Living in Dominica on Income from Elsewhere
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to Dominica · Residency on passive income
There is no rentier visa, no passive-income category and no published income threshold. Dominica's Immigration and Passport Act contains exactly one residence instrument - a permit under section 9, granted by the Minister on any conditions he thinks expedient - and it is not divided into categories at all. Having an income from abroad helps in one specific way: section 5(1)(a) makes a person without sufficient means to support himself a prohibited immigrant, so means are what keep you out of the prohibited class rather than what qualify you for a route. The practical consequence is that a person of independent means applies on the same form as everyone else, and the decision is discretionary from beginning to end.
At a glance
- Dedicated income or rentier category
- None
The Immigration and Passport Act has one residence instrument, the section 9 permit, and no categories. There is nothing to qualify for on income grounds.
- Published income threshold
- None
Neither the Act, the Immigration (Restrictions) Regulations nor the Government's residence-permit page states a figure. What the page asks for is a banker's statement, not an amount.
- Application fee stated by the Act
- EC$50
Section 9(3).
- Licence fee for permanent residence or over a year, stated by the Act
- EC$500
Section 9(4), in addition to the fifty-dollar application fee.
- Application fee charged by the Ministry
- EC$250 for a CARICOM national, EC$800 for everyone else
From the Government portal's residence-permit page. The Act prescribes EC$50 and allows the Minister to waive it entirely for Commonwealth Caribbean nationals.
- Health requirement
- Medical certificate with HIV test and chest x-ray
Required by the application pack described on the Government's page. Nothing in the Act or the Regulations prescribes an HIV test; section 5(1)(c) speaks of a contagious or infectious disease certified by a medical officer.
Requirements
- An application to the Minister for a permit under section 9 of the Immigration and Passport Act
- A statement of financial position from a reputable banker, for yourself or for the person accepting responsibility for you
- Means sufficient to support yourself and any dependants, so as not to be a prohibited immigrant under section 5(1)(a)
- A medical certificate of good health, including HIV and chest x-ray results
- A recent police record and two testimonials, one from your last employer
- Proof of a return ticket, or a deposit covering its cost
- An extension of stay from the Immigration Department covering the whole period the application is being processed
In detail
One permit, no categories
Almost every country in this comparison answers the question "how do I live here on my own money" by naming a visa: Ecuador's rentista, Panama's solvencia economica propia, Paraguay's renta. Dominica names nothing, because its Immigration and Passport Act of 1941 never created categories. Section 9 lets the Minister, or an immigration officer acting on his direction, grant a permit for a prohibited immigrant to enter and remain on such conditions as to duration, place of residence and occupation as the Minister thinks expedient. That is the only residence instrument in the statute. The categories a reader expects - income, retirement, study, investment - exist here only as reasons an applicant might give, not as routes with rules.
Means keep you out of the prohibited class
Section 5(1)(a) makes a person who is not in possession of sufficient means to support himself and his dependants a prohibited immigrant. Regulation 5(2) of the Immigration (Restrictions) Regulations then lets an officer ask for evidence of employment elsewhere, a return ticket, or money enough for the visit and the fare home. So income matters, but in the negative: it is what stops you being prohibited, and no amount is prescribed anywhere. The banker's statement the Ministry asks for is the practical expression of the same test.
What the Ministry charges and what the Act prescribes
Section 9(3) sets the application fee at fifty dollars and section 9(4) adds a five-hundred-dollar licence fee where the permission is permanent or runs beyond a year. Section 9(5) lets the Minister waive both for religious bodies and for persons belonging to Commonwealth Caribbean countries. The Government's residence-permit page charges EC$250 to a CARICOM national and EC$800 to everyone else for the application, with no mention of a licence fee. The statutory waiver has become a discount, and the statutory fifty dollars has become eight hundred. We did not find an instrument altering section 9's figures.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«9. (1) The Minister or by his direction any immigration officer may grant a permit for a prohibited immigrant to enter and remain in the State subject to such conditions as to duration and place of residence, occupation, or any other matter or thing, whether similar to those before enumerated or not, as the Minister may think expedient.»This is the whole of Dominica's residence law. There are no categories: one discretionary permit, conditioned on whatever the Minister thinks expedient.
«(3) Applications for permits to remain in Dominica for any period shall be accompanied by an application fee of fifty dollars.»Fifty dollars for the application and five hundred for the licence where the permission is permanent or longer than a year. The Government's own residence-permit page charges EC$250 or EC$800 for the application alone.
«(5) The Minister may in the case of religious bodies and persons belonging to Commonwealth Caribbean countries waive the fees payable under subsections (3) and (4).»The statutory concession for Commonwealth Caribbean nationals is a waiver. The agency page turns it into a discount - EC$250 instead of EC$800.
«(a) any person who is likely if he entered the State to become a public charge by reason of infirmity of body or mind or who is not in possession of sufficient means to support himself and such of his dependants as he brings with him to the State;»Means appear in this Act as a disqualification to be rebutted, never as a qualification to be met. That is why there is no threshold to publish.
Practical notes
This record rests on the Immigration and Passport Act, Chapter 18:01 as consolidated, including sections 5, 7, 9, 10, 18, 19 and 28 and the Immigration (Restrictions) Regulations printed with it, and on the Government portal's residence-permit, permanent-residence and extension-of-stay pages. None of them names a category of the kind this topic describes. The Act's own list of amendments stops at 1995 and six later amending Acts exist that the consolidation does not carry, so this is an absence in what we read.
A person of independent means and a person coming to work apply through the same section 9 permit and, on the Government's page, the same application pack. The distinction this site draws between an income route and a work route does not exist in Dominican law, and the records are kept apart here only so that a reader looking for either finds the answer.
The Government's residence-permit page insists that an applicant hold a valid extension of stay for the whole time the application is pending, and says an applicant without one "is on island illegally" and will not be given a form. Since a section 19 permit cannot run past twelve months from entry, an application that takes longer than the remaining permit has no lawful footing on the face of the Act.
- consolidatesImmigration and Passport Act, Chapter 18:01, Revised Laws of Dominica
Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica - Laws of Dominica
About 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
- administersHow Do I Apply for a Residence Permit?
Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica Web Portal
About this source
The labour, immigration and customs account of what the ministries require and charge - the only published source for residence and permanence fees and for the returning-resident concessions.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the law. Its fees contradict the Act by a factor of sixteen, its visa periods contradict the Regulations, and it states a five-year permanent-residence rule that exists in no instrument. Cite it for what a ministry charges and asks for, never for what the law requires, and never for a nationality list.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source