Retiring to Saint Kitts and Nevis
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Dominica 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 Dominica to Saint Kitts and Nevis · Residency as a retiree
Retirement is one of only two ways into permanent residence that the Immigration Act names, and it is the shorter one: a person who wants to live here in retirement and has sufficient assets and means of support for themselves and their dependants may be granted permanent residence, with no qualifying period of prior residence at all. The other route needs seven years. The Act sets no figure for what sufficient means, and the price of the concession is written into the work-permit section: a retiree admitted on this ground is expressly carved out of the word "resident" for the purposes of section 19, so unlike every other resident they still need a permit before taking any employment.
At a glance
- Status granted
- Permanent residence
Section 6(2) is the permanent-resident subsection, so this is not a temporary permit. Permanent residents may enter the Federation at any time under section 4(2).
- Prior residence required
- None
Section 6(2)(b) imposes no qualifying period. The route beside it, section 6(2)(a), requires at least seven years - the contrast is in the same subsection.
- Minimum assets or income
- No figure in the Act
The test is "sufficient assets and means of support", determined by the Minister. No amount appears in the Act or in the Immigration Regulations printed with it.
- Right to work
- No - a work permit is still needed
Section 19(7) says the expression "resident" in that section does not include a person granted residence on the ground in section 6(2)(b). This is the only class of resident the Act singles out in this way.
- Loss of status by absence
- 5 continuous years abroad
Section 7(1) writes it as "a continuous period of five years" of voluntary residence outside the Federation, unless the Minister issues an exempting certificate. It is continuous absence, not a quota of days per year.
Requirements
- An intention to reside in retirement in Saint Christopher and Nevis
- Sufficient assets and means of support to maintain yourself and your dependants - the Act fixes no amount and leaves sufficiency to the Minister
- An application to the Minister in the prescribed form
- No prior residence in the Federation is required for this route, unlike the seven-year asset route in the same subsection
- A work permit before taking any employment, because section 19(7) removes this class from the meaning of "resident" for work-permit purposes
- Continued presence: resident status is lost by five continuous years of voluntary residence abroad unless the Minister certifies an exemption
In detail
The shortest route to permanent residence in the comparison
Section 6(2) offers two ways to be granted permanent residence. The first wants seven years of residence in the Federation and substantial assets held here. The second wants an intention to retire here and sufficient assets and means of support. The second asks for no time served at all. Set against Panama, Costa Rica or Uruguay - where a retirement route is built on a certified pension of a stated monthly amount and leads to temporary residence first - this is both easier and vaguer. There is no pension certificate because the Act does not ask for a pension; there is no threshold because the Act does not state one; and there is no intermediate status because section 6(2) grants permanent residence directly. What there is instead is discretion, and sufficiency decided by a Minister.
The one class of resident that still needs a work permit
Section 19 is the work-permit section, and its subsection (7) does something no other provision in the Act does: it narrows the meaning of "resident" for that section alone, and the only people it removes are those admitted under section 6(2)(b). A retiree with permanent residence may live here indefinitely, re-enter at any time under section 4(2), and still commits an offence by accepting employment without a permit. The design is coherent - the concession was granted on the footing that the person is retired - but it is easy to miss, and it means the retirement route is not a back door into the labour market.
Country-level policy
A separate statute from everything else in this country's relocation law, and the one most likely to catch a newcomer out. Land in Saint Christopher and Nevis held by an unlicensed alien is forfeited to the Crown. An alien is anyone not deemed to belong to the Federation under the Immigration Act, which includes every CARICOM and OECS national, and the licence is granted by the Governor-General, is specific to the land and the interest described in it, and has no effect until registered in the Record Office of the Circuit where the land lies. The only thing an unlicensed alien may hold is an annual tenancy or less, for their own residence, trade or business, and not more than five acres in all.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Dominica
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
«persons who desire to reside in retirement in Saint Christopher and Nevis and have sufficient assets and means of support to maintain themselves and their dependants.»The whole of the retirement route. No age is specified, no minimum income, no qualifying residence - and no pension is required either, which is unusual: most retirement routes in this comparison are built on a pension certificate.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«have been resident in Saint Christopher and Nevis for at least seven years; and
(ii) own substantial assets in the Federation, the sufficiency of which shall be determined by the Minister on the advice of the Cabinet;»Quoted here for the contrast: the other way into permanent residence needs seven years and assets inside the Federation. The retirement route needs neither.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«For the purposes of this section the expression “resident” does not include a person to whom permission has been granted by the Minister to become a resident on the ground mentioned in paragraph (b) of section 6(2).»The sting. Section 19(1) exempts citizens, approved CARICOM citizens and citizens of a Protocol Member State from needing a work permit, and section 19(2) extends the exemption to residents; subsection (7) then takes the retiree back out of it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«shall lose the status of resident if he or she voluntarily resides outside Saint Christopher and Nevis for a continuous period of five years, unless he or she obtains from the Minister a certificate, in the prescribed form, exempting him or her from the operation of this section.»Continuous absence, not a presence quota. Two separate absences of four years each do not trigger it; one of five years does.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«A permanent resident shall, so long as he or she continues to be a permanent resident, be permitted to enter Saint Christopher and Nevis at any time.»About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Act does not say what form the application takes or what it costs. Section 6(2) says "in the prescribed form", and the Immigration Regulations printed as the Third Schedule, which date from 1947, do not prescribe one for this route. We did not find a published application form or fee for permanent residence on any government site, and do not state one.
No age is stated anywhere in section 6(2)(b). "Reside in retirement" is a description of intention, not of age, and nothing in the Act or the Regulations we read ties it to a retirement age.
Permanent residence under this section does not shorten the road to citizenship. Naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act and its Second Schedule still asks for fourteen years of residence, and registration under section 92(1)(b) of the Constitution asks for fourteen years of ordinary residence and Commonwealth citizenship. Permanent residence is a destination here, not a step.
If you are a citizen of an OECS Protocol Member State, none of this applies to you: section 4(3) already gives you a permit to enter and remain for an indefinite period.
- consolidatesImmigration Act, Cap. 6.02, Revised Edition showing the law as at 31 December 2020
Law Commission of Saint Christopher and Nevis · consolidated to 2020-12-31
About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source