Caribbean Passports: What the EU Has Actually Decided

At a glance

• Adopted law: Regulation (EU) 2025/2441, in force since 30 December 2025, makes an investor citizenship scheme an express ground for suspending visa-free travel.
• Recommendation: the Commission's report of 19 December 2025 recommended vetting "pending the discontinuation" of the five Caribbean schemes. It did not trigger or propose a suspension.
• Reported, not confirmed in an EU document: a June 2026 letter asking for the schemes to be phased out by 1 June 2028.
• Status on 24 September 2026: we have found no EU decision suspending visa-free travel for any of the five states.
• For Spain, unchanged throughout: living in Spain requires a Spanish national visa or residence authorisation, whatever passport you hold.

How to read EU news on investment passports

Four kinds of statement appear in the coverage, and they carry very different weight:

• Regulations and Council decisions are binding law. They change what happens at the border.
• Court judgments state what EU law requires in the case decided.
• Commission reports and recommendations set out the Commission's assessment. They are not suspensions.
• Press reports of letters or negotiations are information about a process. Until the underlying document is published, they should be read with care.

Headlines often present the third and fourth categories as if they were the first. For planning purposes, the question to ask about any development is simple: which category is it, and what date does it carry?

What has been adopted, and when

• 4 May 2022 to 14 January 2025, Vanuatu. The Council partially suspended Vanuatu's visa waiver from 4 May 2022. On 8 November 2022 it decided on a full suspension, applying from 4 February 2023. Regulation (EU) 2025/11 of 19 December 2024, published on 14 January 2025, moved Vanuatu to the list of countries whose nationals need a visa. The reason given was its investor citizenship schemes.
• 29 April 2025, Court of Justice. In case C-181/23, Commission v Malta, the Court ruled that Malta's investor citizenship scheme breached EU law, because a Member State cannot grant its nationality in exchange for predetermined payments or investments. The ruling concerned an EU Member State, not a Caribbean state, but it sets out the Court's view of such schemes under EU law.
• 26 November 2025, adopted; 30 December 2025, in force. Regulation (EU) 2025/2441 revised the visa suspension mechanism. Its new ground covers a third country operating "an investor citizenship scheme" granting citizenship for pre-determined payments or investments without any genuine link. It also lowered the refusal and overstay threshold from 50% to 30%, and extended the initial suspension period to up to 12 months, extendable to 24.

Vanuatu is the precedent: its investor citizenship schemes were the stated reason the EU suspended, and then ended, visa-free travel for its nationals.

What the Commission reported in December 2025

On 19 December 2025 the Commission published its Eighth report under the visa suspension mechanism, COM(2025) 792. On the Caribbean schemes it found:

• about 107,000 passports issued under the schemes of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia;
• 13,113 applications in 2023 and 10,573 in 2024;
• short processing times and low rejection rates.

The report recommended proper vetting "pending the discontinuation" of those schemes and noted that they are a potential ground for suspension under the revised mechanism. It did not trigger a suspension and did not propose one. That distinction matters: an assessment in a report is not a change to your travel rights.

What has been reported since

On 7 July 2026 the Office of the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda issued a statement, widely reported in the press, saying that Commissioner Brunner had written on 25 June 2026 asking for Antigua's scheme to be phased out by 1 June 2028, with interim measures, including the exclusion of EU-sanctioned persons and stronger vetting, by September 2026. Similar letters were reportedly sent to all five states.

We have not seen the letter, and its terms have not been confirmed in a published EU document. It should therefore be read as a reported step in a process, not as a decision. As of our research date, 24 September 2026, we have found no EU decision suspending visa-free travel for any of the five Caribbean states.

We do not forecast what comes next. What we can do is help you build a position in Europe that does not depend on the answer.

What your Caribbean passport does for Spain today

A Caribbean passport provides visa-free short stays in the Schengen area. That is a travel facility. It does not authorise you to live in Spain, and time spent in Spain as a visitor does not count as legal residence.

Spanish missions are explicit: third-country nationals need a national visa to stay in Spain for more than 90 days for work, study or establishing their residence. Only EU, EEA and Swiss nationals are exempt. So the passport does not lower the financial threshold, remove a document or shorten a deadline.

Its practical relevance is narrower. It makes travel easier while your file is prepared. Some authorisations, including the one for international teleworkers, are filed in Spain with the UGE-CE rather than at a consulate, and a visa-exempt passport can matter there. Whether you can file from inside Spain depends on your circumstances, and we check that before you travel.

Which consulate, and which documents

Many holders of Caribbean passports do not live in the Caribbean, but in Dubai, Riyadh, Istanbul, Tehran or elsewhere. Spanish missions accept applications from people who reside in their consular district, so you apply where you legally live. A Dominica or Grenada passport does not give access to a different mission.

Your documents follow the same logic. Birth and marriage certificates come from the country where they were issued, and criminal records from the countries where you have resided (five years for the non-lucrative visa; two years plus a sworn declaration covering five for the digital nomad visa). Apostille countries such as Türkiye and Saudi Arabia use the Apostille; the UAE, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and Iran require consular legalisation through their Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then the Spanish mission.

If you were born in Iran and hold a Dominica passport, our guide for Iranian nationals with a Dominica passport covers the Iranian chain and the financial trace in detail. For the broader picture, including Vanuatu, see our guide for all investment-passport holders.

A status that rests on Spanish law

A Spanish residence authorisation is granted by Spain, under Spanish law, on the basis of your own residence, documents and means. It is not a passport and it is not a route we sell as one. Its value is that it gives you a lawful European base that you control.

Non-Lucrative Residency: for people living on savings, investments or passive income who will not work in Spain. The main applicant needs €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) and €7,200 a year for each family member, based on IPREM of €600 a month, the level since 2023. One year initially, then two-year renewals, with more than 183 days a year in Spain.

Digital nomad route: for remote employees or self-employed professionals working for companies outside Spain. We work to €2,849 a month for the main applicant, plus €1,068 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one, on the 2026 minimum wage. The authorisation granted in Spain lasts three years, renewable for two.

These thresholds are tied to official indicators and are confirmed on the filing date. After five years of legal and continuous residence, you can apply for long-term residence, the most stable status in the system.

How Parastoo Legal Group works with Caribbean passport holders

We are a Madrid-based immigration and global mobility firm, and we have handled many successful files for Dominica passport holders and holders of other Caribbean passports. We do not sell or arrange citizenship by investment, which is why we can separate fact from headline without an interest in the outcome.

Your case manager confirms the mission with jurisdiction, maps each document to its legalisation chain, checks your financial trace, and prepares a short cover memo for the case officer summarising the file. Our team of 15 works in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and English and has secured more than 400 approved residencies with a 95% approval rate. The first consultation, by video call or phone, is free.