Grenada Citizenship and the E-2 Visa in 2026: What the US Route Still Offers

The two routes to Grenadian citizenship

The program is run by the Investment Migration Agency (IMA) Grenada under the Citizenship by Investment Act of 2013. Applications never go directly to the agency. They always go through a licensed Local Agent, whom you reach through a licensed international Marketing Agent, and the money passes through the Local Agent's escrow account. The IMA lists two investment routes:

• Contribution to the National Transformation Fund (NTF): a one-time, non-refundable payment into a state fund that finances development projects. According to IMA Grenada, the minimum is USD 235,000, and the same amount covers a single applicant and a family of up to four.
• Investment in an approved project: in practice almost always shares in hotels, resorts or villa developments that the minister has approved in the Gazette. The IMA lists two thresholds, USD 270,000 and USD 350,000, depending on the type of holding. On top comes a non-refundable government fee of USD 50,000.

The project route sounds like an investment, but it is rarely a good one. Prices for these shares are set for an audience of passport buyers, and when you sell later you compete with other investors who took the same route. Treating the money as the cost of the passport rather than as real estate is usually closer to reality.

What it actually costs: fees and family

USD 235,000 is the entry price, not the final price. The IMA's official fee table adds the following for the NTF route:

• Application fee: USD 1,500 per person.
• Due diligence fee: USD 5,000 per person aged 17 and over, nothing for children up to 16. The IMA's FAQ page quotes USD 6,000 elsewhere, so get the applicable figure from your agent in writing.
• Processing fee: USD 1,500 per person aged 17 and over, USD 500 for those younger.
• Interview fee: USD 1,000 per person aged 17 and over, including a non-applicant spouse.

A single applicant therefore pays about USD 244,000 in government payments. A couple with two children under 17 lands at about USD 257,000. Add the fees of the Local Agent and the Marketing Agent, which are not set by the government and often run into five figures, plus translations, legalisations and the medical certificate.

Larger families cost more. From the fourth family member on, each additional dependant adds USD 25,000 or USD 50,000, a sibling USD 75,000. Parents, grandparents and siblings aged 55 and under are not automatically covered even within the group of four. If you want to bring a wider family, run the numbers with the agent early.

Process, vetting and processing time

The process has five steps, all through the agents:

1. Choose a licensed Marketing Agent, who engages a Local Agent.
2. Assemble the file: forms, medical certificate, police certificates, proof of wealth and source of funds, all in English and legalised. The project route adds a sale and purchase agreement.
3. Submission to the Citizenship by Investment Committee and a mandatory online interview.
4. Due diligence by external providers, then a recommendation from the committee and a decision by the minister.
5. Only after approval is the contribution paid or the purchase completed. Then come the certificate of registration and the passport application.

The IMA states a target of a decision within 60 business days of a complete submission, subject to due diligence. There is explicitly no expedited service. Applications are refused if the applicant gives false information, has been convicted of an offence carrying more than six months' maximum custody, is under criminal investigation, or was refused a visa by a country to which Grenada has visa-free access without later obtaining one. Fees are not refunded in any case.

What changes in 2026: ECCIRA and the 30-day rule

Until now, the IMA says applicants do not need to visit Grenada before, during or after the application. That is set to change. In July 2026 the government introduced the Grenada Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Bill 2026. It ties the program to the new regional regulator ECCIRA (Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority), which the five program states agreed in 2025 and which is to be headquartered in Grenada. The substance of the bill:

• Presence requirement: the main applicant and dependants must together spend at least 30 days in Grenada during the first five calendar years after citizenship is granted, with each person present at least five days in the first year.
• Integration program: civic education, cultural orientation and an interview.
• Shorter passports: the first passport would be valid for five years, with renewal for ten years only after compliance is certified. Failing the obligations without reasonable excuse can trigger revocation proceedings.

According to IMI Daily, the minister may also apply the rules to pending applications. As of October 2026 it is open when the law takes effect: it needs a ministerial order, and the ECCIRA launch has slipped several times. Anyone applying now should plan for the 30-day rule.

Pressure also comes from Brussels. According to the government of Antigua and Barbuda, the European Commission wrote to all five Caribbean program states, Grenada included, in June 2026, asking them to phase out their programs by June 2028. The lever is the revised visa suspension mechanism, under which the EU has already suspended visa-free travel for Vanuatu. Schengen visa-free access on a Grenadian passport is therefore a revocable benefit.

Grenada and the E-2 visa: the 1989 treaty

The E-2 visa is a status for investors who build and run their own business in the United States. It is only open to nationals of countries with which the US has a commerce or investment treaty. The State Department lists Grenada with an E-2 treaty in force since 3 March 1989. None of the other Caribbean program countries has such a treaty.

What counts is nationality, not residence. That cuts both ways: a residence permit in a treaty country does not help, as the Bahamas show, which are not a treaty country (see Bahamas Residency and US Credit). Nationality, on the other hand, long counted regardless of where you lived. For a company, the nationality of its owners decides: at least 50 percent must be held by nationals of the treaty country. That is what the Grenada model was built on.

The 2022 US rule: three years of domicile in Grenada

The United States closed that gap. Section 5902 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, signed in December 2022 and often called the AMIGOS Act after the bill it came from, amended the E visa definition in the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E)). Anyone who acquired their nationality through a financial investment and has never held E status must now have been domiciled in that country for a continuous period of at least three years before applying.

What this means in practice:

• The fast route is closed. Buying a passport and applying for the E-2 a few months later no longer works for first-time applicants.
• Domicile means your real home. The test is not having held a passport for three years but having actually lived in Grenada for three years. The State Department has not spelled out in public guidance how consulates assess it.
• There is a grandfather clause. The condition only applies to people who have never been granted E status. Anyone who already held an E-2 is not affected.
• The rest of the package remains. Grenada is still a treaty country, and anyone who genuinely spends the three years on the island meets the condition. But at that point it is an emigration plan, not a document purchase.

Many provider sites mention the rule only in the small print, or not at all. For applicants from non-treaty countries it is the single most important point in the whole calculation.

What the E-2 requires after that

Even with the nationality condition met, the E-2 is not automatic. The visa requires a substantial investment in a real, operating US business. The money must be at risk, meaning actually spent or irrevocably committed, and come from a demonstrably legal source. The business must do more than support the investor's living, it has to make an economic contribution, in practice usually jobs. And the investor must develop and direct it personally. Passive holdings such as a rented house do not qualify.

How this looks with a US LLC, what amounts consulates expect in practice and how the application runs is covered in E-2 Visa via a US LLC.

For Germans, Grenada is redundant at this point: Germany has been an E-2 treaty country since 14 July 1956. The German passport meets the nationality condition directly, without USD 235,000 and without three years on the island.

Visa-free access and the China factor

Providers advertise long lists of visa-free countries, and the counts vary by index. More important than the number are specific destinations:

• Schengen area and the UK: currently visa-free for short stays, with the Brussels caveat described above.
• China: the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists, in its mutual visa exemption list (July 2026 version), an agreement with Grenada that has covered ordinary passports since 10 June 2015. Among the Caribbean programs this is unique, and it makes Grenada interesting mainly for business people with ties to China.
• United States: Grenada is not in the Visa Waiver Program, so US travel needs a regular visa. The US proclamation of December 2025 that restricts visas for nationals of Antigua and Dominica does not cover Grenada.

For Germans none of these points is a gain. The German passport opens more countries and has been visa-free in China for short stays since late 2023, although under a unilateral and time-limited Chinese policy.

US credit: where Grenada fits in

A Grenadian passport creates no US credit history, just as a German one does not. What makes the difference is residence. Someone living in the US on an E-2 and working for their business can apply for a Social Security Number and build credit like a resident. Without US residence, non-residents use the route via an ITIN, a US address, a US bank account and ideally the Amex Global Transfer. That route is open to German citizens in exactly the same way, with or without a second passport.

Who Grenada still makes sense for

• Nationals of non-treaty countries who are genuinely willing to live in Grenada for three years before applying for the E-2. For them Grenada remains a legal, if slow, path.
• People with a weak passport who want travel access to Europe, the UK and China and price in the EU risk.
• Not Germans looking for an E-2 shortcut. For them a Grenadian passport is at most a Plan B document. Since 27 June 2024, Germans no longer automatically lose German citizenship when they acquire another one, which makes a second passport legally simpler. Details in Dual Citizenship for Germans: Second Passport.
• Not as a tax solution. German tax liability depends on residence and habitual abode, not on the passport. A Grenadian passport changes nothing about it.

How this plays out in an individual case depends on the details and belongs with a lawyer or tax adviser who knows both legal systems.