Insights mentioning Vanuatu

2 insights mention this jurisdiction. See the Vanuatu profile →

XJune 23, 2026

In Vanuatu a serious medical emergency can mean a medical evacuation that tops 50,000 USD, before any treatment abroad. The catch sits on the other side: no income tax, no capital gains, no inheritance, no corporate tax. One of the lightest direct-tax regimes on earth. Vanuatu regularly appears on fast-track relocation lists. No general income, corporate, capital gains or estate tax, confirmed by its own tax and investment authorities. A citizenship-by-investment route with a government-set minimum selling price of 130,000 USD for a single applicant before ancillary fees, and a statutory three-month decision deadline. It is not a tax-free economy though. VAT runs at 15 percent, with import duties, stamp duty, and a 12.5 percent rent tax on long-term residential rents. The deal is no general income, corporate or capital gains tax, not zero tax. Then the part many promotional pages skip. Vanuatu runs six public hospitals for 83 islands: a national referral hospital in Port Vila, a regional one in Luganville, and four small provincial ones. General care is basic. High-complexity tertiary and specialist care stays limited, and serious cases can need overseas evacuation. The more serious cases are flown to Australia or New Zealand. The US State Department says a single medical evacuation can exceed 50,000 USD, about 43,500 EUR, before the treatment that follows. The UK foreign office is blunter: facilities are basic and limited, serious cases require evacuation abroad. Here is the variable almost nobody prices. Relocation comparisons rank tax, passport, cost of living. Healthcare access barely registers until the day it is the only thing that matters. And it does not move like a tax rate. A government can cut a rate to zero in one budget. Deep tertiary medicine takes decades, in specialists, patient volumes, equipment and teaching hospitals. You cannot import it with a residence permit. For a short stay it is a tail risk. For a permanent base, with age or a family, it is a first-order one, hiding behind a clean tax score. Zero direct tax means little the night you need care the island cannot give. For a real base, not a paper residency, would you anchor your family where serious treatment starts with an overseas evacuation? Tell me where I am wrong. Data from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer I build at Lucky Nomads.

Australia New Zealand United Kingdom United States Vanuatu

XJune 15, 2026

A Caribbean passport you can buy from 200,000 USD opens about 150 countries without a prior visa. Not one of them opens the United States. No passport you can buy off a price list gives visa-free US access. The closest thing to an exception is not even for sale. The five Caribbean programs sell on one number, passport reach, roughly 145 to 157 destinations without a prior visa depending on the index, Schengen included. Cheapest entry, single applicant, donation route: Dominica: 200,000 USD Antigua and Barbuda: 230,000 USD Grenada: 235,000 USD Saint Lucia: 240,000 USD Saint Kitts and Nevis: 250,000 USD Every one of them still needs a visa for the US. Vanuatu and Nauru too. The US Visa Waiver Program runs to about 40 countries, and not a single priced investment-citizenship route is on it. And the reach is shrinking. The UK pulled visa-free access for Dominica in 2023 and Saint Lucia in March 2026, both over CBI concerns. Austria is the closest case, and even it is not a priced product. Austrian citizens enter the US visa-free because Austria is in the Visa Waiver Program, but Austrian citizenship is granted only for exceptional contribution in the special interest of the Republic, case by case. Malta was the other obvious case, until the EU top court struck down its investor-citizenship route in 2025. There is one side door. Grenada is the only Caribbean CBI with US E-2 treaty access, in force since 1989. A Grenadian citizen can live and run a business in the US on a renewable E-2 visa. But E-2 is not visa-free tourism and not a green card. It is a working residency tied to a real, active US business. And under the AMIGOS Act of 2022, if the citizenship was acquired through financial investment and you have not previously held E status, US law requires three years of continuous domicile in the treaty country before applying. So if US access is the real goal, passport reach is the wrong metric. No bought passport delivers it directly. Grenada gets you closest, through a separate visa and real substance. If your plan needs the US, would you still pay 235k for Grenada and build a real business there, or skip CBI and go straight for a US route? Data from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer I build at Lucky Nomads.