Country-wide policy
The Separate Price List for Citizens by Investment
Dominica charges a person who bought citizenship more for ordinary civil documents than it charges anyone else, and it does so by name. In November 2024 the Passport Regulations gained a line for "a person who acquired citizenship by investment" at US$300 for a passport, against EC$150 for an adult citizen in Dominica, and US$2,000 for a replacement against EC$500. The same month the fee schedule to the Vehicles and Road Traffic Act gained a private driver's licence at US$300 for the same class of person, against EC$100 for everybody else. Both are the same idea: an investor citizen holds the same certificate of naturalisation as any other naturalised citizen, and pays a different price at the counter. The instruments define the class rather than leaving it to practice, which is what makes this a policy and not a rumour.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- A certificate of naturalisation issued following the making of an investment - the Passport Regulations' own definition
- US$300 for the issue of a passport, wherever it is issued
- US$2,000 to replace a passport that has been destroyed, lost or stolen
- US$150 for an emergency travel document and US$150 for an amendment to a passport
- US$300 for a private driver's licence
At a glance
- Passport, citizen by investment
- US$300
Part I of the First Schedule to the Passport Regulations, as replaced by S.R.O. 31 of 2024. The same figure applies whether the passport is issued in Dominica or abroad.
- Passport, adult citizen in Dominica
- EC$150
Same Schedule, same table. At the fixed rate of EC$2.70 to the United States dollar, US$300 is about EC$810.
- Passport replacement, citizen by investment
- US$2,000
Against EC$500 for a child under sixteen and, on the face of the table, for an adult. The adult row carries a figure only in the issue column.
- Passport issued elsewhere, ordinary citizen
- US$60
Against US$300 for a citizen by investment at the same counter.
- Private driver's licence, citizen by investment
- US$300
Paragraph (ba) of the First Schedule to the Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, as substituted by S.R.O. 1 of 2025. The consolidated Schedule charges EC$100 for a private driver's licence.
- How the class is defined
- By the instrument, not by practice
S.R.O. 31 of 2024 defines "citizenship by investment" for its Schedule as the grant of citizenship by the issue of a certificate of naturalisation following the making of an investment.
- Does it expire?
- No
Nothing in either instrument limits the higher fee to a period after naturalisation. On their face the fees follow the person for life.
Two instruments, two months apart, one idea
S.R.O. 32 of 2024 was gazetted on 14 November 2024 and S.R.O. 31 of 2024 on 7 November. Within a week Dominica created a second price list for citizens by investment covering the two documents such a citizen is most likely to want: a passport and a driving licence. Neither instrument says why. Both define the class the same way, by reference to citizenship obtained through investment, and the passport instrument spells the definition out: the grant of citizenship by the issue of a certificate of naturalisation following the making of an investment.
Why it had to be defined at all
Because Dominica's investment programme does not create a distinct legal status. Regulation 4(1) of the Citizenship by Investment Regulations routes the applicant through section 8 of the Citizenship Act, the ordinary naturalisation provision, and what he receives is a certificate of naturalisation indistinguishable on its face from anyone else's. To charge him differently the Government had to write a definition into a fee schedule. Saint Kitts and Nevis, whose Citizenship Act has a bespoke registration provision in section 3(5), would not have needed to.
The size of the gap
The Eastern Caribbean dollar is pegged at 2.70 to the United States dollar, so the comparison is exact. A passport costs an adult citizen in Dominica EC$150 and a citizen by investment US$300, which is EC$810 - five and a half times as much. A replacement costs EC$500 and US$2,000, which is EC$5,400 - about eleven times. A private driver's licence costs EC$100 and US$300, which is EC$810 - about eight times. Nothing in either instrument limits the difference to a period of years after naturalisation.
What the law says
«| In Dominica: to a child under 16 years | EC$ 75.00 | EC$500.00 | EC$500.00 | EC$42.28 | EC$33.82 |
| :to an adult | EC$150.00 | | | | |
| :to a person who acquired citizenship by investment | US $300.00 | US $2000.00 | US $2000.00 | US $150.00 | US $150.00 |»Quoted as the table is printed, including the blank cells in the adult row. Cite the resulting Schedule and not the amending instrument: S.R.O. 31 of 2024 is what put these figures there, replacing a Part I last amended by S.R.O. 42 of 2016.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's collection: the Revised Laws of 1990 as chapters, plus Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders year by year.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current text of any Act: the chapters are the 1990 revised edition authorised to the mid-nineties, and later amending Acts sit in the collection without being folded in - the immigration chapter prints its last amendment as 1995 while the database lists six later ones. It must not be cited for completeness either: the visa-exemption Regulations actually in force are absent from it entirely, as are three Acts of one recent year, so an absence here is not proof of non-existence. Every chapter is an image-only scan, so a quotation from one is a recognition. And its catalogue titles are unreliable - one instrument is listed under a name that is not its short title.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«In this Schedule “citizenship by investment” means the grant of citizenship by the issue of a certificate
of naturalisation following the making of an investment”.»This is the sentence that makes the policy legible. The passport fee turns on how the certificate of naturalisation was obtained, which is a fact about the past rather than about the document.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's collection: the Revised Laws of 1990 as chapters, plus Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders year by year.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current text of any Act: the chapters are the 1990 revised edition authorised to the mid-nineties, and later amending Acts sit in the collection without being folded in - the immigration chapter prints its last amendment as 1995 while the database lists six later ones. It must not be cited for completeness either: the visa-exemption Regulations actually in force are absent from it entirely, as are three Acts of one recent year, so an absence here is not proof of non-existence. Every chapter is an image-only scan, so a quotation from one is a recognition. And its catalogue titles are unreliable - one instrument is listed under a name that is not its short title.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«3. The First Schedule of the Act is amended in Item 8 by
deleting paragraph (ba) and subsituting the following:»Quoted with the publisher's spelling of "subsituting". The paragraph it substitutes puts $300.00 USD against a private driver's licence for a person granted citizenship under the Citizenship by Investment Regulations.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The government's collection: the Revised Laws of 1990 as chapters, plus Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders year by year.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current text of any Act: the chapters are the 1990 revised edition authorised to the mid-nineties, and later amending Acts sit in the collection without being folded in - the immigration chapter prints its last amendment as 1995 while the database lists six later ones. It must not be cited for completeness either: the visa-exemption Regulations actually in force are absent from it entirely, as are three Acts of one recent year, so an absence here is not proof of non-existence. Every chapter is an image-only scan, so a quotation from one is a recognition. And its catalogue titles are unreliable - one instrument is listed under a name that is not its short title.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«7. Drivers licences –
(a) Motor cycle driver’s licence 50.00
(b) Private driver’s licence 100.00
(c) Chauffeur’s licence 125.00
(d) Visitors or temporary licence 75.00
– Not exceeding thirty days 50.00
(e) Learner’s licence 75.00»The comparator, as the revised edition prints it: a private driver's licence at one hundred dollars.
Practical notes
Both instruments were made in the months after Dominica doubled its investment thresholds in June 2024, and the three changes are consistent with the same policy direction, but neither fee instrument refers to the other or to the Regulations, and we do not assert a causal link.
The passport fee table as printed leaves the replacement, emergency document and amendment columns blank in the adult row, so the EC$500, EC$42.28 and EC$33.82 figures sit on the child row. We quote the table as printed and do not resolve whether an adult pays those amounts.
S.R.O. 32 of 2024, the first driver's licence instrument, placed the US$300 inside the description of the class rather than in the fee column, so as drafted it read as an investment of US$300. S.R.O. 1 of 2025 replaced the paragraph. The error is recorded in the driving record.