Vanuatu’s Visa waiver rights to EU and Schengen area temporarily discontinued

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The European Union High Council decided to suspend the Visa Waiver agreements temporarily and partially with the Republic of Vanuatu because of the risks posed by its investor citizenship schemes (‘golden passport’ schemes). Such provision concerns only citizens of Vanuatu holding ordinary passports issued since 25 May 2015, when the Vanuatu investment citizenship schemes entered into force. Therefore, starting from May 3rd, 2022, holders of such passports will need a Consular Visa to travel to the EU.

Following a thorough monitoring and assessment of Vanuatu’s investor citizenship schemes, the EU’s High Commission has decided that such policies present serious security deficiencies which could pose a risk to the EU, particularly referring to:

  • the remarkably low rejection rate of Vanuatu’s investor citizenship application, which raises doubts concerning the reliability of the due diligence security and fraud screening
  • the absence of physical presence or residence requirements, short processing timings and lack of background check and/or information exchange with Investor Citizenship applicants’ countries of origin or residence
  • the granting of “golden passport” to applicants listed in Interpol databases
  • the nationalities of origin of successful applicants, which include several countries whose nationals are required a visa to enter the EU

 

BACKGROUND FOR VISA WAIVER RIGHT’S SUSPENSION

A visa waiver agreement has been in force between the EU and Vanuatu since 2015. This agreement allows citizens of Vanuatu to travel to any of the EU and Schengen Area Member Nations without a visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Although, in recent years, Vanuatu has established the increasingly successful investor citizenship programs (the so-called “golden passport”).  Up to 2021 Vanuatu had launched two initiatives falling under the Citizenship by Investment schemes: the VDSP (Vanuatu Development Support Programme) and the VCP (Vanuatu Contribution Programme).

Through such programs a foreign national could in brief buy Vanuatu citizenship by investing a minimum of $130,000 (£100,000) in the country. Possession of a Vanuatu passport would then allow visa-free access to EU and Schengen Area Nations.

In 2017, the EU authorities started investigating such programs, since serious perplexities were raised on account of their security protocol insufficiencies. As a matter of fact, in that same year Vanuatu was listed among the non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and was suspected of hence facilitating fraudulent and criminal activities like money laundering, promoting tax evasion, and possibly financing terrorism.  

The EU, by mean of its High Commission, also officially warned Vanuatu authorities about the suspension clauses contained in the visa waiver agreement between the two parts. Despite the initial pledge taken by Vanuatu authorities to implement reforms in order to address EU’s safety concerns, in April 2021 the government of Vanuatu took further steps to set up an additional investor citizenship programme.

In this context, the Commission assessed that the investor schemes in place in Vanuatu went against the objectives of the EU visa policy and, on 12 January 2022, proposed the partial suspension of the visa waiver rights formerly granted to visitors with a passport from Vanuatu.

Such decision was subsequently ratified on March 3rd, 2022, and will become effective from May 3rd 2022 and shall remain into effect until measures, that the EU will evaluate as serious and effective, will be taken by the government of Vanuatu to meet with the security standards as established in the Visa Waiver Agreement of 2015.

CONSEQUENCES ON ETIAS PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY FOR VANUATU CITIZENS

The main goal of ETIAS program is to strengthen security protocols across all Europe as well as to deter criminals and terrorists. Vanuatu’s Citizenship by Investment programs have been thorougly analized by EU authorities and such analysis produced a concrete concern that criminals, and possibly terrorists, might have used such schemes as a loophole to access Europe with fewer background checks on individuals.

Also, EU institutions and Member States raised the concern that visa-free access to the Schengen Area has been used as a major selling point for purchasing a golden passport hence creating a market focused, not on actual investment in Vanuatu’s economy but, only in gaining easier and better conditions to facilitate movements towards the Old Continent for persons that might have pose an actual security threat.

Because of the partial suspension as summarized above, there will of course be tangible consequences for holders of a Vanuatu passport. The main repercussions of such a discontinuation are:
Vanuatu passport holders, either through nationality or via a golden passport purchase, issued after the 25th of May 2015 will no longer benefit of visa-free travel regime to Europe.

Such nationals of Vanuatu will therefore not be considered eligible to join the ETIAS system when it comes into effect regardless of the purpose or duration of their visits and also regardless of their age.

When ETIAS will become effective, in early 2023, and actually beginning from May 3rd 2022, most citizens of Vanuatu will than need a Consular Visa to enter any EU or Schengen Area Member State.