When was the Vanuatu Citizenship By Investment Program established?
Economic Citizenship Programs are not new in Vanuatu. In fact, the current Vanuatu Contribution Program (the VCP), is at least the seventh iteration of the country’s passport by investment program. After initial efforts to launch a Citizenship By Investment Program (CBI or CIP for short) failed in the late 1990s, additional versions of the program were launched to boost the country’s revenue.
These earlier CBI programs included:
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1997 – 1998: Vanuatu launches a passport by investment scheme, selling 300 passports, before being shuttered post-9/11.
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2014: The Capital Investment Immigration Plan (Vanuatu CIIP) is introduced.
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2015: The Vanuatu Economic Rehabilitation Program (VERP) is launched in 2015 to raise additional funds for recovery activities after Cyclone Pam ravages the country.
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2016: The CIIP program is replaced by the Vanuatu Real Estate Option Program (REO Program) in November 2016.
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2017: The REO Program, in turn, is replaced by the Vanuatu Economic Rehabilitation Program (VERP). THE VERP program was replaced by the Vanuatu Development Support Program (VDSP) and Vanuatu Contribution Program (VCP) in March 2017. The latter two programs ran concurrently, with the VCP being marketed mostly via a single authorized representative in Hong Kong.
Said agent received a termination notice in May 2020, suggesting that the country’s dual-CIP era may be drawing to a close in the near future.
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2018: Program formats remain unchanged, however legislative changes are made and the VDSP and VCP pricing is slashed to $150,000 from $200,000 to remain competitive against Caribbean Citizenship By Investment programs.
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2019: VDSP regulations amended to slash minimum contribution from $150,000 to $130,000.
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2020: Unlike many of the other Caribbean CBI programs, Vanuatu has not introduced any further price reductions or special offers, nor expanded on their eligible co-applicant definitions.
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