Country-wide policy
The Eastern Caribbean Regulator and the Residence Requirement That Has Not Started
In November 2025 Grenada gave the force of law to an agreement establishing an Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, made on 18 September 2025. The agreement does the thing the region has been pressed to do: a common regulator, common standards, an appeals tribunal, and - the part that reached the news - a residence requirement. Every new investment citizen and their dependants would have to be physically present for an aggregate of thirty days during or up to the first five calendar years after the grant, with each of them individually present for at least five days in the first twelve months, and a passport issued for five years renewable to ten only on certification that this has been done. The Act is expressed to come into force on a date the Minister appoints, and we found no such date. In August 2026 the agency administering the programme told applicants the requirement will not take effect until the regional regulator exists.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- Nothing yet: the Act awaits a commencement Order and the agency has deferred the obligations
- If and when it starts: thirty days of physical presence in five years, shareable across the family
- At least five days individually in the first twelve months after the grant
- A mandatory integration programme, which may include civic education, cultural orientation and an interview
- A Declaration of Presence filed before a passport is renewed
At a glance
- Agreement date
- 18 September 2025
Defined in section 2 of the Act as the Agreement establishing the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, set out in Schedule 1.
- Grenadian Act
- Act No. 19 of 2025
The Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority Agreement Act, 2025.
- Commencement
- Awaiting an Order
Section 1(2). The law portal's Statutory Rules and Orders for 2026 run to number 3 and contain no commencement Order for it.
- Aggregate presence required
- 30 days in the first 5 calendar years
Article 48.2(a) of the Agreement. Article 48.3 lets the main applicant and the named dependants make up the aggregate between them, and Article 48.6 counts a day once however many of them are present.
- Individual minimum
- 5 days in the first 12 months
Article 48.4, and it binds each of them separately rather than collectively.
- Passport validity
- 5 years, renewable to 10 on certification
Article 48.11. The renewal to a full ten-year term depends on a certificate that the residence and integration obligations have been met.
- Consequence of failure
- Grounds to begin revoking citizenship
Article 48.12, where the failure is without reasonable excuse.
- Minimum investment in the Agreement
- None
We searched the Act and the scheduled Agreement for a minimum investment figure and found none. Thresholds remain a matter for each state's own regulations.
Enacted, scheduled, and not in force
Three things have to be true for the thirty-day rule to bite in Grenada and none of them is. The Act that gives the Agreement force of law commences on a date the Minister appoints by Order, and no Order appears in the law portal's 2026 collection. The Agency says a recent amendment concerning the residence requirement was scheduled to commence on 31 August 2026, and that amendment is not published anywhere we could reach. And the Agency has said, in terms, that implementation will not take effect until the regional regulator has been operationalised and all participating states have agreed and communicated an effective commencement date. A reader should treat the requirement as real, coming, and not yet applicable, and should treat any date they are given for it as provisional.
What the obligation would actually be
It is lighter than the headline suggests and heavier in one respect. Thirty days is an aggregate across the first five calendar years after the grant, not thirty days a year, and the main applicant and the named dependants can make it up between them - a day on which several of them are present counts once. Against that, Article 48.4 requires each of them individually to spend at least five days in the country in the first twelve months, which a family cannot share out. On top of the days there is a mandatory integration programme that may include civic education, cultural orientation or community service and an interview, a Declaration of Presence before any passport renewal, and a passport issued for five years that becomes a ten-year passport only on certification of compliance. Failure without reasonable excuse is a ground to start revoking the citizenship.
What the Agreement does not do
It sets no minimum investment. We searched the Act and the scheduled Agreement for a floor price and found none, which means the figures stay where they are - in each state's own regulations, and in Grenada's case in a Schedule that two instruments in the same week of June 2024 both replaced. The Agreement is about standards, due diligence, registers, agents, promoters, developers, offences, administrative fines and an appeals tribunal. It is a regulator, not a price list.
What the law says
«(2) This Act shall come into force on a date to be
appointed by the Minister by Order published in the Gazette.»The Act gives the Agreement force of law but does not itself operate until the Order is made.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(a) being physically present, within the territory of the Participating State for an aggregate of at least thirty (30) days during or up to any of the first five (5) calendar years after the date of the grant of the certificate of citizenship or naturalisation; and»Note the words during or up to any of the first five calendar years, which is not the same as thirty days in each year and not the same as thirty consecutive days.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«48.4 Without limiting Article 48.2 (a), the main applicant and each dependant named in the application resulting in the grant must each be physically present within the territory of the Participating State for not less than five (5) days during the first twelve (12) months following the date of grant of citizenship or naturalisation.»The individual floor. A family cannot satisfy this one between them, unlike the thirty-day aggregate.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«48.11 A passport issued to an Applicant or citizen shall carry an initial validity of five (5) years, renewable for a full ten (10) year period only upon certification by the Unit or other competent authority of a Participating State that the requirements under this Article have been fulfilled.»The enforcement mechanism. Compliance is tested at renewal rather than audited continuously.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«48.9 Where the Applicant or citizen has otherwise demonstrated substantial economic, social or familial ties to a Participating State, the Participating State may exempt the Applicant from the physical residency requirement under exceptional and compassionate circumstances, including but not limited to the following —»The exemptions that follow are humanitarian necessity and a verified inability to travel for reasons of conflict, medical condition, age or security. The state must notify the Authority of any exemption and its reasons.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government of Grenada's law portal. Publishes the Continuous Revised Edition of 2010 arranged by Chapter, each Chapter printing the Act with its subsidiary legislation, and separately a year-by-year run of Acts and Statutory Rules and Orders as enacted from 2011.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A Chapter must never be cited for what the law is now, and nothing on the page says so: the Immigration Chapter is amended only to 2007 and lacks the OECS indefinite stay and the Schengen visa waiver; the Citizenship Chapter stops at 2002 and shows section 5A as repealed when an Act of 2016 has since filled it; the Income Tax Chapter prints 30 per cent when three Orders have made it 28 and 10; the Banking Chapter is an Act repealed in 2015. Subsidiary legislation printed inside a Chapter is equally frozen - the CARICOM skills Qualifications Order is shown as amended to 2008 and the 2015 amendment that added artisans and domestic workers is invisible. It must also not be cited for completeness after 2025: the 2026 collections hold five Acts and three instruments, and an amendment the investment agency publicly relied on in August 2026 is in neither. The Citizenship by Investment Act is not in the revised edition at all and has no consolidated text anywhere. Year listings paginate twenty at a time, so reading only the first page loses instruments.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Accordingly, the commencement of the requirement will be subject to the operationalization of the regional regulator and the formal establishment of an effective commencement date by the participating Member States.»The administering agency's own statement, published 21 August 2026, ten days before the date it says the amendment was scheduled to commence.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administers Grenada's citizenship by investment programme, successor to the Citizenship by Investment Committee's public-facing unit, and publishes circulars, statistics and copies of the legislation.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the state of the legislative record. Its legislation page lists twenty-two instruments and omits at least seven that are on the law portal, describes S.R.O. 41 of 2020 as amendment Regulations when it is an Order about where oaths may be sworn, conflates the Act with its commencement Notice, and carries no links at all - the titles are plain text and the documents are reachable only through the site's media library. It published S.R.O. 21 of 2025 fifteen months after gazetting. It must not be cited for the thresholds themselves, which are in the Statutory Rules and Orders, nor for immigration or residence law, which it does not administer. Its circulars are statements of administrative intention and one of them defers a statutory obligation; they are evidence of what the agency will do and not of what the law requires. The predecessor domain cbi.gov.gd no longer resolves, so any citation to it is dead.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Nothing on this record is a prediction about when the requirement starts. The Act, the Agreement and the Agency's circular are quoted and the gaps between them are described.
The amendment the Agency refers to as recent and as scheduled for 31 August 2026 is not on the law portal and not on the Parliament's site. We could not read it, and nothing here states what it contains.
The Agreement was made on 18 September 2025 and the Grenadian Act assented in 2025. Whether the other Eastern Caribbean states have enacted it, and on what terms, is outside what we read for this country.
Article 49.2 lets an applicant elect to complete a period of residence before the grant and count it towards the thirty days, provided the remaining part is completed afterwards. Anyone planning around the requirement should read that article as well as Article 48.