure at US$350,000. Regulation 15A, also inserted in 2026, requires a successful applicant to provide biometric data, defined to include fingerprints and other unique physical or behavioural characteristics. The Unit’s published guidance requires supporting documents in English, and where the original is in another language, both the original and an authenticated English translation.
The cap, the timeline and the residency requirement
Regulation 7(9) permits the Board to approve a maximum of one thousand five hundred applications annually. Applications received during the financial years 2024 and 2025 and approved during 2024, 2025, 2026 or 2027 are excluded from the count for 2025, 2026 and 2027.
Section 30A, inserted by Act No. 22 of 2025 and effective from 1 January 2026, requires the applicant and each qualifying dependant to comply with prescribed requirements for residency and genuine link. The Act states the obligation; we did not find the prescribed detail in the regulations published to date, and we do not guess at it.
On timing, the Unit’s own answer is that from the date your authorized agent is notified that the application has been accepted for processing, it takes approximately ninety days to the grant of citizenship. On approval the applicant takes the prescribed oath or affirmation of allegiance to Saint Lucia and the Minister issues a certificate of registration.
What sinks a file
Section 36(3) as replaced in 2025 makes refusal mandatory, not discretionary, where an applicant provides false information, has been convicted of a criminal offense other than a minor traffic offense, is the subject of a criminal investigation, is considered a potential national security risk, is involved in any activity likely to cause disrepute to Saint Lucia, or has been denied a visa by a country with which Saint Lucia has visa-free travel and has not subsequently obtained a visa to that country.
The same section gives the Board a discretion to deny where the applicant’s citizenship by investment application has been denied by an OECS Member State. That is the provision most people underestimate. A refusal elsewhere in the Eastern Caribbean now follows the applicant, and a visa refusal that was never disclosed can collapse a technically well-funded file at due diligence rather than at underwriting.
Where Saint Lucia is stronger, and where it is not
Against Grenada, whose figures on this site also come from gazetted legislation, Saint Lucia’s fund route is cheaper for a small family: US$240,000 for an applicant with up to three dependants, against Grenada’s US$235,000 for a main applicant and up to three dependants where no parent, grandparent or sibling is included. Once you add older parents or an adult sibling the comparison inverts sharply, because Grenada prices those categories separately at US$50,000 and US$75,000 each while Saint Lucia folds a supported parent over fifty-five into the ordinary dependant bands.
Saint Lucia’s property routes are more expensive than its fund route by a wide margin and carry a five-year lock, and the new built real estate route at US$500,000 is the most expensive property entry of the two programs. Against that, Saint Lucia offers a bond route that Grenada does not, and a published processing answer of about ninety days.
Where Saint Lucia is plainly weaker for a buyer who wants the file to be quiet: the residency and genuine link requirement now sits in the Act, the annual approval cap is real, and the five-year restriction on changing your name is unusual among these programs. None of that makes the program worse; it makes it a program that expects a documented, durable connection rather than a transaction. If your file cannot carry that, it is better to know before you pay.
For the other programs buyers usually weigh at the same time, our figures and sources are on the Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Vanuatu pages. We do not restate another country’s numbers here, because a number repeated out of its own instrument is how these comparisons go wrong.
Saint Lucia against Türkiye since the 2026 residency rule
Since 1 January 2026 Saint Lucia and Türkiye differ first on residence, and then on everything the table shows. Each cell comes from the instrument of that State.
| Point of comparison | Saint Lucia | Türkiye |
|---|---|---|
| What the investment buys | Citizenship by registration, after the prescribed oath or affirmation | Turkish citizenship, by a decision of the President (Law No. 5901, Article 12(b)) |
| Minimum by route | US$240,000 National Economic Fund; US$250,000 in an enterprise project the Cabinet has approved; US$300,000 approved real estate or government bonds; US$500,000 built apartment or villa; US$3,500,000 private enterprise | USD 400,000 property; USD 500,000 on deposit, fixed capital, state debt instruments, fund units or pension; or 50 employees |
| What the money becomes | A fund contribution, a quarter of it retained for marketing; or property, interest-free bonds or an enterprise investment | An owned asset on every route, from a property to a company |
| Holding period | Real estate and built real estate five years after the grant; bonds five years from first issue | Three years on property and on the four financial routes; fixed capital and employment carry none |
| Family in the same file | Spouse; children 21 or below; children to 30 if fully supported; parents above 55 fully supported; unmarried siblings under 18 | The spouse and the children who are minors or dependent, without adding to the investment |
| Residence | Prescribed residency and genuine link requirements for the applicant and every dependant since 1 January 2026 | No residence requirement |
| Decision time | About ninety days from acceptance for processing | Three to six months officially; about three to four in practice on a complete file |
A buyer who cannot build a residence or a genuine link with Saint Lucia now has a file the Act itself puts at risk, while Türkiye’s regulation asks for none. Turkish citizenship by investment sets out the Turkish routes one by one, and the citizenship by investment country comparison lays every open program’s figures side by side.
How Serka works on a Saint Lucia file
We are an independent law firm. We are not an authorized agent of the Saint Lucia program and we do not hold that license, so the submission itself goes through an agent who does. What we do is the legal work that decides whether the submission survives: reading the client’s real history against the six mandatory grounds of refusal and against the OECS discretion, building a source of funds record that answers a due diligence firm rather than a checklist, checking that the affidavit of financial resources is supportable by documents that exist, and making sure every certification and translation matches the form the Regulations demand.
We also read the exit before the entry. On the property routes the five-year restriction on sale or transfer, and the ninety-day obligation to perfect title after the certificate of registration, decide what the asset is worth to the next buyer. That belongs in the analysis before the purchase.
Your nationality, your family composition, and any visa refusal, criminal investigation or earlier citizenship by investment refusal decide whether a Saint Lucia file is worth opening, and the 2026 residency rule now sits on top of them. Put those facts to us together with any Turkish unit you are looking at, since on the Turkish side the seller’s status, the charges on the title and the valuation decide the file. Contact info@serkalaw.com, or +90 530 127 59 35 on WhatsApp.
What we left off this page
We publish no visa-free destination count for Saint Lucia. That figure moves without notice, no Saint Lucia instrument states it, and every version in circulation traces back to a commercial index rather than to a government. We also publish no tax statement and no view on how a second citizenship interacts with your existing one. Those are questions for advice on your own facts, not for a public page.
Sources
- Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Act, No. 22 of 2025, assented 3 November 2025, gazetted 10 November 2025, as published by the Citizenship by Investment Unit. Retrieved 23 August 2026, re-read end to end on 30 September 2026. Source for the qualifying dependant definition, section 30A residency and genuine link, section 36(3) grounds of refusal, section 36A change of name, section 30(4) documents.
- Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2026, made 20 March 2026, gazetted 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 August 2026, re-read end to end on 30 September 2026. Source for the built real estate route, the US$350,000 affidavit figure, the 1,500 annual cap, the due diligence fees, the real estate administration fees and the enterprise minimums.
- Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations, 2024, Statutory Instrument No. 106 of 2024, made 8 July 2024, in force from 1 July 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2026. Source for the National Economic Fund and approved real estate minimums.
- Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations, 2022, Statutory Instrument No. 222 of 2022, made 30 December 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2026. Source for the US$300,000 government bond amount and the five-year holding period.
- Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Regulations, Statutory Instrument No. 162 of 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2026. Source for the enterprise project administration fees.
- Citizenship by Investment Regulations, Statutory Instrument No. 89 of 2015, made under section 40 of the Act. Retrieved 23 August 2026. Source for regulation 10(8) five-year restriction, regulation 12(2) bond conditions and Schedule 1 processing fees.
- Citizenship by Investment Unit, official program site, investment options and frequently asked questions. Retrieved 23 August 2026; the answer on timing read again 30 September 2026. Source for the bond administration fee, the ninety-day processing answer and the English documentation requirement.
Every other program is set against Saint Lucia on the citizenship by investment country comparison, and the Turkish routes on Turkish citizenship by investment.