Antigua vs St Lucia Citizenship by Investment: 2026 Cost and Family Comparison

For a couple or single applicant, St Lucia is usually cheaper. For a family of four or five, Antigua and Barbuda is usually cheaper. That single crossover, driven by how each country prices dependents, decides most of these cases. The rest comes down to two things: whether you can tolerate Antigua’s 5-day visit rule, and whether you want St Lucia’s refundable bond as an alternative to a sunk donation.

Both are English-speaking Caribbean nations, both grant a passport with broad visa-free travel, both allow dual citizenship, and neither asks you to live there. They are close cousins. The differences are real but narrow, and they almost all live in the cost table and the fine print.

The head-to-head

Both programs run on the same regional architecture. After CARICOM countries agreed to a USD 200,000 minimum donation floor, the five Caribbean programs converged on near-identical pricing. Antigua’s National Development Fund (NDF) sits at USD 230,000, St Lucia’s National Economic Fund (NEF) at USD 240,000. That USD 10,000 gap at the single-applicant level is the headline, but it is not the whole story, because the two countries bundle different family-size allowances into that base number.

Feature	Antigua and Barbuda	St Lucia
Donation fund	National Development Fund (NDF)	National Economic Fund (NEF)
Base donation	USD 230,000	USD 240,000
Family size in base price	Up to 4 people	Up to 4 people
Extra dependent (each)	+USD 15,000	+USD 10,000 (under 18) / +USD 20,000 (18+)
Refundable bond option	No	Yes: USD 300,000 + USD 50,000 fee, held 5 years
Residency / visit rule	5 days within first 5 years	None
Processing time (typical)	6 to 9 months	4 to 9 months
Passport validity (first issue)	5 years	5 years (10 on renewal)
Visa-free access	~150+ destinations	~145+ destinations
Dependent parents/grandparents	From age 55	Permitted (no age floor in base structure)
Due diligence (main applicant)	~USD 7,500	~USD 7,500

Figures are official program rates as of mid-2026. Government and due diligence fees move periodically, so confirm the current schedule with a licensed agent before you commit.

Cost by family size: where the crossover happens

This is the part that actually decides the choice, so it is worth being precise. Both base prices cover up to four people, but the per-dependent surcharges above that line diverge, and St Lucia’s surcharge depends on the dependent’s age.

Household	Antigua (NDF) donation	St Lucia (NEF) donation
Single applicant	USD 230,000	USD 240,000
Main applicant + spouse	USD 230,000	USD 240,000
Family of 4	USD 230,000	USD 240,000
Family of 5 (extra child)	USD 245,000	USD 250,000
Family of 6 (two extra children)	USD 260,000	USD 260,000
Family of 6 (extra adult dependents)	USD 260,000	USD 280,000

These are donation amounts only. On top sit due diligence fees (roughly USD 7,500 for the main applicant, less for dependents), processing fees, passport fees of a few hundred dollars per person, and agent fees. Antigua also charges a mandatory interview fee of about USD 1,500 per applicant aged 16 and over, which nudges its all-in total upward for larger families. Realistically, a family of four lands somewhere near USD 270,000 to USD 290,000 all-in for Antigua and a broadly similar USD 258,000 to USD 285,000 for St Lucia, depending on the agent and the exact fee schedule.

The pattern: at one to four people the two are within USD 10,000 of each other, with St Lucia slightly higher on the donation but sometimes lower all-in because Antigua’s interview fees stack up. Add a fifth person and Antigua’s flat USD 15,000 child surcharge can run higher than St Lucia’s USD 10,000 child surcharge, but St Lucia punishes additional adult dependents harder at USD 20,000 each. Map your exact household, including the ages of any extra dependents, before you assume one is cheaper. A family adding two young children leans St Lucia. A family adding an elderly parent as a fifth member can lean Antigua, which also has the more generous age-55 threshold for parents and grandparents.

The bond option: St Lucia’s distinctive feature

St Lucia offers something Antigua does not: a National Action Bond route. You place USD 300,000 into a non-interest-bearing government bond, hold it for five years, and pay a USD 50,000 administrative fee on top. After five years the USD 300,000 principal is returned to you.

The trade is straightforward. You commit far more capital up front (USD 350,000 against a USD 240,000 donation), and you earn no interest, so the real cost is the USD 50,000 fee plus the opportunity cost of having USD 300,000 idle for five years. If that capital could otherwise earn 4 to 5 percent, the foregone return over five years roughly equals or exceeds the USD 240,000 donation’s sunk cost. The bond is not free citizenship. It suits someone with capital to park who values getting most of it back over keeping the up-front outlay low. For most families the NEF donation is the cleaner, cheaper choice. The bond is a niche tool, not a default.

Residency and travel flexibility

This is the clearest non-cost difference. St Lucia imposes no visit or residency requirement at all. You never have to set foot on the island. Antigua requires you to spend at least five days in the country within the first five years of citizenship, a condition tied to renewing your first passport. Five days across five years is a light touch, and many treat it as a holiday rather than a burden, but it is a hard rule. If you genuinely cannot or will not travel, St Lucia removes the friction entirely.

There has been talk of Antigua moving toward a longer stay requirement. As of mid-2026 the 5-day rule remains the one in force, and a heavier 30-day proposal has not been enforced. Treat any longer figure you see quoted as speculative until it appears in law.

On travel itself the two passports are near-equivalent. Both reach the UK, the Schengen Area, Singapore, and Hong Kong without a visa. Antigua’s count sits marginally higher at around 150-plus destinations against St Lucia’s 145-plus, a difference too small to decide anything.

Processing and timeline

Both programs target similar windows. Antigua typically completes in 6 to 9 months. St Lucia is broadly comparable, often quoted at 4 to 9 months, with the mandatory due diligence stage alone running about three months. Neither is meaningfully faster than the other in practice, and real-world timing depends more on file completeness and due diligence load than on the country. If speed is your priority, focus on choosing a responsive, licensed agent and submitting a clean application rather than on the country brand.

Tax

Neither Antigua and Barbuda nor St Lucia taxes citizens on worldwide income, and neither levies inheritance or capital gains tax in a way that affects most CBI holders who do not relocate there. Crucially, acquiring either citizenship does not change your tax residency. You remain taxable wherever you actually live, and your home country’s rules on second citizenship, reporting, and exit taxes still apply. This is general information, not advice for your situation. Coordinate with a cross-border tax counsel before you act, because the consequences depend entirely on your specific residency and nationality.

Who each one suits

Choose Antigua and Barbuda if you have a larger family, especially with young children or with parents and grandparents aged 55 and over you want to include, since its base price covers four and its parent age threshold is generous. The 5-day visit must be something you can accept.

Choose St Lucia if you want zero obligation ever to visit, if you are a single applicant or couple chasing the lowest friction, or if the refundable bond route appeals because you have capital to commit and prefer getting most of it back. Adding several adult dependents is the one case where St Lucia’s pricing turns less friendly.

For most applicants the honest answer is that these two programs are close enough that the decision should be made on your exact family composition and your tolerance for the 5-day rule, not on prestige or marketing. Price the real household, read the residency line, and the choice usually makes itself.