No syndication. No rehashes. No PR fluff. First-hand CBI industry observations, policy analysis, and client case debriefs — 11 years of field experience.
Eleven years in CBI, and for the first time the structure of my new clients has shifted. 55+ clients now make up 38% of new signings. For that specific use case I have re-ranked the nine programs and Dominica moved to the top, for five reasons unrelated to price.
Vanuatu CBI tightened KYC in August 2024 and mandated in-person biometrics from July 2025. Ken walks through the seven questions clients keep asking him in 2026 — fees, rejection rates, PEP risks, and what Vanuatu is still useful for after losing Schengen.
After the December 2024 Schengen removal and the 2026 ETIAS rollout, the Vanuatu passport is not a Schengen shortcut anymore. It is an emergency identity with a Pacific footprint. A 30-second read on what it still does and what it does not.
The Saint Kitts CIU launched mandatory biometric enrollment on 14 April 2026 with a hard cutoff of 31 July 2027. Ken breaks down the USD 7,100 family-of-four cost, Dubai and London capture centers, and how this reshapes new applications.
The Saint Lucia NEF $240K and Dominica EDF $200K pair gets compared every week. The headline $40K gap looks bigger on a comparison table than in a real five-year ledger. One LA family of four asked me to run both. Here is the number, and what they actually chose.
Sao Tome's $95K NDF program tightened its source-of-funds review for second-batch applicants starting May 12, 2026. The change is internal CIU practice, not a public policy update — and 6 of 80+ second-batch cases have already been kicked back for more documentation.
Grenada IMA's April-June 2026 reform window has closed out the old framework: 5-year first passport, mandatory 30-day residency, family education module, and a $2,500-3,000 per-person due diligence fee hike.
Saint Lucia NEF vs COFB across eighteen months: NEF eighteen months end-to-end versus COFB twenty-three; rejection rates eleven versus forty percent; renewal lag of four to six weeks.
São Tomé $95K NDF is the cheapest national passport in the Caribbean and West African universe, but the São Tomé NDF funding trail is short, regulatory acceptance is untested, and the program fits a narrow band of families.
Saint Kitts citizenship by investment $250K vs Antigua $230K looks like a $20K gap on paper. Five-year family-of-four math stretches it to $60-90K once landing obligations and renewal audits are counted.
She sat down in my LA living room and said "I have six weeks." She did not come for the value-for-money pitch. She came because a family trust restructuring needed her in a non-Chinese identity by a deadline. This is what Vanuatu emergency identity actually looks like.
Turkey vs Grenada E-2 nine-point comparison: investment, timeline, family coverage, E-2 entity minimum, renewal approval, and five-year cost math for a family of four.
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