Over the past two weeks two of the families sitting at my dining table in LA were stuck between Antigua at $230K and Saint Kitts at $250K. Both program brochures advertise "family of four package," but pull out a real five-year cash ledger and the gap becomes more textured than the sticker price suggests. This piece puts the May 2026 numbers for both passports under one family-of-four scenario.
The client profile first. Family of four, typical shape: principal applicant aged 35 to 50, spouse, two dependent children mostly under 12. The principal runs cross-border business and needs one passport that covers Schengen 90-day visa-free for travel, UK short stays, CRS reporting compliance, and a 5 to 10 year window for the children's potential overseas education. Budget ceiling is usually $300K to $350K all in, and they want a passport in hand within 12 months. Under this profile the Caribbean five narrow quickly to Antigua and Saint Kitts. Dominica EDF $200K is cheaper but the July 2026 DD tightening stretched timelines to 9 to 10 months. Saint Lucia NEF $240K runs the strictest review and offers thin value at the family-of-four price point. Grenada NTF $235K sells the E-2 US story and misaligns with the family-of-four use case.
Antigua vs Saint Kitts five-year family-of-four ledger
| Line item | Antigua NDF family of 4 | Saint Kitts SISC family of 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Investment principal | $230,000 (NDF) | $250,000 (SISC) |
| Govt fees, family of 4 | ~$13,000 | ~$20,000 |
| Due diligence fees, 4 | ~$9,300 | ~$11,500 |
| Passport issuance, 4 | ~$1,200 | ~$1,500 |
| Professional service fee | $15,000-25,000 | $15,000-25,000 |
| Front-end total | ~$268K-278K | ~$298K-308K |
| Five-year landing rule | Must land 5 days total | None |
| One-way landing flights | ~$3,000 for 4 from LA | $0 |
| Five-night hotel block | ~$1,500 | $0 |
| Five-year total cash | ~$272K-282K | ~$298K-308K |
| Processing time | 4-6 months | 6-12 months / P1 70-90 days |
| Visa-free destinations | ~151 countries | ~154 countries |
| Schengen visa-free | Yes | Yes |
| UK access | 180 days | 180 days |
| Multi-generation | Parents 55+ no extra NDF | Parents 55+ no extra SISC |
| Program age | 2013, 13 years | 1984, 42 years |
Several numbers in the table deserve a closer look. The sticker gap between $230K and $250K reads as a clean $20K. Add the five-year landing flights and hotels for the Antigua route and the real cash gap is $16K to $26K, not the surface $30K an agent will quote. Roughly 90 percent of agents skip this calculation because it shrinks their pitch margin. On timing, Antigua's 4 to 6 month window is stable. Saint Kitts standard runs 6 to 12 months with more variance, but Saint Kitts also offers the Priority One acceleration channel at 70 to 90 days for an extra $25K, useful for time-sensitive cases. The true timing read is "Antigua faster on standard, Saint Kitts has an accelerator." On program longevity Saint Kitts has run continuously since 1984 across 42 years without interruption. Antigua has run since 2013 across 13 years. Neither has shutdown risk on the table, but the depth of the Saint Kitts government track record is a level above.
The five-year landing requirement matters more than most families think. Antigua requires the principal to accumulate five days of physical presence over five years. A family of four can satisfy this in one combined trip. A five-day Caribbean trip from LA runs about $3,000 in flights for four and $1,500 in hotels, totaling $5,000 in landing cost. Saint Kitts has no landing rule but offsets that comfort with $20K more on the front end. From a pure ledger angle, if the family already has a Caribbean vacation in their plans, folding the Antigua obligation into a vacation locks in the $20K-plus savings cleanly. If the family will not travel to the Caribbean at all, Saint Kitts pays for its convenience.
The judgment I give the two families pacing in my dining room has not changed. With a family of four interested in the Caribbean as a destination, budget-sensitive, and wanting a stable 4 to 6 month timeline, Antigua is the default. With a family of four that wants nothing to do with the Caribbean, prefers program depth, or needs a 90-day emergency turnaround, Saint Kitts fits better. Both passports work. The mistake is forcing a family of four into Sao Tome $95K or Dominica $200K to save $40K to $50K up front, then finding at five-year renewal or during a US university application that the foundation does not hold. That five-year shortcut tends to cost five times the savings to repair. The judgment lands hardest at the family-of-four price point because price is only one variable. Use habits, family risk preference, and the next ten years of children's education planning all push the answer differently.
Over 11 years from my home in LA I have run this comparison table for 300 plus families. From the family-of-four profile the Antigua-to-Saint-Kitts split lands around 55 to 45, which differs from the "Saint Kitts wins everything" line agents push online. The honest read is each passport carries its own client. WhatsApp +15595666666 with the note "family of four comparison" and I will plug your specific household into this table for a 30-minute side-by-side. California-licensed, dual-country official channel for Saint Kitts and Antigua, this kind of flight-and-hotel-level ledger is the routine work we do here.
