Claiming Grenada Through a Parent or Grandparent
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Antigua and Barbuda 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 Antigua and Barbuda to Grenada · Residency through ancestry
Grenada is one of the few countries in this comparison to have written a grandparent route into statute, and it did so recently and deliberately. The Constitution already gave citizenship at birth to anyone born outside Grenada with a Grenadian father or mother, and stopped there - a descent citizen cannot pass descent on. In 2016 Parliament filled the next generation in: section 5A of the Citizenship Act lets a person born abroad to parents who were never Grenadian citizens be registered if they have a grandparent who is or was a citizen. It is registration at the Minister's discretion rather than an entitlement, it carries an oath and a condition about service to the State, and it has one unusual consequence - the spouse of such a citizen does not get the ordinary marriage route.
At a glance
- Citizenship by descent from a parent
- Automatic at birth
Section 97 of the Constitution. No application, no time limit, no registration step - the person is a citizen at the date of birth.
- Generations the descent rule reaches
- One
Section 97 excludes a parent who is a citizen by virtue of that same section, so a person who is Grenadian by descent cannot pass citizenship to a child born abroad.
- Grandparent route
- Registration at the Minister's discretion
Section 5A of the Citizenship Act, inserted by Act 4 of 2016. The section says the Minister may cause the person to be registered, not that the person is entitled.
- Parents' status for the grandparent route
- Must never have been Grenadian citizens
Section 5A(1). If a parent was a citizen the applicant is already covered by section 97 of the Constitution or has no claim at all.
- Great-grandparent route
- None
Section 5A reaches a grandparent and no further. Nothing in the Citizenship Act or the Constitution provides for a more remote ancestor.
- Spouse of a person registered under the grandparent route
- Not entitled to register through the marriage
Section 5A(4). The ordinary marriage entitlement in section 5(3) of the Citizenship Act and section 98 of the Constitution is expressly switched off for this one class of citizen.
- Deprivation
- Available, unlike for citizens by birth or descent
Section 5A(3) makes the grandparent registration subject to section 9 of the Citizenship Act and to further grounds the Minister may prescribe. Section 99(2) of the Constitution permits deprivation only of citizens who are not citizens under sections 94, 96 or 97.
Requirements
- Through a parent: nothing to apply for. A person born abroad on or after 7 February 1974 whose father or mother was a Grenadian citizen other than by descent is a citizen from birth
- Through a grandparent: an application to the Minister in the form prescribed by the Citizenship Regulations
- That your parents were at no time citizens of Grenada - the grandparent route is for the generation the constitutional provision does not reach
- A grandparent who is or was a citizen of Grenada
- Good character, an intention to be or continue to be in service to the State of Grenada, and the oath of allegiance
In detail
Two different things called ancestry
The constitutional rule and the statutory rule do not work the same way and a reader needs to keep them apart. Section 97 of the Constitution confers citizenship automatically, from birth, on a person born abroad with a Grenadian parent - no application, no fee, no discretion, and nothing to lose by waiting. Section 5A of the Citizenship Act is the opposite: an application, a discretion, an oath, conditions the Minister may prescribe, and exposure to deprivation. One is a status you discover you have; the other is a status you ask for.
The generation the Constitution stops at
Section 97 excludes from its benefit any parent who is themselves a citizen under section 97 or under the transitional provision in section 94(3). The design is familiar from other Commonwealth constitutions: descent passes once, so that citizenship does not propagate indefinitely through families who have never lived in the country. Act 4 of 2016 did not change that. It added a separate route for the generation beyond it, and kept the two apart by requiring that the applicant's parents were at no time citizens - if a parent was a citizen, section 97 has already dealt with the case.
A condition about service to the State
Section 5A(1)(c) requires the Minister to be satisfied that the applicant intends, if registered, to be or continue to be in service to the State of Grenada. The phrase is lifted from the ordinary registration provision in section 5(1)(d), where it reads as an alternative to residing in Grenada and is about employment by the Government. Transplanted into a provision for grandchildren living abroad it is hard to read literally, and nothing we found explains what the Ministry takes it to require. We quote it rather than interpret it.
The spouse exclusion is the sharpest edge
Everywhere else in Grenadian law marriage to a citizen is close to automatic: section 98 of the Constitution and section 5(3) of the Citizenship Act both use the word entitled. Section 5A(4) switches both of them off for the spouse of a person registered through a grandparent. The result is a class of Grenadian citizens whose husbands and wives have no marriage route at all and must qualify, if they can, by five years of residence under section 5(1) or by naturalisation under section 7. Anyone considering the grandparent route with a non-Grenadian spouse should read that subsection before anything else.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda
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
«A person born outside Grenada on or after 7th February, 1974, shall become a citizen of Grenada at the date of his or her birth if, at that date, his or her father or his or her mother is a citizen of Grenada otherwise than by virtue of this section or section 94(3) of this Constitution.»Mother or father equally, from independence, which was not the position in several of the countries around Grenada at the time. The exclusion of parents who are themselves citizens under section 97 or section 94(3) is what limits it to one generation.
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.
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«Every person born in Grenada on or after 7th February, 1974, shall become a citizen of Grenada at the date of his or her birth:»Unconditional birthright citizenship, with two exceptions in the proviso: a child of a diplomat where neither parent is a citizen, and a child born in a place under enemy occupation.
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.
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«5A.—(1) Upon application made to the Minister in the prescribed manner, the Minister may cause any person of full age and capacity who was born outside of Grenada to parents who were at no time citizens of Grenada to be registered as a citizen if the Minister is satisfied–»Cite the section of the Citizenship Act naming the Act that inserted it. The Chapter as published in the revised edition does not contain section 5A.
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) that the person has a grandparent who is or was a citizen of Grenada;»Paragraph (b) requires good character and paragraph (c) an intention to be or continue to be in service to the State of Grenada, which is an odd condition for a descendant living abroad and has no counterpart in the ordinary registration provision.
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
«(4) A person married to a citizen registered
under subsection (1) shall not be entitled to be registered as a citizen, unless the person is qualified to be registered as a citizen of Grenada under–»The exceptions that follow are a section of the Citizenship Act other than section 5, or a section of the Constitution other than section 98. Both named provisions are the marriage routes, so the effect is that marrying a grandparent-route citizen gives nothing.
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.
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«An Act to amend the Citizenship Act, Chapter 54 to provide for a person with a grandparent who is registered as a citizen to be registered as a citizen.»The long title describes the grandparent as registered as a citizen; the operative section says the grandparent must be or have been a citizen, by any route. We follow the section.
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
«4B. An application for registration as a citizen of Grenada under section 5A of the Act shall be in the form set out in Part II of the Third Schedule.»The form asks for the descendant's residence in Grenada and elsewhere, the parents' and grandparents' details, and a declaration. The Regulations were made in the exercise of a power the instrument attributes to section 5A, which contains no regulation-making power; section 15 does.
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
«Parliament may make provision for depriving of his or her citizenship of Grenada any person who is a citizen of Grenada otherwise than by virtue of section 94, 96 or 97 of this Constitution.»The constitutional line between citizenship that can be taken away and citizenship that cannot. Birth in Grenada and descent from a parent are on the safe side; registration through a grandparent is not.
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
Practical notes
The Citizenship Act as published in the revised edition is amended only to Act 31 of 2002 and does not contain section 5A. Act 4 of 2016 and Act 20 of 2012 have to be read alongside it, and there is no consolidated text that does so.
Act 4 of 2016 contains no commencement provision beyond its assent and publication dates, 25 and 29 January 2016, and we have treated it as in force from publication. No commencement Order appears in the 2016 Statutory Rules and Orders collection.
Section 5A(5) lets the Minister prescribe conditions on citizenship granted under the section, with the single limit that the Order may not be retrospective. We found no such Order. If one is made, the conditions attaching to this route can change without an Act.
No fee for an application under section 5A appears in anything we read. The Citizenship Regulations were amended in 2016 to add the form and in 2025 to replace the certificate, and neither instrument sets a fee.
Nothing in the Constitution or the Citizenship Act reaches a great-grandparent, and nothing provides for a person descended from someone who left Grenada before 1974 unless that person became a citizen on 7 February 1974 under section 94.
- consolidatesCitizenship (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act No. 4 of 2016)
Laws of Grenada
About 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
- consolidatesGrenada Constitution Act, Chapter 128A, Continuous Revised Edition of the Laws of Grenada 2010
Laws of Grenada · consolidated to 2010
About 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
- consolidatesCitizenship Act, Chapter 54, Continuous Revised Edition of the Laws of Grenada 2010
Laws of Grenada · consolidated to 2010
About 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
- consolidatesCitizenship (Amendment) Regulations, 2016 (S.R.O. No. 68 of 2016)
Laws of Grenada
About 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