Vanuatu · Residency by investment
Vanuatu Residence Visa (investor and self-funded categories)
Administered by the Department of Immigration and Passport Services. Categories and thresholds are published inconsistently and most figures in circulation come from agents rather than the department; treat the numbers below as indicative.
Residency is the honest way to actually use Vanuatu's zero-tax system, because it requires being there — which is what breaks residency elsewhere. It is also the route almost nobody sells, because the commissions are in the passport.
Qualifying routes
investment in Vanuatu property or agricultural land; agent sources cite a government fee of roughly VT 300,000 (~USD 2,500) per applicant
approximately VT 10,000,000 in physical property or land — figure is agent-sourced and approximate
certified income of at least VT 250,000 per month (VT 500,000 including a spouse), which must actually be deposited into a Vanuatu bank account each month
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $100k
- Total landed cost
- Highly variable. The self-funded route has no capital requirement but demands demonstrable, repatriated monthly income; the investor routes require real property acquisition in a very thin market.
- Timeline
- 2–6 months — not reliably published
- Physical presence
- Not clearly published for renewal; permits are issued for terms between 1 and 10 years depending on category
- Family
- spousedependent children
- Permanent residency
- long-term renewable permits rather than a true permanent status
- Citizenship
- naturalisation exists in law but is slow, discretionary and rarely used by foreigners — in practice those wanting a Vanuatu passport buy the DSP instead
- Language test
- not meaningfully applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- clean criminal recordmedical clearanceevidence of investment or of qualifying incomeVanuatu bank account for the self-funded category
- Published thresholds are unreliable. Almost every number in circulation traces to agent marketing, not to the immigration department. Verify directly before committing.
- Land in Vanuatu is leasehold in practice for foreigners and the market is illiquid; exit can take years.
- The self-funded route requires money to physically land in a Vanuatu bank account monthly — a real constraint given the correspondent banking situation.
- Residency here does not fix the passport problem. Vanuatu residency plus a weak passport is still a weak travel position.
- Cyclone and climate exposure is material and affects insurability of any property acquired.