Samoa.
How Samoa sells citizenship for investors: one programme, open today. Every number and rule below links to the document it comes from.
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- numbers
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- prices and rules
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- events
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- documents and articles
Citizenship by investment
Sells citizenship, and with it a passport.
Official name: Samoa citizenship by investment (Citizenship Investment Act 2015)
SAT 4 million to be invested within three years (net worth of at least SAT 2.5 million also required). Fees excluded: SAT 120,000 application and SAT 20,000 due diligence for the main applicant.
Notes from the research
Not an instant passport: investors worth at least WST 2.5 million who commit to invest WST 4 million in listed sectors within 3 years (70% first held in a Samoan fixed deposit) get a 3-year permanent residence permit, then may apply for citizenship if they spent 15 days a year in Samoa and kept to the investment plan. Run by a Citizenship Investment Committee chaired by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour. Fees: WST 120,000 application and WST 20,000 due diligence for the principal applicant. The Committee must report yearly to Parliament (s. 22), but no report or official count was found (a press report that the scheme drew almost no interest could not be read). In Oct 2025 applicants tied to foreign governments were barred (reported). Separately, Samoan passports (not citizenship) were sold illegally in Hong Kong and China in the 1990s (academic report).
Prices and rules
What is measured
No published numbers found for this programme. That is itself worth knowing: see the notes and the documents below.
What happened, and when
The 5 documents behind this page
- 2025-10 · NewsState-linked investors barred from Samoa's citizenship program · Samoa Observer
- 2024-12 · GovernmentCitizenship Investment: Guide of Reference (brochure) · Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour, Samoa
- 2020-02 · ResearchComparative Regional Report on Citizenship Law: Oceania (RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp 2020/1) · European University Institute, GLOBALCIT
- 2016 · Law or regulationCitizenship Investment Regulations 2016 · Government of Samoa (Head of State in Cabinet)
- 2015-11 · Law or regulationCitizenship Investment Act 2015 (No. 48 of 2015), official revised version as at 31 December 2022 · Government of Samoa (Attorney General / Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour)
Who buys passports and golden visas, what they cost, and what happens when governments change the rules. Written from this data, in the newsletter.