Country-wide policy
The Permanent Residence Permit, and the Numbers Attached to It
Section 42 of the Immigration and Passport Act 2014 creates a permit that is marketed as a tax arrangement and drafted as an immigration status. It asks for a permanent place of abode and thirty days a year in the country, or a substantial economic activity approved by Cabinet; it asks for an annual income of not less than US$500,000, raised from US$100,000 by the 2021 amendment; it gives the right to work without a work permit; it runs for twelve months at a time; and it requires an annual payment of prescribed fees to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. In 2021 a second limb was added: section 42A lets a holder apply for citizenship by registration after seven unbroken years of ninety days a year, substantial economic activity and tax compliance, and makes the permit issued under that section valid for ten years.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency through investment
- Residency through work
- When you become a tax resident
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- A permanent place of abode in Antigua and Barbuda and residence here for at least 30 days in a calendar year, or a substantial economic activity approved by Cabinet
- An annual income of not less than US$500,000 or such other sum as may be prescribed
- Not being a prohibited immigrant or otherwise disqualified from entering
- A medical certificate, a police certificate of character, and documentary evidence of the abode, the income and the activity
- Registration in the Register of Residency before the permit is issued
- An annual payment of the prescribed fees to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, and renewal every twelve months
At a glance
- Minimum annual income
- US$500,000
Section 42(2)(d)(ii) as substituted by section 8(b) of the Immigration and Passport (Amendment) Act 2021. It was US$100,000 as enacted in 2014, and US$100,000 is what every intermediary still publishes.
- Physical presence
- 30 days in a calendar year
Section 42(2)(a) as substituted in 2021, which added the requirement to reside here as well as to maintain an abode.
- Permit validity
- 12 months
Section 42(5)(b). A permit under section 42A runs for ten years.
- Right to work
- Without a work permit, once registered
Section 42(4)(a), read with section 43.
- Annual payment
- Prescribed fees, amount not found in any instrument
Section 42(6). The figure of US$20,000 circulates widely and no instrument we reached states it.
- Route to citizenship
- 7 unbroken years, 90 days a year
Section 42A(1), inserted by section 9 of the 2021 Act.
- Decision-maker
- The Minister acting on Cabinet's advice
Section 42(1). An ordinary residence permit under section 40 is the Chief Immigration Officer's decision; this one is not.
What the law says
«may grant to the person a permanent residence permit if the person, on an application in the prescribed form, satisfies the requirements set out in subsection (2); and»The opening words are "The Minister, acting on the advice of the Cabinet". Paragraph (b) then requires the person to be registered as a permanent resident.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«maintain a permanent place of abode in Antigua and
Barbuda and resides in Antigua and Barbuda for at least 30 days in a calendar year; or»About this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(ii) has an annual income of not less than US$500,000 or such other sum as may be
prescribed; and»About this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«be engaged in a substantial economic activity in Antigua and Barbuda which is approved by the Cabinet;»The alternative to the abode-and-presence test. Neither the Act nor any instrument we reached defines what makes an activity substantial, and the approval is Cabinet's.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«A person who is granted a permanent residence permit shall, while the person remains a
permanent resident under the scheme, pay annually to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue the prescribed fees.»The Act calls it a fee and sends it to the tax authority. It is not a tax, and the Act does not state the amount.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«maintained a permanent place of abode in Antigua and
Barbuda and resides in Antigua and Barbuda for at least 90 days in each calendar year;»Ninety days for the citizenship limb, against thirty for the permit itself. The other conditions are substantial economic activity, compliance with all applicable tax obligations, and the section 39(1)(a) to (e) requirements.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Where a person, who has maintained the status of permanent residence for seven unbroken
years does not wish to become a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, but wishes to continue with his
permanent residence status, the person may apply to the Minister to have the status of permanent
residence continued without payment of the prescribed fee.»A genuine concession: after seven years the annual fee falls away for a holder who applies to continue rather than to naturalise, and section 42A(3) requires the application no later than four months before the current permit expires.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«fails to maintain the level of financial investment stated in his application for permission to remain in Antigua and Barbuda;»A revocation ground that presupposes a stated level of financial investment. Section 42 nowhere requires one to be stated, so the ground attaches to something the application form may ask for and the statute does not.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's law site, carrying two distinct collections: chapters of a Revised Edition whose base cut-off is 1992, and Acts, Bills and Statutory Instruments as printed year by year. The Revised Edition chapters are scanned page-images with a recognition layer; the annual Acts from about 2014 are born-digital.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Revised Edition does not show repeal. It still publishes the Immigration and Passport Act as a chapter although the 2014 Act repealed it outright, with nothing on the page to say so, and that chapter is what a search engine surfaces first. It carries no later amendments either, and there is no consolidated text of any post-1992 Act, so a rule must always be cited as the section of the resulting Act naming the instrument that put it there. Its instrument collection is incomplete: the instrument that inserted one regulation of the investment rules is in neither collection. And its scans are lossy - a schedule paragraph disappears from extraction entirely and one Act loses its right margin - so a quotation from a chapter must be declared as a recognition and a negative claim must never rest on one alone.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The three numbers this scheme is sold on are thirty days, US$100,000 and US$20,000. The first is in the Act. The second has been US$500,000 since 2021. The third is in no instrument we found.
The scheme is not a determination of tax residence and the Act does not describe it as one. Antigua and Barbuda has had no personal income tax since 1 July 2016 in any event.
We did not find the instrument prescribing the fees under section 42(6), the form prescribed under section 42(1), or any Cabinet decision about what counts as a substantial economic activity. All three were looked for in the Statutory Instruments collection on the government's laws site.
Section 42A was inserted in 2021 and the first seven-year periods under it cannot have completed before 2028. Nothing is known here about how the Minister applies it in practice.