Marrying a Citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 Kitts and Nevis to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Residency through marriage
The Constitution makes marriage to a citizen an entitlement to registration rather than an application a minister weighs, and it states no qualifying period at all: no two years of marriage, no residence, no interview appears in the text. It does it twice over, once for a wife in section 93(1)(a) and once for a husband in section 93(2)(a), a 1979 drafting shape that reaches the same result by two routes. A former spouse is covered too, provided the other person was a citizen at some time during the marriage. What the Constitution does not do is say how to apply: section 93(3) leaves the manner to be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament, and that Act is Chapter 117, which is not published.
At a glance
- Status of the claim
- An entitlement to be registered
Sections 93(1) and 93(2) both open "The following persons shall be entitled, upon making application, to be registered as citizens".
- Qualifying period of marriage
- None stated in the Constitution
- Residence requirement
- None stated in the Constitution
Contrast section 93(2)(b), which does require seven years of ordinary residence - but only of a Commonwealth citizen relying on residence rather than on marriage.
- Former spouses
- Covered
Both paragraphs extend to a person who has been married to someone who was a citizen at any time during the marriage.
- Oath of allegiance
- Required of an alien or British protected person aged twenty-one or over
Section 93(4).
- Procedure, fee and forms
- Not published
Section 93(3) leaves the manner to the Citizenship Act, Chapter 117, which is sold on paper. A 2001 Act validated the collection of registration fees, so fees exist.
Requirements
- Marriage to a citizen, or a former marriage to someone who was a citizen at any time during it
- An application for registration, in the manner prescribed by or under the Citizenship Act
- For an applicant who is an alien or a British protected person and is twenty-one or over: the oath of allegiance before registration
In detail
An entitlement, not a discretion
Both limbs of section 93 open with the same words: the following persons shall be entitled, upon making application, to be registered as citizens. A spouse of a citizen is in both lists - a wife in subsection (1)(a), a husband in subsection (2)(a) - and neither paragraph attaches a period of marriage, a period of residence, a cohabitation test or an interview. A former spouse is covered on the same terms, provided the other person was a citizen at some time while the marriage subsisted. That is a markedly more generous constitutional position than the ordinary residence route in the same section, which asks seven years and is open only to Commonwealth citizens.
The procedure is where the questions are
Section 93(3) says an application shall be made in such manner as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament. That Act is the Citizenship Act, Chapter 117, and it is not published. So what has to be filed, what it costs, how long it takes, and whether the Act adds anything the Constitution does not - a waiting period, a residence condition, a power to refuse on character grounds - cannot be stated here. What is known is that fees are charged: Act No. 35 of 2001 amended the Act and validated the collection of fees already taken for acquisition, registration and renunciation of citizenship.
Country-level policy
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines publishes the fact of its laws and not their text. The Ministry of Legal Affairs puts every weekly Gazette online back to 2016, and each Gazette names the Acts and statutory rules and orders published that week - then says they can be purchased at the Government Printing Office at Campden Park. The House of Assembly publishes a table of every Act passed since 1993, with its long title, its short title, the dates of its readings, assent, publication and any proclamation, and its number. Neither publishes a section of an Act. The Immigration (Restriction) Act, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act, the Citizenship Act, the Employment of Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens Act and the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act are all unreadable from outside the country, and every one of them governs something on this site.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis
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
«**93.** (1) The following persons shall be entitled, upon making
application, to be registered as citizens-»"shall be entitled" is the operative phrase and it governs the list that follows.
«(a) any woman who is married to a citizen or who has been
married to a person who, at any time during the period
during which they were married to each other, was a
citizen;»No period of marriage, no residence, no cohabitation test.
«any man who is married to a citizen or who has been
married to a person who, at any time during the period
during which they were married to each other, was a
citizen;»The mirror provision for a husband, in the second subsection rather than the first. The two subsections differ in other paragraphs, which is why the drafting splits them.
«(3) An application under this section shall be made in such
manner as may be prescribed, as respects that application, by or under»The sentence that hands the procedure to Parliament.
«(4) Every person who, being a British protected person, an alien
or, if it is so prescribed by Parliament, a citizen of any country within
the Commonwealth not forming part of Her Majesty's dominions and
having reached the age of twentyone years, applies for registration
under this section shall, before such registration, take the oath of
allegiance.»Quoted with the edition's "twentyone".
«Non-nationals who wish to take up residence and employment in the state must first obtain permission to do so. Applications should be lodged at the Prime Minister’s Office, Financial Complex, Kingstown.»About this source
The department that stamps passports and issues entry permits. Publishes the periods of stay granted on arrival by nationality, the extension procedure and its charge, the list of countries whose citizens need an entry visa in advance, the visa application requirements and fee, and the list of services the department offers. Also the registration point for nationals exercising CARICOM full free movement.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Everything it publishes is a description of practice, not a citation of the Immigration (Restriction) Act, Chapter 114, which is not published anywhere. It must never be cited as the legal basis for a period of stay, a fee or a visa requirement - only as the administering department's statement of what it does. It is silent on residence and work permits beyond naming the office that decides them, silent on students, and silent on the driving licence exemption its own government announced for full free movement nationals.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Nothing on this page should be read as saying the Citizenship Act imposes no conditions on a spouse. It may; it is not published and has not been read. What is stated is what the Constitution itself provides.
A spouse who wants to live here before registering is in the same position as any other non-national: permission to take up residence is applied for at the Prime Minister's Office and nothing about that process is published.
- reportsConstitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Chapter 2 of the Laws of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Revised Edition 1990
Organization of American States - Department of International Law · consolidated to 1990
About this source
The OAS legal portal republishes the constitutions and some statutes of member states. It carries the Constitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as Chapter 2 of the Laws of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Revised Edition 1990, printing United Kingdom S.I. 1979 No. 916 as amended by Act 21 of 1986 and Act 15 of 1988 - the only copy of the Vincentian Constitution with a text layer that we could reach, the House of Assembly's own copy being an imageless scan.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is a republisher and must never be cited for currency: the file is the 1990 edition, while Saint Vincent's own Acts now cite the Revised Edition 2009, in which chapter numbers have moved. The PDF is a two-up optical recognition of a printed book and its text layer carries recognition errors, so every quotation taken from it must be declared as a recognition and must be left with its errors intact. It must not be cited for any instrument other than the one it reproduces.
We re-read it every 365 days. More about this source
- reportsRecord of Acts passed by the House of Assembly, 2001
House of Assembly of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
About this source
Parliament's own record. Publishes, for every year from 1993 to 2025, a table of every Act passed: long title, short title, dates of first reading, second and third readings, assent, publication and proclamation, and the Act number. Also publishes the Saint Vincent Constitution Order 1979. This table is the only published index of Vincentian legislation and is what establishes that an Act exists, what it amends, which Chapter it belongs to and exactly when it came into force.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what an Act says. It carries no text of any Act and never has. It must not be cited for anything before 1993, where its record begins, nor for 2026, for which no table has yet been posted - use the Gazette's weekly legislation notices for that. The proclamation column is empty for almost every Act, which means a proclamation is not recorded, not that commencement did not happen; where it is filled, as for Act No. 22 of 2011, it is reliable. Extraction of the date columns is unreliable: the 2006, 2011 and 2024 tables render some dates as formulas and the 2025 table uses full-width commas, so a date quoted from them should be checked against the PDF. The Constitution Order it publishes is a 21-page scan with no text layer.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersVisitors' Permits, Residence and Work Permits
Ministry of National Security, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
About this source
The department that stamps passports and issues entry permits. Publishes the periods of stay granted on arrival by nationality, the extension procedure and its charge, the list of countries whose citizens need an entry visa in advance, the visa application requirements and fee, and the list of services the department offers. Also the registration point for nationals exercising CARICOM full free movement.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Everything it publishes is a description of practice, not a citation of the Immigration (Restriction) Act, Chapter 114, which is not published anywhere. It must never be cited as the legal basis for a period of stay, a fee or a visa requirement - only as the administering department's statement of what it does. It is silent on residence and work permits beyond naming the office that decides them, silent on students, and silent on the driving licence exemption its own government announced for full free movement nationals.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source