São Tomé & Príncipe
São Tomé & Príncipe Citizenship by Investment or Donation (PCID — Programa de Cidadania por Investimento e Doação)
The world's newest operating citizenship-by-investment programme (applications since September 2025) and currently the lowest-priced: a non-refundable USD 90,000 contribution to the Fundo Nacional de Transformação for a single applicant — USD 95,000 covering a family of up to four — plus a USD 5,000 due-diligence and processing fee per application. No visit, residence or language requirement; the contribution is paid only after approval-in-principle. The passport is a genuine second travel document rather than a mobility upgrade: roughly 58–63 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations (South Africa's 90 days is the standout) and no Schengen, UK or US access. A young programme run under a Dubai-based concession: pricing is unbeatable, the legal base is real and gazetted, and the operating history is measured in months — we say both halves plainly.
Figures drawn from primary law and official sources — programmes change, so we confirm the exact current terms with admitted local counsel before you applyHow you qualify.
Donation
The only route: a non-refundable minimum contribution to the Fundo Nacional de Transformação (RNID Anexo I(3)) — USD 90,000 for a single applicant; USD 95,000 total for a family application of two to four members; +USD 5,000 for each additional qualifying dependant from the fifth member. The contribution is payable only after approval-in-principle, within 90 days or the file lapses (art. 14(4)). Separately: due-diligence and processing fee of USD 5,000 per application (non-refundable on submission); per-person document fees on grant (passport USD 350, national ID USD 150, citizenship certificate USD 250, courier USD 200 per application on the launch-era CIU schedule). Realistic all-in for a single applicant ≈ USD 95,750; family of four ≈ USD 103,000. Post-grant additions: spouse USD 10,000; other qualifying dependant USD 5,000; newborn up to one year USD 500. Voluntary complementary investments into thirteen government-approved sectors (Anexo II — port, airport, energy, housing, health and others) are possible after approval but expressly do not substitute the base contribution. There is no real-estate, bond or business route.
Euro figures are conversions at €1 = US$1.15 and are illustrative only. The programme sets its amounts in US dollars, and the dollar figure is the one that binds.
Global mobility.
There is no Schengen access: São Tomé & Príncipe is on the EU visa-required list (Annex I, Regulation (EU) 2018/1806); no visa-waiver agreement exists or is publicly under negotiation. The honest travel figure is roughly 58–63 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations (Henley 2026 counts 58; higher figures in circulation fold in eVisas). Notable genuine access: South Africa visa-free 90 days — the standout — plus Singapore (30), Malaysia (30), Philippines (30), Hong Kong (14), Macau on arrival, and eVisa/eTA access across much of Southern and East Africa. Not accessible without a visa: the Schengen area, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan and mainland China. This is a second travel document and a succession asset, not a mobility upgrade — clients who need Schengen pair it with an EU residence card.
São Tomé and Príncipe holds no UK visa waiver and is not on the ETA national list; a Standard Visitor visa must be obtained before travel.
São Tomé and Príncipe is not in the US Visa Waiver Program, so ESTA is not available; a B-1/B-2 (or other) US visa is required.
There is no visa-free or eTA access for São Toméan citizens.
Approximately 60 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations — a deliberately modest figure. This is not a mobility play. Its standout destination is South Africa (visa-free, 90 days). The Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada all require visas, and no visa-waiver negotiation is in progress. The value here is a lawfully held second citizenship, secured quickly and at the lowest entry cost of any current programme, as the citizenship half of a dual structure — the passport for standing and optionality, an EU residence alongside it for European access. Presented on its own as a travel document it will disappoint.
A further route — case by case
A further route may exist through the CPLP Mobility Agreement. The Agreement (Luanda, 17 July 2021) has been in force for both São Tomé & Príncipe and Portugal since 1 January 2022, and Portugal has implemented it domestically through Lei n.º 18/2022, which inserted articles 52.º-A and 87.º-A into Lei n.º 23/2007 and refers to nationals of States covered by the CPLP Agreement without an origin condition or a minimum period since naturalisation. On its face that points to a Portuguese residence permit — one year, renewable for successive two-year periods. Article 38 of the Agreement, however, provides that no modality applies between two Parties unless each has expressly consented through diplomatic channels and notified the depositary which Parties it binds itself to. Those notifications are not public, and we have not obtained Portugal's. Whether it designates São Tomé & Príncipe is therefore unconfirmed, and nothing here should be relied on as access to Portugal or to the EU. Where the route is of interest we will take it up case by case and confirm the position in writing with the Portuguese authorities and admitted local counsel before it forms any part of a client's plan. Note also that an ordinary passport takes nothing from the Agreement's mandatory floor, which under article 4(2)(a) exempts only diplomatic, official, special and service passports.
Still want a European base? Pair it.
A São Tomé & Príncipe passport answers what most families come for first: stronger mobility and a considered fallback, secured for life and hereditary. Many families want a European base alongside it — somewhere to hold assets, spend time and give their children options. Those are two different jobs, and we build them as one plan rather than asking you to choose.
We pair the citizenship with an EU residence in a single structure — citizenship, passport and residence, built as one: the passport for mobility and standing, the residence for a euro-denominated base and, held over time, a lawful route to a European future.
Choose your structure
Structure selected: São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship only. Add a European base at any time — pick one above to see it quoted as a single structure.
Engage us on São Tomé & Príncipe
Leave your details and we come back to you personally — the confirmed current terms, the full costing for your family, and an introduction to vetted, admitted counsel for this programme.
Kestrel Private is a discreet private-client advisory led personally by Andrew J. Taylor, formerly Vice Chairman of Henley & Partners. He has served private clients from more than 30 countries, and at Kestrel you have one senior relationship from initial strategy through implementation.
What's involved in São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship.
- Family inclusion
- The main applicant must be 18 or over. The decree text (RNID art. 10, referencing Lei 7/2022 arts. 10.º(4)–(5)) includes the spouse and children of the principal applicant; the CIU and licensed agents market a wider scope — spouse or de facto partner, unmarried financially-dependent children up to 30, and parents or grandparents from 55 — which sits in programme practice rather than the gazetted text, and we confirm the current position in writing before filing. Family pricing is unusually flat: USD 95,000 covers two to four family members in one application. A CIU memorandum of 10 April 2026 froze passport issuance for adult dependants (18+) pending clarification and placed applicants already holding three or more foreign nationalities on hold under art. 11.º of the Nationality Law — both restrictions confirmed before any family file is opened.
- Due diligence
- USD 5,000 due-diligence and processing fee per application (RNID Anexo I(2)). Files pass through a due-diligence report from a UCID-recognised provider, review by the AML/CFT Comité de Revisão (Ministério Público chair, with the Migration Service, Finance Ministry, Registries Directorate and the Financial Intelligence Unit), and a mandatory prior clearance (visto prévio) from the Ministério Público within 30 days — refusal ends the file. Requirements include criminal-record certificates from every country of nationality and of residence over the last five years (issued within three months), a medical certificate, and a source-of-funds declaration supported by bank documentation. The Ministério Público retains a six-month judicial opposition window after grant (non-suspensive).
- Timeline
- Statutory deadlines in the decree: Ministério Público visto prévio 30 days; UCID Director decision 15 days from a complete, cleared file; contribution deposit within 90 days of approval-in-principle; registration by the Conservatória dos Registos Centrais within 5 days of the oath. The portal currently markets one-and-a-half to two months to a decision plus roughly four months to passport issuance; licensed-agent reporting of real-world files runs to eight months or more, and the widely-advertised '110-day official processing time' does not appear in the decree text. We plan client files on a six-to-nine-month working assumption and treat anything faster as upside.
- Physical presence
- None. No visit, residence, interview-in-country or language requirement — the residence and language conditions of ordinary naturalisation are expressly waived for investment and donation grants (Lei 7/2022 art. 10.º(3)). The oath of fidelity to the Constitution may be sworn before a São Toméan diplomatic or consular agent abroad, and remote biometric enrolment was introduced by the CIU in April 2026.
- Tax
- São Tomé & Príncipe taxes on the basis of residence, not citizenship: a CBI citizen who never becomes tax-resident does not, by the passport alone, come within São Toméan tax on foreign income. There is no wealth or inheritance tax regime of practical relevance to non-resident citizens. As ever, citizenship changes nothing about a client's existing tax residence — CRS reporting, home-country rules and any exit-tax exposure are unaffected, and we model the client's actual position before filing.
- Created by Decreto-Lei n.º 07/2025 (RNID, gazetted 1 August 2025) under art. 10.º(2) of Lei n.º 7/2022 — investment, merit or donation naturalisation with the residence and language requirements waived.
- Single route: non-refundable contribution to the Fundo Nacional de Transformação — USD 90,000 single, USD 95,000 for a family of two to four, +USD 5,000 per further dependant; paid only after approval-in-principle (90-day deposit window).
- Applications only through licensed marketing agents (annual licence USD 5,000); unlicensed promotion is fined up to USD 500,000 (art. 6).
- Every file requires a Ministério Público prior clearance, and the Ministério Público may oppose a grant in court for six months after it is made (Lei 7/2022 arts. 10.º(6), 20.º).
- Hard nationality cap: grant is barred to applicants already holding more than two foreign nationalities, and a naturalised citizen who acquires a fourth nationality loses São Toméan nationality by operation of law (Lei 7/2022 art. 11.º) — enforced from April 2026.
- Fund governance on paper is unusually strong: exclusive supervised bank account, dual signatures, a bank guarantee of at least 10% of projected balances where a private operator is engaged, monthly reporting to the Central Bank and Tribunal de Contas, and a published annual independent audit (RNID art. 8).
- Citizens naturalised under the programme are permanently exempt from military service (art. 16); sanctions run to fines of 20% of the investment and revocation of nationality (art. 18).
- Operated in practice from Dubai under a press-reported 10-year private concession (56% State / 44% operator) that was not put to public tender and is not gazetted — a live domestic political controversy we disclose rather than gloss.
- Year one, on the programme's own published figures (1 August 2025 to 1 September 2026): 548 applications submitted, 350 approved, 12 rejected, 117 citizenships granted and 29 passports issued. Approval averaged two months and the fastest was 26 days; the gap between approval and a passport in hand is where the time actually goes, and the programme's own licensed agent describes post-approval and issuance as needing to become "a lot faster and more predictable".
- The Dependants Law was still in progress at the first anniversary. Until it passes, a family is admitted on the decree text — the principal, spouse and children under Lei 7/2022 arts. 10.º(4)–(5) — and not on the wider scope agents market. Quote a family on the decree.
- Applicant mix in year one: 72 nationalities, led by China (159), Russia (122), Iran (50), Germany (28) and Kuwait (10). Recorded because a passport is bought for where it travels, and the composition of a young programme's cohort is one of the things that has moved visa treatment elsewhere.
- USD 9.8 million or more was raised for the Fundo Nacional de Transformação in year one, applied to energy and government IT, with water, wastewater, waste and digitalisation stated as next. Recorded because the fund's use is the programme's own stated justification and is checkable against it later.
- Official application form (Anexo III) via the UCID electronic platform, in Portuguese or English
- Certified passport copies for every applicant
- Criminal-record certificates from each country of nationality and each country of residence over the last five years, issued within the last three months
- Proof of current residence address
- Medical certificate (good general health, no transmissible diseases)
- Declaration of lawful source of funds supported by bank documentation
- Due-diligence report from a UCID-recognised provider
- Proof of payment of the due-diligence and processing fee
- Apostilled or consular-legalised civil documents (birth and marriage certificates), with authenticated translations where not in Portuguese or English
- Sworn oath of fidelity to the Constitution of São Tomé & Príncipe, in-country or before a diplomatic or consular agent
The governing law — in our library.
Two-tier framework, both instruments verified against the Diário da República. (1) Lei n.º 7/2022 — Lei da Nacionalidade (DR I Série, N.º 25, 10 March 2022; in force ≈June 2022; repeals Lei n.º 6/90): art. 10.º(2) authorises the Government to grant nationality for investment that unequivocally increases employment and contributes significantly to national development, for high-level sport/science/culture, or for a donation; art. 10.º(3) waives the residence and language requirements for such grants; art. 10.º(6) requires a prior clearance (visto prévio) from the Ministério Público on every naturalisation; art. 11.º bars grant to anyone already holding more than two foreign nationalities and strips STP nationality from a naturalised citizen who later acquires a fourth; art. 20.º gives the Ministério Público a six-month window to oppose an acquisition in court. (2) Decreto-Lei n.º 07/2025 — Regulamentação da Nacionalidade por Investimento ou Doação, RNID (approved in the Council of Ministers 10 May 2025, promulgated 28 July 2025, published DR I Série, N.º 33, 1 August 2025, pp. 430–440; in force on publication): creates the PCID programme (art. 5), the UCID unit (art. 4), the Fundo Nacional de Transformação — FNT (arts. 7–8: autonomous fund, exclusive supervised bank account, mandatory annual independent audit, Tribunal de Contas and Central Bank oversight) and an AML/CFT Review Committee chaired by a Ministério Público representative (art. 9); licenses marketing agents with fines up to USD 500,000 for unlicensed promotion (art. 6); sets the procedure and deadlines (art. 14); grants CBI citizens a permanent military-service exemption (art. 16); provides for a country-exclusion list by Council of Ministers resolution (art. 17); and provides sanctions up to revocation of nationality (art. 18). The official tariff is Anexo I of the decree. Note: the RNID is a Government decree-law issued under art. 111.º(c) of the Constitution and art. 26.º of Lei 7/2022 — it did not pass through the National Assembly, a point of live domestic political criticism. · Administered by Unidade de Cidadania por Investimento e Doação (UCID), branded internationally as the Citizenship Investment Unit (CIU), under the tutelage of the Minister of Justice in articulation with the minister responsible for investments. Official programme portal: cip.gov.st (info@stpcip.com). Day-to-day administration is operated from Dubai under a public-service concession by STP Service Advisory FZCO (UAE), reported in the Portuguese-language press to be a 10-year exclusive concession associated with Passport Legacy — the concession terms are press-reported, not gazetted..
Documents marked “held by Kestrel” are mirrored on our own servers from the official source, so the reference is always available.
São Tomé & Príncipe, answered.
- How much does São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship by investment cost?
- The lowest qualifying investment is USD 90,000 via the Donation route. Government, due-diligence and professional fees are additional. Every figure is confirmed in writing before you commit to anything.
- How long does the São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship process take?
- Statutory deadlines in the decree: Ministério Público visto prévio 30 days; UCID Director decision 15 days from a complete, cleared file; contribution deposit within 90 days of approval-in-principle; registration by the Conservatória dos Registos Centrais within 5 days of the oath. The portal currently markets one-and-a-half to two months to a decision plus roughly four months to passport issuance; licensed-agent reporting of real-world files runs to eight months or more, and the widely-advertised '110-day official processing time' does not appear in the decree text. We plan client files on a six-to-nine-month working assumption and treat anything faster as upside.
- Does the São Tomé & Príncipe passport allow visa-free travel to the Schengen Area?
- Visa required. There is no Schengen access: São Tomé & Príncipe is on the EU visa-required list (Annex I, Regulation (EU) 2018/1806); no visa-waiver agreement exists or is publicly under negotiation. The honest travel figure is roughly 58–63 visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations (Henley 2026 counts 58; higher figures in circulation fold in eVisas). Notable genuine access: South Africa visa-free 90 days — the standout — plus Singapore (30), Malaysia (30), Philippines (30), Hong Kong (14), Macau on arrival, and eVisa/eTA access across much of Southern and East Africa. Not accessible without a visa: the Schengen area, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan and mainland China. This is a second travel document and a succession asset, not a mobility upgrade — clients who need Schengen pair it with an EU residence card.
- Can I include my family in the São Tomé & Príncipe application?
- The main applicant must be 18 or over. The decree text (RNID art. 10, referencing Lei 7/2022 arts. 10.º(4)–(5)) includes the spouse and children of the principal applicant; the CIU and licensed agents market a wider scope — spouse or de facto partner, unmarried financially-dependent children up to 30, and parents or grandparents from 55 — which sits in programme practice rather than the gazetted text, and we confirm the current position in writing before filing. Family pricing is unusually flat: USD 95,000 covers two to four family members in one application. A CIU memorandum of 10 April 2026 froze passport issuance for adult dependants (18+) pending clarification and placed applicants already holding three or more foreign nationalities on hold under art. 11.º of the Nationality Law — both restrictions confirmed before any family file is opened.
- What due diligence does São Tomé & Príncipe require?
- USD 5,000 due-diligence and processing fee per application (RNID Anexo I(2)). Files pass through a due-diligence report from a UCID-recognised provider, review by the AML/CFT Comité de Revisão (Ministério Público chair, with the Migration Service, Finance Ministry, Registries Directorate and the Financial Intelligence Unit), and a mandatory prior clearance (visto prévio) from the Ministério Público within 30 days — refusal ends the file. Requirements include criminal-record certificates from every country of nationality and of residence over the last five years (issued within three months), a medical certificate, and a source-of-funds declaration supported by bank documentation. The Ministério Público retains a six-month judicial opposition window after grant (non-suspensive).
- Does São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship grant the right to live in the European Union?
- No. São Tomé & Príncipe citizenship can confer a second passport and visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel, but it grants no right to live, work or settle in the EU and no path to an EU passport. For a European foothold, residence by investment is the direct route.
General guidance, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Figures are verified to 2026 against official primary sources, and eligibility, thresholds and timelines are confirmed in writing before you commit to anything.
The programme you apply under is the one that exists on the day you file.
For residence applications, we generally plan on approximately two to three months to approval and three to six months from instruction to residence card.
Citizenship applications vary more widely. A straightforward application may receive approval within approximately three months, but six to nine months to passport issuance is a more prudent planning assumption.
Programme rules, government fees and processing times can change. We therefore reconfirm the applicable terms immediately before an application is filed.
Neither approval nor timing can be guaranteed.
If São Tomé & Príncipe is the route you want, we can start your file.
A first conversation, not a commitment. Tell us who would be included and what you already hold, and we come back with the route, the confirmed terms and the timeline for São Tomé & Príncipe — or tell you honestly if another programme fits you better.