How to get citizenship or residency for siblings

Investors who apply for citizenship in the Caribbean may include their siblings in the application. The conditions for siblings depend on the country. Also, additional payments are a must, and sometimes it may be more expensive to pay for a brother’s or a sister’s participation in a program than for including a child or a parent.

Caribbean citizenship by investment programs

A Caribbean passport allows one to travel visa-free to 140+ countries, including the Schengen Area and the UK, get a 10-year visitor visa to the US and optimise taxation.

Antigua and Barbuda grants citizenship to investors’ and their spouses’ siblings of any age. Brothers and sisters must have no children, be unmarried and financially dependent on the main applicant.

There are no special payments for siblings; the costs for getting Antigua and Barbuda citizenship for them are the same as for investors’ children or parents.

An investor must pay an additional processing fee of $15,000 for each relative in the application starting from the fifth or seventh, depending on the chosen investment option, except the one of business investment.

A passport fee for a sibling is $300. The Due Diligence fee is:

• $2,000 for a sibling aged 12 to 17;

• $4,000 for the one over 18.

Grenada allows investors to include siblings of themselves or their spouses in their citizenship applications. To get a Grenada passport, a sibling must be:

• over 18 years old;

• unmarried and have no children;

• financially dependent on the investor.

Applicants can choose whether to contribute to the National Transformation Fund or buy real estate in Grenada to obtain citizenship. In both cases, the additional payment for a sibling is $75,000: it is paid as a part of the contribution to the state fund or as a government contribution when buying real estate.

The Due Diligence fee for an investor’s sibling is $5,000; other government fees for getting a passport sum up to at least $3,250.

Practical Guide

Practical Guide

Compare the Caribbean and Vanuatu citizenship by investment programs

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St Lucia allows investors to apply for citizenship for their brothers and sisters. A sibling must be under 18, unmarried and have no children. Also, consent for obtaining citizenship by investment from a parent or a guardian is required.

If an investor contributes to the National Economic Fund, they pay an additional $25,000 investment for each sibling. In other cases, the additional investment or administration fee may be $10,000 or $25,000, depending on the chosen investment option and the family’s composition.

The Due Diligence fee for a sibling aged 16 to 18 is $5,000; this fee is not paid if a sibling is under 16. The processing fee is $1,000, and the passport fee is $500.

Citizenship in an EU member state allows one to settle in any country of the union, get access to high-quality healthcare and education, and travel across the world visa-free. But here’s a hitch: no citizenship-by-investment programs work in the EU countries.

A possible route to a passport is naturalisation: investors get residency and then apply for citizenship after several years of living in the country.

Some countries allow residency for siblings if they meet particular conditions. Portugal and Malta, countries with some attractive options, are among them.

Portugal is a country with a popular Golden Visa program. Investors can include family members in the application: spouses, children under 26, and parents. Also, siblings under 18 can get residence permits. It is possible if a brother or a sister is under the custody of the investor.

Portugal Golden Visa

Other visas, like the Portugal D7 Visa, allow underage siblings to get residency for family reunification. The custody of the resident must be confirmed by a decision by a relevant authority in the country of origin, which is recognised by Portugal.

Five years of residence are required to get Portugal citizenship by naturalisation. Also, one must pass a Portuguese language test at the A2 level, confirm they have no conviction for a crime and be of no threat to national security.

Malta provides foreigners with residence permits under the Global Residence Programme. It implies a special tax regime for residents: they pay a 15% tax on foreign income received in Malta, 35% on income earned in Malta and 0% on foreign income that is not transferred to Malta. The minimum annual tax is €15,000.

Main applicants’ and their spouses’ siblings may get residency alongside other family members. They must be financially dependent on the investor to get the right to participate in the program.

Malta citizenship may be obtained by naturalisation if a person has been living in Malta for at least five years: 12 months before applying and four years in six years preceding those 12 months. Also, a resident must prove adequate knowledge of English or Maltese.

Another condition is to find two sponsors to represent the applicant as a person of good character. They must be Maltese citizens who have obtained citizenship in any way except naturalisation. Also, one of the sponsors must be a Parliament member, a police officer, a judge, a parish priest or another professional on the approved list.

The applicant and the sponsors must know each other for at least two years and should not be relatives.

Only US citizens aged 21+ can file a petition for Green Cards for their siblings so they can move to the US. If one is a US permanent resident, they can’t help their brothers and sisters to get residency, too.

Who qualifies as a sibling. One can apply for a Green Card for family preference immigrants as a US citizen sibling in the following cases:

• if they have at least one common parent with a US citizen;

• are related through a step-parent;

• are related through adoption.

In the last case, one can apply if they or their sibling had been adopted before they became 16 years old.

Documents. The essential list of documents to apply for a Green Card for a sibling includes the following:

1. A completed Form I‑30, which is a petition for an alien relative.

2. Copies of the siblings’ birth certificates.

3. Evidence that the applicant is a US citizen. A copy of a valid passport, US birth, naturalisation or citizenship certificate would work.

In some cases, additional documents are needed.

If siblings are related through the adoption, an applicant must submit an adoption decree which shows that the adopted sibling was under 16 at the time of this procedure.

Siblings related through a step-parent submit copies of documents confirming legal termination of their parents’ previous marriages and a copy of a marriage certificate of the natural parent to the step-parent.

If siblings have a common father but different mothers, they provide copies of the marriage certificates of their father to each of the mothers. Also, documents confirming that their parents’ previous marriages were legally terminated are required.

If the siblings have changed their names, proof of legal name change is required. It may be a marriage certificate, a divorce decree, a court judgement or another document.

First, there is a filing fee for Form I‑30, which is $535. Another hefty fee is filing Form I‑485, the application to adjust the status if a person is in the US. For siblings, the fee is $1,140.

Some other fees are to be paid, like the USCIS Immigrant Fee and charges for submitting biometrics.

1. Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia allow siblings to participate in citizenship-by-investment programs alongside the investors. Conditions depend on the country: for example, in Grenada, siblings must be over 18, and St Lucia, on the contrary, allows only minor siblings to be included in the application.

2. There’s no way to get citizenship in a European country by investment. But some countries have residency programs, and sometimes siblings can be included in the application. For example, such rules are in Portugal and Malta.

3. Citizenship by naturalisation usually requires one to live in the country for 5+ years before applying.

4. US citizens can apply for Green Cards for their siblings. But the procedure usually takes several years, so it may be reasonable to consider other options.